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My dual 2ghz is DOA :(

M

Macette

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 5, 2002
472
0
Melbourne
That's right - yesterday I dropped close to 10,000 Australian dollars on a dual 2ghz with 1GB of RAM, an Airport Extreme card and a 23" Apple Display... get it home, switch it on, NOTHING.

Well, not nothing.

The startup chime sounded, along with a whirring fan-starting noise (like a car revving its engine - can someone with a dual comment on whether theirs sounds like this as well???). It also made a faint clicking noise (other people have commented on this, but not in conjunction with it not working), and also I could hear a noise a bit like a dot-matrix printer.. hard to describe really.

But the screen never showed anything.

So I shut it down, tried again.

Same nothing (with noises).

Thought it might be the screen, so I plugged it into my old screen using DVI-VGA adaptor - but still nothing.

Then I got the bright idea of removing airport card and RAM - and then IT WORKED!

I thought I'd just got bad RAM, so I shut it down, replaced the Airport card (but not the RAM), and spent the rest of the day happily transferring stuff from my old computer, setting up icons and desktops, enjoying the HUGE difference between it and my old G3. It really is a beautiful machine, even with only 512 MB RAM. It just flies. I was up until 2am playing with it and making friends.

Then this morning I got up, ready to have more fun with it, and it DID THE SAME THING.

I'm now very sad, because I know there aren't many in Australia and it could be weeks before I get another one...

Anybody got any tips about what I could try before I take it back? It's going to be a few days before I can, so i'd love to be able to get it going a bit at least.
 
Once it boots, don't shut it down. Put it on sleep or just leave it running like I do
 
Originally posted by mac15
Once it boots, don't shut it down. Put it on sleep or just leave it running like I do
Click to expand...

But that really doesn't solve the problem.

I'd keep it around for a little while, and if it still persists, I'd return it-although it would be very hard to re pack it. :(

Good luck.
 
I was on my way back to make an edit, actually -

this morning it DID turn on first go, but then I left it for a while when I got breakfast, and it was when I came back and woke it from sleep that it went weird - the whole screen filled with a weird pinky digital pattern, and then I had to shut it down.

It's something to do with my graphics card, isn't it.

****.
 
I had the same problem with my iBook not so long ago. (Not that an iBook is anything like a G5:D) It had to go back to Apple and it turned out to be a bad logic board. I had very similar symptoms on the iBook. thought that this might help.

Good luck
 
yeah... I'd say return it. You paid a lot of money and deserve better than having to try to mess around in an effort to make this work. Fresh out of the box, it should work. Period.
 
i know its slightly unrelated but yes, to all, when i first turn mine on the fans rev up to High and go back down to low within a few seconds...then the chime sounds. its cool!
 
Sounds like the video card to me. You might consider having it fixed under warranty instead of returning it, might get a quicker turn around.
 
Here's a rough pic of teh location of the cuda button( sorry for the horrible quality)
 

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One last thought ...

Make sure the graphics card and RAM sticks all seated nice and snug. Sometimes they can come loose during shipping.
 
Originally posted by Freg3000
But that really doesn't solve the problem.

I'd keep it around for a little while, and if it still persists, I'd return it-although it would be very hard to re pack it. :(

Good luck.
Click to expand...

But its a small work around until he can get his fixed
 
If it doesnt start working real soon I would return it as DOA. Better to have a fresh computer than spend that much and have long term problems.

Congrats on getting 2ghz I doubt their are more than 100 or so in Australia right now.

<--- Still waiting for pbook+1.6 but I ordered after Pbook release.
 
There's gotta be about a 100 G5s and 500 iPods. We have such a shortage its not funny
 
according to my reseller, i was Number 1 order in the country - i haven't heard about any other people who have them yet, except maybe a couple of education orders.

so i was feeling pretty special until it died.

i'm not worried about it really - i know the DOA policy means that they'll give me a new one and it'll be sweet - but I reckon i'll be waiting another few weeks now, since supply is so low, and that makes me sad. My G3 is so close to packing it in, it's really struggling, and I'm kinda scared it won't last.

I also am angry that i'll have to copy that 80 gig of stuff over again. Man that took a long time.
 
My eMac was stuffing around when I first got it. It was the RAM. Does Apple still ship with those hardware test cd's? Give one of them a go. They work nicely.
 
Re: One last thought ...

Originally posted by Fender2112
Make sure the graphics card and RAM sticks all seated nice and snug. Sometimes they can come loose during shipping.
Click to expand...

I agree totally. With your video problems I would bet this is the issue. When you opened it to play with the RAM and Airport card you probably shook things enough that the card made a partial connection but it came loose again.
 
Yes, I thought this could have been it as well, and I really pressed everything into place hard - but still no luck.

I don't want to be too rough with it though, because then my luck would be that Apple would say i'd voided my warranty or something...

It's so frustrating. But I just want their guys to check it out, make sure it's working absolutely perfectly, and then send it back to me. That's what I spent $400 on AppleCare for...
 
Originally posted by Macette
Yes, I thought this could have been it as well, and I really pressed everything into place hard - but still no luck.

I don't want to be too rough with it though, because then my luck would be that Apple would say i'd voided my warranty or something...

It's so frustrating. But I just want their guys to check it out, make sure it's working absolutely perfectly, and then send it back to me. That's what I spent $400 on AppleCare for...
Click to expand...

Have you tried using the hardware test CD?
 
the problem is that i don't get anything on the screen - so I wouldn't be able to make a diagnosis with a cd anyway.

EDIT: I just checked, and there's no Hardware Test CD anyway - maybe G5s don't ship with them?
 
Originally posted by Macette

I also am angry that i'll have to copy that 80 gig of stuff over again. Man that took a long time.
Click to expand...

Why don't you use firewire target disk mode? (hold down "T" on the target computer, on start up) it will make it go much faster then tranfering via airport. and if the g3 doesn't have firewire, then doing a direct ethernet connection will still be much faster then airport.

aethier
 
Could it be as simple as a flaky airport card? Can you try running without the card and see if that fixes the issue?

Getting a new airport card should be much faster than waiting for a new system.
 
Congratulations on your decision to purchase a dual G5. I'm very sorry to hear about the problems that you are having Macette! :(

I know that for me personally, I would call Apple's 800 help number. Imagine that they would suggest returning the G5. At least that is what I would want!
 
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