Ethernet port on Power Mac G5

[snavron]

Hello folks,

Just joined the site after much browsing for thoughts on how great the G5 Power Macs are.

I bought a G5 DC 2.3GHz with 5GB RAM and 250GB ram before Christmas - all for the princely sum of £50. I'd always wanted a Mac and this machine is so beautiful. I can't believe I've picked up a £2500 machine for so little - I guess waiting 10 years is the best way to make anything in IT affordable.

Everything has been fine although I have been ensuring the interior keeps dust free as the fans have been spinning on. I've invested in Hardware Monitor too - there is something very satisfying about monitoring the interior temperatures.

I've hit one minor snag which I can't see on the forums. When I start up the machine the ethernet cable which is plugged in is not detected. This wasn't a problem initially but has started over the last 2 weeks or so. It's the same for both ports on the Mac. If I pull the cable out and plug it back in (to the Mac - not the wall socket) then it detects the cable fine and everything works ok. So to my way of thinking the ethernet ports on the Mac are ok and my home network is ok too. Could there some process that isn't running which polls for ethernet connections?

Thoughts would be appreciated.

Angus

 

[catzilla]

Try a different cable, sounds like a dud.

 

[eyoungren]

When you say the cable is not detected do you mean the port is gone entirely or do you mean the Mac is not getting an IP address?

I ask this because there is a bug in OS X Leopard that causes the system to self-assign an internal IP address 169.xxx.xxx.xxx which of course kills networking.

That bug can be resolved by turning off the firewall in Security in the Settings app.

But if you mean, the port disappears entirely then that's a different matter.

In the Network pane in System Preferences you can see your Ethernet port. Clicking on that will tell you if you have a self-assigned IP address or not.

If the port is missing in the Network Preferences pane after startup then appears when you pull the cable out and then plug it back in then something (as you suspect) is amiss.

 

[snavron]

Thanks for reply folks. I have tried a different cable and after a few reboots all is still ok. I'll give it a few more days before I declare a complete success. The symptoms were strange though - both ports were showing in Network but they were both red . As soon as I unplugged and plugged the cable in the port turns to green.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Those are symptoms of a bad cable.