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Mr. Mac, meet Mrs. Static Electricity =(

thejadedmonkey

thejadedmonkey

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 28, 2005
9,492
4,139
Pennsylvania
I just went to the basement to relax and listen to some music off of an old G4 mini I have set up to stream iTunes through a 5.1 setup. It's rather sweet.
But it wouldn't boot. I touched the mac, and there was a noticable current going through it. It's as if the computer wasn't grounded.. which is quite possible, I don't think the outlets are grounded down there.

My issue is it can't seem to find ANY startup drive. On booting normally, I'm faced with a flashing question mark. If I try to boot off of the CD, it doesn't boot. I can't even eject the OS X CD from open firmware using the 'eject cd' command. I'd try booting off of firewire, but I have no way to install OS X for PPC onto a firewire drive.. but when I try to boot while holding down T, I don't get anywhere. I think it turns off (or reboots), but doesn't do anything productive.

I've tried resetting the PRAM, and holding down option, but it doesn't see anything, I just get a circular looking arrow and an arrow.

Does anyone have any suggestions before I take it under the putty knife?
 
Did you have the mini opened? Maybe you did connect the IDE cable to loose. I once got a "defective" Quicksilver with flashing questionmark. The owner had not connected the IDE cable properly.
 
Cox Orange said:
Did you have the mini opened? Maybe you did connect the IDE cable to loose. I once got a "defective" Quicksilver with flashing questionmark. The owner had not connected the IDE cable properly.
Click to expand...

So.. almost a year later.. I pulled my mac back out of storage, with the intent of pulling it apart to see what was wrong with it. It worked fine. I put it down for a little while, and then next time I turned it on to wipe + install Leopard on it, it didn't work.

I pondered for a while. Electronics shouldn't be finiky like that. I looked at how it was stored. It was stored in its box, so that the front end was up, although previously it had been stored so the front end was down. Maybe the hard drive had simply started to come loose. So I held it with the front end up, and slammed it on the table a few times. It started right up.

Now I have a G4 mini, with no use for it. :eek:
 
They're awesome home media centres if you don't have an ATV or a Mini already... You could sell it on eBay, over here they still go for pretty much the same price as a core solo...or off to the charity shop it is! ;)
 
Goftrey said:
They're awesome home media centres if you don't have an ATV or a Mini already... You could sell it on eBay, over here they still go for pretty much the same price as a core solo...or off to the charity shop it is! ;)
Click to expand...

I need charity, he can send it my way. Lol.
 
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