Frozen cursor on G5 early 2009

[Lacan]

Hi all

My G5 crashed last night and the cursor is frozen top left on the login page. My wireless keyboard don't seem to be able to connect with it. I tried a wired keyboard and mouse and they don't seem to connect either. A bit worried now, any help welcome. I'm locked out my computer. Thanks.

 

[eyoungren]

Can you boot into Safe Mode?

PS. You either have a G5 or you have a 2009 Mac Pro. If you're sure the Mac you have was made in 2009 then you have a Mac Pro. The last G5 was manufactured in 2006.

I know it's going to seem nitpicky to you (who cares what it's called), but the hardware of the G5 and the Mac Pro are different and so is the operating system. It DOES make a difference in the help you're going to get.

 

[Lacan]

Thanks eyo, it's 2009. I thought it wasn't a powerpc but I got told of for posting this question in the pro forum lol.

I couldn't boot in safe mode as I can't seem to get a wired keyboard to work with it

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks eyo, it's 2009. I thought it wasn't a powerpc but I got told of for posting this question in the pro forum lol.

I couldn't boot in safe mode as I can't seem to get a wired keyboard to work with it

Yeah, they probably told you off because 2009 is a bit old for them. I can say with a certainty they probably told you to buy a new Mac, as that's their usual response for those who own any Macs older than a year.

Anyway, 2009 is right around where we (the PowerPC forum) tend to top out. Most of us own older Intels anyway so we try to help because, as you've seen, the Intel forum users won't.

I am suspecting that your logicboard is gone, but I've made that assumption before and turned out to be wrong. It could be that the BT module went.

It'd be best if you could get hold of a wired keyboard, preferably a Mac keyboard and a USB mouse. Any old Mac keyboard will do as long as it's USB and you don't need a Mac USB mouse.

If you can get to safe mode with that and a wired mouse then we know things are working.

I am assuming it's still booting. Is that right? I mean the Mac will get to the login screen, but you just can't use the wireless keyboard and mouse with it?

EDIT: just reread and you mentioned wired keyboard. So, that's kind of a bad sign.

Is it still booting to the login screen?

 

[bjar]

Check for broken rivet on northbridge heatsink (search MacPro forum for this)

try to boot into recovery.

try to boot external drive

reseat ram

do smc/nvram reset

these are the steps that I would try, in no particular order. Probably start with smc/nvram reset.

 

[Lacan]

Yeah, they probably told you off because 2009 is a bit old for them. I can say with a certainty they probably told you to buy a new Mac, as that's their usual response for those who own any Macs older than a year.

Anyway, 2009 is right around where we (the PowerPC forum) tend to top out. Most of us own older Intels anyway so we try to help because, as you've seen, the Intel forum users won't.

I am suspecting that your logicboard is gone, but I've made that assumption before and turned out to be wrong. It could be that the BT module went.

It'd be best if you could get hold of a wired keyboard, preferably a Mac keyboard and a USB mouse. Any old Mac keyboard will do as long as it's USB and you don't need a Mac USB mouse.

If you can get to safe mode with that and a wired mouse then we know things are working.

I am assuming it's still booting. Is that right? I mean the Mac will get to the login screen, but you just can't use the wireless keyboard and mouse with it?

EDIT: just reread and you mentioned wired keyboard. So, that's kind of a bad sign.

Is it still booting to the login screen?

Hi, thanks for the help. Yes it boots fine to the login page but so far I've been unable to safe boot or reset Pram as I suspect I'm getting nothing from my wired keyboards which is worrying
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My wired keyboard is not apple mac though, just generic if that makes any difference?
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I recal having this problem before and I purchased a wired keyboard from tesco which wouldn't work at all with my Mac so it does happen

 

[iluvmacs99]

If you have a 2009 cheesegrater, then you have a Mac Pro 4,1 which was made in 2009. Mac Pro 5,1 is the last model of the cheesegrater before the 7,1 came out which is also a cheesegrater, but a different look one.
When you ask for help in the Mac Pro forum, you need to specify what you have and put in your Mac Pro's specs. Like if you are asking a 4,1 question, you need to identify as 1.1-5.1, because there are 3 versions of them. The first cheesegrater (1,1-5,1), the trash can (6,1) and the second cheesegrater (71,). Otherwise, they won't answer or have the desire to help. That's just the way they are in the Mac Pro forum.

