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visvaldis

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 9, 2008
63
3
I have a G4 (MDD), OS X 10.5, that worked fine until yesterday.
Before going away for a few hours I put the Mac to sleep.
Came home, moved the mouse, nothing happened.
I pressed the power button, light flashed briefly, then went out and the fan blew loudly for many minutes.
I pulled the plug, waited 5 minutes, replugged, pressed button, same thing.
I opened the Mac, cleaned, removed battery, reset PMU. Plugged in, pressed button, same thing. Fan blows loudly, monitor is in power save mode, Mac stays off.
What can I do?

One year ago I installed a new power supply.

I'm writing this from a local public library, so it could be longer intervals for me to respond to suggestions. But I appreciate all the advice.
 
Things to try.

  • Reseat ram.
  • Try starting with different ram sticks
  • Reseat video card
  • Try starting without video card. If you get a chime and the Mac looks like it may be booting your video card died
  • If none of this works it's possible your logicboard died. It happens.
 
d
I have a G4 (MDD), OS X 10.5, that worked fine until yesterday.
Before going away for a few hours I put the Mac to sleep.
Came home, moved the mouse, nothing happened.
I pressed the power button, light flashed briefly, then went out and the fan blew loudly for many minutes.
I pulled the plug, waited 5 minutes, replugged, pressed button, same thing.
I opened the Mac, cleaned, removed battery, reset PMU. Plugged in, pressed button, same thing. Fan blows loudly, monitor is in power save mode, Mac stays off.
What can I do?

One year ago I installed a new power supply.

I'm writing this from a local public library, so it could be longer intervals for me to respond to suggestions. But I appreciate all the advice.

Try starting it with the door all the way open. Mine only starts with the door open due to a power supply issue in the 24 pin wire snake to the Logic Board.
 
Thanks for the replies.
Problem is solved easier than I thought. I replaced the battery, reset the PMU, and the G4 runs again. Clean and quiet.
The only place where I can buy such a battery is 21 miles one way, that was the reason I posted the thread.
 
Thanks for the replies.
Problem is solved easier than I thought. I replaced the battery, reset the PMU, and the G4 runs again. Clean and quiet.
The only place where I can buy such a battery is 21 miles one way, that was the reason I posted the thread.

A good way to test in the future is to remove the battery all together and see if the same symptoms continue. Glad you got it running.
 
Whoopee! Today I have the same problem as described in the thread title.
I pulled out the battery, reset the PMU. waited about 15 minutes, reinstalled battery and it works fine again. I just wonder what the problem could be. Obviously, it's not the battery.
 
Whoopee! Today I have the same problem as described in the thread title.
I pulled out the battery, reset the PMU. waited about 15 minutes, reinstalled battery and it works fine again. I just wonder what the problem could be. Obviously, it's not the battery.

Could be an ailing Logic Board...
 
Whoopee! Today I have the same problem as described in the thread title.
I pulled out the battery, reset the PMU. waited about 15 minutes, reinstalled battery and it works fine again. I just wonder what the problem could be. Obviously, it's not the battery.

I have an MDD that does that if I try to start without an ADC monitor connected. It me be the power button board. What display are you using?
 
This problem happens when I use the Apple menu to put it to sleep. Hours later I move the mouse vigorously, but get no response. So I disconnect everything, open the cover, take out battery, reset PMU, wait and put battery back in. Then it starts and runs as usual.
I sure hope it's not the logic board.
The G4 has been connected to a Dell monitor since 2009 without any problems.

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Today I thought of re-installing the Leopard 10.5. But didn't do it because the installation requires a restart. I'm afraid it will not restart.
 
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