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G5 Quad Boot Issues

PapaGino

PapaGino

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 11, 2015
71
6
Londonderry NH
I took out one of my other G5 Quads and this one is having boot issues. What it does is when i power it on sometimes I can get to the desktop and log in but after a few seconds the screen would get dark and a messages pops up saying " You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button for several seconds or press the restart button." shortly after the message pops up the G5s fans max. I held the power button shut it off and unplugged it for a few minutes then powered back on and reset the PRAM by holding the power button till the G5 beeps but shortly after when trying to load OSX it would freeze and the fans would max. My guess is its a hardware issues like bad ram possibly. It has 16Gbs so all 8 slots are used. When I get back from my classes today ill try running it with less ram to see if a stick has gone bad. Any other Ideas what could be the issue? This quad hasn't been used in years and has been sitting in storage since about 2009 or so. It is also clean inside and out and has some of the factory clear plastic film on the inside of the aluminum cover. It looks like this G5 was hardly ever used it looks brand new but doesn't act it lol.

Right before I headed out the door to leave this morning I just noticed The G5 has a random gigabit adapter in one of the PCIe slots that might also be causing some issues I'll have to take that out as well to see if that was the problem.
 
PapaGino said:
I took out one of my other G5 Quads and this one is having boot issues. What it does is when i power it on sometimes I can get to the desktop and log in but after a few seconds the screen would get dark and a messages pops up saying " You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button for several seconds or press the restart button." shortly after the message pops up the G5s fans max. I held the power button shut it off and unplugged it for a few minutes then powered back on and reset the PRAM by holding the power button till the G5 beeps but shortly after when trying to load OSX it would freeze and the fans would max. My guess is its a hardware issues like bad ram possibly. It has 16Gbs so all 8 slots are used. When I get back from my classes today ill try running it with less ram to see if a stick has gone bad. Any other Ideas what could be the issue? This quad hasn't been used in years and has been sitting in storage since about 2009 or so. It is also clean inside and out and has some of the factory clear plastic film on the inside of the aluminum cover. It looks like this G5 was hardly ever used it looks brand new but doesn't act it lol.

Right before I headed out the door to leave this morning I just noticed The G5 has a random gigabit adapter in one of the PCIe slots that might also be causing some issues I'll have to take that out as well to see if that was the problem.
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What is happening is your Quad is having a Kernel Panic. Some people here can help you resolve the issue. I reccomend pulling that PCI card, and using known good RAM from your other Quad.
 
The first thing I would do is review the system logs (Console). Since the computer is displaying a restart message on the screen you will likely find something useful in the logs.
 
Ok so ill take out that card and ill swap the ram out when I get home tonight. And how can I view the System Logs if it wont boot?
 
Hack5190 said:
The first thing I would do is review the system logs (Console). Since the computer is displaying a restart message on the screen you will likely find something useful in the logs.
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PapaGino said:
And how can I view the System Logs if it wont boot?
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That was going to be my question. If it KPs a few seconds after getting to the desktop there is no chance OP is going to be able to get to the Console app.

OP, you have suggested ram, MacCubed has suggested the PCie card. Here is my suggestion - the hard drive.

If it's been sitting in storage for so long it's possible the drive is bad. A bad drive can cause KPs. If you can, boot from an OS X install disk and see if you can repair the drive.

If it KPs on the install disk, or you repair it and it still KPs then it's probably not the HD. But at least you can rule it out. If during the repair, you find errors or get told that the drive cannot be repaired then it might also be a bad install of OS X or just the drive is bad.

Just a test to rule out the drive.
 
eyoungren said:
That was going to be my question. If it KPs a few seconds after getting to the desktop there is no chance OP is going to be able to get to the Console app.

OP, you have suggested ram, MacCubed has suggested the PCie card. Here is my suggestion - the hard drive.

If it's been sitting in storage for so long it's possible the drive is bad. A bad drive can cause KPs. If you can, boot from an OS X install disk and see if you can repair the drive.

If it KPs on the install disk, or you repair it and it still KPs then it's probably not the HD. But at least you can rule it out. If during the repair, you find errors or get told that the drive cannot be repaired then it might also be a bad install of OS X or just the drive is bad.

Just a test to rule out the drive.
Click to expand...
I agree, if the drive isn't bad, it could be a bad install
 
Thats funny you both said that since I was just going to post that I thinking I could just reinstall OSX on it since whats on it isn't important since before it was put into storage it was wiped anyway with Dban. So Ill do two things ill take that PCIe card out and I'll put my leopard disk in and check the HDD status first if its the drive is fine ill just try reinstalling OSX to see if that fixes the problem. If the problem still exists ill swap the ram too, to rule that out and go from there. I have finals this week then I'm on winter break. So I'm going to try and get all my G5s running again, some have issues so I'll probably be posting more strange issues next week. lol
 
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Hack5190 said:
PapaGino I was focused on the fact you can get to the desktop and log in. Completely missed that it only remains up for a few seconds. My mistake :oops:
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Its fine haha. But anyway due to having finals this week I wont have time to try the G5 again tonight but I'll have some time tomorrow most likely in the morning real quick to check if the hard drive failed and everything else I said in the last post.
 
