Help from a hairdryer

[Razzerman]

Hello - newbie to the MR forums, but long time reader etc.

Just wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem/solution:

For about three months, my dual 2ghz G5 (2004ish) has been refusing to boot up first time. Sometimes is takes two or three tries, or even more (I think 10-15 is the record). When it does boot, it performs perfectly (never crashes, complains, gsod's etc). I ran Disk First Aid etc. and all was ok. I am down to my last 10gig, so that might be a factor.

I thought it might be temperature or humidity related (shouldn't be as ambient temperature in the dining room is about 20°C or so) so I tried 'pre-heating' the G5 with a hairdryer - lo and behold, it boots first time! I reckon it's what the grill is there for.

Anyone with any similar experiences / solutions, cos the missus is ribbing about the hairdryer thing?

Thanks,

Razzerman

 

[joegomolski]

Help from a hairdryer

Hairdryer? That's a new one for me. Putting you book in a freezer now I've heard of that.

Listen, run and buy an external HDD. Connect it to your book, and copy off any data you want to keep.

I believe that your HDD is about to fail, and it'll take everything with it when it does.

I don't believe this is a case of not having enough HDD capacity. Although since your running up to that limit now, you'd probably want to replace your drive anyway.

When you replace the HDD make sure you buy a 2.5" drive.

Recommendation, I've been around the computer world, for about 40 years. Now it's revealed I'm ancient.

Hard disks fail. I buy Hitachi drives, aka Travelstar, because I've yet to have one fail.

Good luck, go shopping.

 

[Razzerman]

Thanks for the advice Joe.

I have got an external drive - I'll make sure to back up all my stuff as a matter of urgency.

I was about to invest in a new internal hd - why the 2.5" though? Anyhow, I'll take on board the recommendation about the manufacturer - was thinking about an IBM drive, but I'll look out for an Hitachi internal now...

Cheers,

Razzerman

 

[CanadaRAM]

PowerMac G5 - takes 3.5" SATA. The previous poster has a MacBook fixation

 

[joegomolski]

Help from a hairdryer

Yeah I do have a fixation. About the books.

G5 does take the 3.5", I'm embarrassed.

Have you ever wondered why embarrassed and bare ass look so related?

 

[makku]

Hello - newbie to the MR forums, but long time reader etc.

Just wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem/solution:

For about three months, my dual 2ghz G5 (2004ish) has been refusing to boot up first time. Sometimes is takes two or three tries, or even more (I think 10-15 is the record). When it does boot, it performs perfectly (never crashes, complains, gsod's etc). I ran Disk First Aid etc. and all was ok. I am down to my last 10gig, so that might be a factor.

I thought it might be temperature or humidity related (shouldn't be as ambient temperature in the dining room is about 20°C or so) so I tried 'pre-heating' the G5 with a hairdryer - lo and behold, it boots first time! I reckon it's what the grill is there for.

Anyone with any similar experiences / solutions, cos the missus is ribbing about the hairdryer thing?

Thanks,

Razzerman

Yes you should regularly make backups but may also want to have those capacitors checked out. Similar thing was happening to my friends computer (though he didn't use a hairdryer) and a couple of months after that one of the condersors made a loud pop and fell off..

 

[California]

Hair dryer? Wow.

Ice would seem more reasonable.

Yeah, that hd is about to fail. Don't use it unless you can coax it into being copied. If it does fail do the freezer not hair dryer trick. Plastic bag it in freezer for 30 minutes and then get the info off the drive as fast as you can.

 

[Razzerman]

Cheers

Thanks for the advice - think I'll back up the data and get a second internal drive - see how long the dodgy one lasts for.

Bit concerned about blowing a capacitor/condensor - that sounds more serious! Would that be on the motherboard, or the hard drive?

I'm presuming I can use the second internal drive as the master?

Anyhow, thanks again

Razzerman

 

[makku]

The capacitors would be on the motherboard and inside the power supply as well. Some are under the heat sink so you may not be able to see them. Once it pops you will know since a nice sweet aroma will fill your room . I hope your problem goes away after you change your hard drive though.

 

[obiwan22]

Mine, too

My single G5 1.8 suffers from the same problem. If it sits long enough to get to ambient temperature, it won't boot.

I saw this posting a while back, and thought "what the heck". It worked!

I usually leave the machine running 24x7, so I was surprised the first time it happened, but now that I know how to deal with it, I'm OK.

I don't think it's drive related, since I have a new Seagate 500G drive in it, and it did it before and after the drive was installed. I'd suspect some kind of thermal calibration issue, but wouldn't begin to know how to diagnose or fix it.

 

[Razzerman]

Good Stuff!

Good news for you - haven't check this thread for a while, but my machine is still running without problems. I leave it running 24/7 as well (no sleep mode, because that seems dodgy).

Only time I have to get the hairdryer out now is if we've been away for the weekend and there's been a power cut!

Anyway, really glad your G5 is holding up