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I think my G5 is dying

WalnutSpice

WalnutSpice

Suspended
Original poster
Jun 21, 2015
456
92
Canton, Oh
So I was working on a PC build of mine and unplugged my G5 to hook the PC up to my setup. Hours later I unplugged it and set my G5 back up. I went to boot it and was hit by a weird graphical issue on the Apple boot screen. It was a solid rectangle with what looked like analog television static in it. I rebooted it, and it went into open firmware. At the top it said something like "Bad memory access". I typed mac-boot and it went to a screen that looked similar too when you remove the RAM from a PC while its on. I figured it was my 256MB stick in the lowest slot. I removed it, and it booted perfectly. Although when I checked my RAM, it said I only had 1GB. But without that 256mb stick, I should have 1.25. So I checked System Profiler and it didn't see my 256MB I have in the upper most slot. And whatever other 256MB I stick in the top, it won't see, and whatever I stick in the bottom renders the system useless.
Has anyone seen or heard of this before and are able to help me? I am writing this on said G5 right now and all is well within Mac OS, but other than that I have no idea whats going on.

~Edit~
I removed the two 512s that were in the middle slots and replaced them with both the 256s and it works. OS X finds both of them and displays 512MB RAM. But when replaced with the 512s and the 256s placed back into the upper and lower, the top one isn't found, and the bottom renders the system useless unable to boot.

~~Edit Edit~~
I recorded a short video that explains this a little better. I'll upload it to youtube and share the link when it goes live. Just a weird issue that my mind can't solve at 6AM with no sleep. Also this is the last day of summer before school starts up again. So this is total insult to injury right here.
 
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Heres what happens when it boots to Open Firmware
 

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As far as i am aware the memory only works in pairs. So you will always need a good pair of ram sticks in their appropriate slots. It looks like you definitely have 2 good 512s so i would see if the QUAD works ok with those in each of its paired slots. If you still get faults it could be a memory controller or memory slot fault.
 
G5 memory is paired. So pull a 256MB stick out and the remaining paired stick in the other bank will stop working.

Could be a logic board issue - we had a few early G5s at work with similar problems.
 
MagicBoy said:
G5 memory is paired. So pull a 256MB stick out and the remaining paired stick in the other bank will stop working.

Could be a logic board issue - we had a few early G5s at work with similar problems.
Click to expand...
Man this sucks. I need this Mac to last me till around May next year. That wouldn't spread to anything else would it? I mean, I can live with only 1GB compared to the 1.5 I had before. And I could always pick up two 1GB sticks.
 
MagicBoy said:
Should have 8 slots then.

Chucking RAM on a carpet probably wasn't the best idea as regards static electricity!
Click to expand...
Mines only got four. It's the June 2004 version. Also, I know. It was just 6AM, I've had no sleep, and when I turned on my G5 to find an issue.. Well as someone on the internet once said "I ain't got time fo dat"
 
Don't the G5 memory sockets tend to have brittle solder joints? That could be the issue on the bottom slot as they take a bit of pressure with frequent card swaps.
 
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Dronecatcher said:
Don't the G5 memory sockets tend to have brittle solder joints? That could be the issue on the bottom slot as they take a bit of pressure with frequency card swaps.
Click to expand...
I'll take a better look at it sometime today. Hopefully it's something as simple as that, but I've only swapped RAM a few times. Once when I upgrade from 1GB to 1.5GB and now today a few times. Have you seen the picture I posted from what Open Firmware says?
 
Yeah, the Open Firmware error is lost on me I'm afraid.
If it's a motherboard with a brittle socket, the memory would only need changing once to break a connection.
These are strange things though - my current G5 came with 2 512 sticks that only appeared once the machine had warmed up, which made me think I had bad sockets, however, I replaced the sticks and it was fine. To make it more confusing, the replaced 512s worked fine in another machine!
 
It does sound like something is wrong with that one slot, and not the memory stick. Could it have some dust/lint stuck in it perhaps?
 
flyrod said:
It does sound like something is wrong with that one slot, and not the memory stick. Could it have some dust/lint stuck in it perhaps?
Click to expand...
I can check later. I'm doing some school work on it right now and can't shut it down at the moment. I'll take a good look at it soon and let you all know what I see
 
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