G4 Powermac won't start - just flashes on button...

[unregbaron]

A new friend of mine put her G4 on to an overnight render using after effects, in the morning the computer was off and wouldn't restart.

She took the whole machine to a friend's and despite Norton startup disk it couldn't start up again.

To begin with it whirred a bit but now apparently the on button just blinks and that's it.

Is this a motherboard problem do you think?

Any thoughts gratefully received

 

[TEG]

It is a problem with the switch on the front of the machine.

Use the rocker switch on the back (Or pull the plug) to turn off the machine completely. Wait 15 sec and turn is back on (plug it in) now try the front button.

Regardless of if that works, you should take the machine into an Apple Service Center. They will check the machine, and if is the problem I think it is, it shouldn't be more than $25 (USD) to fix. It was a common problem on the Graphite PMG4 that came after Sawtooth (both Digital Audio or Gigabit ethernet).

TEG

 

[unregbaron]

thanks a lot - also been checking out apple support pages that talk about resetting Cuda chip and PMU but I like your diagnosis better

 

[texas2001]

I had the same problem once. I'd press the power button and it'd just flash.

Nothing would work. But I found that article about resetting the PMU and it worked. Haven't had a problem since.