Had some time today to check this Quad out again. I took the Intel Gigabit Ethernet LAN card out (no clue what that was doing there). tried booting it and still fans maxed out. I took all 8 sticks out of 2GB DDR2 then put 2 back in the required 1st spots. I booted it and it worked the fans did not max out and it got to the desktop fine. I shut it down and put back in the rest of the ram and it booted successfully once again. I would assume if it does happen again one of the sticks must be on its last leg. An interesting thing I noticed too was the ram was dated 01/04/07 so it was upgraded to 16Gb after it was at the factory I looked up its serial number and it wash shipped with 2x 512mb. It was built in 2006 but oddly enough the LCS has a stamp on it the same date as my personal Quad September 7th 2006. It still contains the same 500Gb hard drive it was said to be shipped with as well. This Quad has quite the back story to it haha. I think its cool that you see its history kinda by looking up the serial like that.
 
PapaGino said:
Had some time today to check this Quad out again. I took the Intel Gigabit Ethernet LAN card out (no clue what that was doing there). tried booting it and still fans maxed out. I took all 8 sticks out of 2GB DDR2 then put 2 back in the required 1st spots. I booted it and it worked the fans did not max out and it got to the desktop fine. I shut it down and put back in the rest of the ram and it booted successfully once again. I would assume if it does happen again one of the sticks must be on its last leg. An interesting thing I noticed too was the ram was dated 01/04/07 so it was upgraded to 16Gb after it was at the factory I looked up its serial number and it wash shipped with 2x 512mb. It was built in 2006 but oddly enough the LCS has a stamp on it the same date as my personal Quad September 7th 2006. It still contains the same 500Gb hard drive it was said to be shipped with as well. This Quad has quite the back story to it haha. I think its cool that you see its history kinda by looking up the serial like that.
Click to expand...
My Quad was built in August of 05, 2 months before they were released(Hint: It's a prototype)
 
1) Please specify a serial number (over the label of model configuration)
2) When the machine has been upgraded (ram etc) by Apple officially there could be no any corrects on the label of the case. Perhaps pre-configured mac could be labeled correctly but before assembling. It is not an issue.
3) Almost idiots made these machines.
4) To determine what is wrong you have to unplug all external devices and put out all extension cards inside the Mac. Strongly recommend you to have Mac specific discs with Mac OS >10.4 (with AHT). 2/2 DVDs with OS.
5) Find a 2x256 or 2x512 MB of unregistered, un-buffered, with no parity (ECC or non-ECC is supported only) DDR2-4200 (real pair is required). Install it to the both first slots from the center (symmetric).
6) Push immediately command/apple/P/R after turning Mac on. Restarting starts the second time with sound scheme. Load OS if you could. Turn it off.
7) DISCONNECT ALL displays/keyboard/mouse (including power cord) and etc before press a CUDA button (reset button on the main board) (located under the last bottom RAM slot). Do it ONLY ONCE!!! but feel the button. DON NOT PRESS IT SECOND TIME OR HOLD. Connect all minimum peripherals to control the Mac and turn it on.
8). Even if you load the OS turn the machine off.
9). DISCONNECT ALL displays/keyboard/mouse (including power cord). Smoke a cigarette. There is a battery in the board. Take it out from the battery retention. Take a cup of green tea. Place battery into battery retention. Make a call your friends. Connect all minimum peripherals to control the Mac. I AM SURE THAT BATTERY REPLACE IS NOT THE SAME AS CUDA BUTTON IN RESULT. Do not forget to set the correct time if you can.
10) Turn on the machine. Load Apple hardware test. Begin the test with >5 loops. Make sure that all test PASSED (green). When some error would be found the test have been stopped.
11) Turn on the machine. Be patient for regular scheme of starting the Mac. Sound/dvd rom drive clicks etc. Place your eyes to the middle front of Mac. There is a set of leds under the CPUs!!. Not very visible. THESE IS NOT THE LEDS NEAR THE RAM SLOTS!!. Make sure you have not ONE or TWO active RED leds. That is really not good.

Also you have to check all interconnects inside the Mac. Regarding the article 3, you can even determine that the replacement of HDD can resolve the problem. Not actually can. There is a "special control chip on the board" which says that you are not so smart as "him". Post feedback

Print photo of Steve. Fix it on the wall. Buy darts. Print photo of Bill. Put it to the trash basket. Long live DEC.
 
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Ok Just did all that except for the apple hardware tests since non of the macs came with the OEM disks from apple. only two came with power cords. But it seams fine now through the whole process it never had a kernel panic so if it does after i put in the 16gb ram one of the sticks must of gone bad.
 
these machines supports 32gb (unofficially). if the ram sticks are identical and all are working there are not be any kind of issues. you have to fill ram slots from the center (pairs only) one by one. 10.4 is the best way to go with. memory address more than 4gb started from jaguar. but quads were shipped with tiger >10.4.
 
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