I have Mac Pro 5,1 myself which I have hooked up to the network with screen sharing activated for this type of issues where you get locked out of the screen with no keyboard access. Usually, it could be a hard drive issue and it can be fixed via Disk Utilities and sometimes it could be a corrupted update issues where you have no keyboard access. Having remote access through screen sharing using another Mac (any Mac runnning OSX) usually allow you to tunnel into your Mac and perform the necessary repairs. On my Mac Pro 5,1, I have 2 boot partitions and so if one gets corrupted and won't allow me to log in, I just simply tunnel my way from my other Macs back into the Mac Pro and select the 2nd boot partition and then regain my keyboard access. Once that is done, I simply re-clone my good boot partition back to my corrupt one. Faster than doing safe mode or internet recovery. My issue with this kind of issue is with my Nvidia Web driver and High Sierra updates. So if something goes wrong, I either can't see the screen or everything just froze. I don't know if you have HS or using Nvidia cards?!?

But if you haven't done this type of infrastructure recovery, then I would suggest that you get a Mac compatible keyboard, something like an old Mac wired keyboard from the G4 or G5 era where they are cheap and plentiful in thrift stores. Use that to access safe mode and your boot manager.

Also, don't forget that your Mac Pro has a coin cell battery "BR2032" that goes dead after a few years and can give you similar symptoms. If that is the case, you need to get a new BR2032 or a CR2032 replacement battery. BR2032 is harder to find than CR2032, but you can use CR2032 as a replacement.

Last but not least; one of your Mac Pro's CPU may have died, RAM issues and overheating on the Northbridge which in this case can be quite tricky to diagnose and it most likely go into some type of kernel panic and froze.

 

[Project Alice]

The Mac Pro 5,1 in my sig started out as a 2009 4,1. 4,1 (flash-able to 5,1) Mac Pros are still powerful than most the PCs people can buy today, and are more powerful than a lot of apples current line up. Up until the release of the 7,1 they were still the top dogs because of their upgrade-ability. The PPC forum is acceptable for probably a 1,1 or 2,1; but the 3,1 4,1 and 5,1s are still quite talked about on the Mac Pro forum. There is lots of good information there as well. My 3,1 was my main PC until I found a steal on my 4,1.

 

[Lacan]

If you have a 2009 cheesegrater, then you have a Mac Pro 4,1 which was made in 2009. Mac Pro 5,1 is the last model of the cheesegrater before the 7,1 came out which is also a cheesegrater, but a different look one.
When you ask for help in the Mac Pro forum, you need to specify what you have and put in your Mac Pro's specs. Like if you are asking a 4,1 question, you need to identify as 1.1-5.1, because there are 3 versions of them. The first cheesegrater (1,1-5,1), the trash can (6,1) and the second cheesegrater (71,). Otherwise, they won't answer or have the desire to help. That's just the way they are in the Mac Pro forum.

I have Mac Pro 5,1 myself which I have hooked up to the network with screen sharing activated for this type of issues where you get locked out of the screen with no keyboard access. Usually, it could be a hard drive issue and it can be fixed via Disk Utilities and sometimes it could be a corrupted update issues where you have no keyboard access. Having remote access through screen sharing using another Mac (any Mac runnning OSX) usually allow you to tunnel into your Mac and perform the necessary repairs. On my Mac Pro 5,1, I have 2 boot partitions and so if one gets corrupted and won't allow me to log in, I just simply tunnel my way from my other Macs back into the Mac Pro and select the 2nd boot partition and then regain my keyboard access. Once that is done, I simply re-clone my good boot partition back to my corrupt one. Faster than doing safe mode or internet recovery. My issue with this kind of issue is with my Nvidia Web driver and High Sierra updates. So if something goes wrong, I either can't see the screen or everything just froze. I don't know if you have HS or using Nvidia cards?!?

But if you haven't done this type of infrastructure recovery, then I would suggest that you get a Mac compatible keyboard, something like an old Mac wired keyboard from the G4 or G5 era where they are cheap and plentiful in thrift stores. Use that to access safe mode and your boot manager.

Also, don't forget that your Mac Pro has a coin cell battery "BR2032" that goes dead after a few years and can give you similar symptoms. If that is the case, you need to get a new BR2032 or a CR2032 replacement battery. BR2032 is harder to find than CR2032, but you can use CR2032 as a replacement.

Last but not least; one of your Mac Pro's CPU may have died, RAM issues and overheating on the Northbridge which in this case can be quite tricky to diagnose and it most likely go into some type of kernel panic and froze.

Thanks for the advice iluv, much appreciated. I like your recovery idea with multiple Macs, very clever.
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Thanks to everyone for taking the time to help. This morning I managed to get the old girl up and running - after disconnecting the power lead and utilising specific USB ports i managed to get wired keyboard and mouse connected. I guess I should now do a disk utility repair?
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FWIW, 4 years ago I upgraded this computer with New Intel chip, maxed out RAM, and 2 extra SDD. My memory is poor but I think I flashed it to 5,1.