iMac G5 booting issue?

[M1keyb77]

Hi guys I'm new to the imac so go easy with me?
Bought this a few days ago (imac g5 with iSight) working fine then one day it wouldn't boot. Just hung after the apple screen, got a blue screen and then nothing else. Tried resetting pram and what not. After messing I found that if I hold the shift key it would boot everything into safe mode. Once here tried repairing permissions and verifying them. Once again tried booting and the same thing was happening. Now I have no discs with the thing and what's more the DVD drive does not work. Managed to get a friend to load leopard onto a USB hard drive. Found a guide on how to boot from the USB. All this went fine then a reboot from new, found the same problem, except this time I could hear music as if I was at the intro stage of the start up (first time boot or whatever it's called) now after a few tries its back to the same old starting issues. Will not go past this blue screen, I have a mouse pointer in the left corner and then when I move it one stays in the corner and I'm able to move another lol
Anyway booting with shift key again allows me to boot into safe mode with no problems. Does anyone know where to go from here or what I can do next? Really wanted to try out a cheaper mac before I dive in and get a more up to date one....

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, please feel free to ask if I've not made myself clear in anyway.

 

[AlbertEinstein]

The iMac G5 had some freaky issues and will probably get worse over time. This is a hardware problem and will probably not be too easy to resolve.

Were talking about new mother/logic board..

 

[MisterKeeks]

If you open the computer, do you see any bulging/leaking capacitors?

 

[Zotaccian]

Might be the ATI graphic chip and its solder gone bad.. or whole chip, who knows. When you start in safe mode you will run with full video acceleration disabled. There has also been ghost display issue with iSight iMac G5's where the machine detects presence of external display even though it is not connected, I owned one and whenever that ghost display issue occured the screen went blue for a brief moment as it does when you connect external display if I remember correctly. That ghost display issue might just simply be related to the solder problem as it also disappeared when I used the machine in safe mode. In my case there was no graphical artifacts or anything like that, machine did not hang if I remember correctly.

 

[M1keyb77]

Thanks for the replies guys, so it's looking to be a bugger issue than I first thought? Was hoping it maybe the hard drive or something. I shall pull it apart and have a look at the capacitors, thanks.

 

[rabidz7]

Thanks for the replies guys, so it's looking to be a bugger issue than I first thought? Was hoping it maybe the hard drive or something. I shall pull it apart and have a look at the capacitors, thanks.

See if your graphics is slotted with mxm like the intels. this looks like a big ram slot with a square card hanging out of it.

 

[M1keyb77]

Hey guys just had the logic board partly removed. Can't see any leaking or bulging capacitors but I did see one has been replaced at some point. Also I now know why the DVD drive doesn't work, whoever pulled the system apart has damaged the plug on the logic board and there is no cable connecting the drive to the logic board lol. I'm unable to determine where the graphics card is daft I know. This is a fairly old one where you have to remove the LCD to gain access to the logic board. But surely if it was a graphics fault I would have some sort of corruption on the display?
So back to the drawing board so to speak, anyone else have any ideas?

 

[Lil Chillbil]

Hey guys just had the logic board partly removed. Can't see any leaking or bulging capacitors but I did see one has been replaced at some point. Also I now know why the DVD drive doesn't work, whoever pulled the system apart has damaged the plug on the logic board and there is no cable connecting the drive to the logic board lol. I'm unable to determine where the graphics card is daft I know. This is a fairly old one where you have to remove the LCD to gain access to the logic board. But surely if it was a graphics fault I would have some sort of corruption on the display?
So back to the drawing board so to speak, anyone else have any ideas?

I still think that the imac g5 is still a piece of ****ing ****!!

and god knows what could be wrong with it, your better off to get yourself a early intel imac or a late imac g4 one with a 1.25ghz processor to mess around with because this g5 is gonna be much more trouble than its worth

 

[M1keyb77]

Might be the ATI graphic chip and its solder gone bad.. or whole chip, who knows. When you start in safe mode you will run with full video acceleration disabled. There has also been ghost display issue with iSight iMac G5's where the machine detects presence of external display even though it is not connected, I owned one and whenever that ghost display issue occured the screen went blue for a brief moment as it does when you connect external display if I remember correctly. That ghost display issue might just simply be related to the solder problem as it also disappeared when I used the machine in safe mode. In my case there was no graphical artifacts or anything like that, machine did not hang if I remember correctly.

Although im unable to locate the graphics card, this is more like the problem im having. After all it boots into safe mode fine, after i have managed a fresh install, i get the welcome music/intro but im stuck at the blue screen. Is there way of disabling the full video acceleration? I would be happy running it like that as its more for iphone/ipod syncing and internet surfing. General day to day stuff.

Thanks for all your help guys

 

[Zotaccian]

If you remove graphics card related .kext file (or files) it will disable GPU acceleration. I don't know what are the exact files/filenames you have remove, but your graphics card is made by ATI, it's called Radeon and exact model is X600 so it is something related to those.

 

[M1keyb77]

Nice one I shall have a look and see if this will help me boot without going into safe mode.
Where will I find these kexts?