My PowerMac G5 Failure..

[The_DarkFire]

Hello again people of the PowerPc Mac rumors forms!
Today I managed to snag my first PowerMac G5. for a whopping 10$.
It had 5.5 gigs of ram and is the mid 2005 DP 2 GHZ model. It has an AGP port, and the 3 PCI-X. All EMPTY.
So this is where i need help, I have a couple AGP 8x cards that came from older computers. Can I put those in this.. (extended?) AGP slot and run Linux without flashing a MAC BIOS? because I don't have another computer to. Or if i cant do that, is there a way i can remote desktop into these computer. There isn't an OS installed?
I have 0 mac graphics cards. But i do have an IBook G4! if that helps

 

[z970]

Hello again people of the PowerPc Mac rumors forms!
Today I managed to snag my first PowerMac G5. for a whopping 10$.
It had 5.5 gigs of ram and is the mid 2005 DP 2 GHZ model. It has an AGP port, and the 3 PCI-X. All EMPTY.
So this is where i need help, I have a couple AGP 8x cards that came from older computers. Can I put those in this.. (extended?) AGP slot and run Linux without flashing a MAC BIOS? because I don't have another computer to. Or if i cant do that, is there a way i can remote desktop into these computer. There isn't an OS installed?
I have 0 mac graphics cards. But i do have an IBook G4! if that helps

OK first of all, according to EveryMac, there was no Mid 2005 DP 2 GHZ model with PCI-X. Could you first take a screenshot of your system profile so that we can know exactly what we're dealing with? Then we can start to rule out GPU options.

Screenshot with Command + Shift + 4.

 

[The_DarkFire]

OK first of all, according to EveryMac, there was no Mid 2005 DP 2 GHZ model with PCI-X. Could you first take a screenshot of your system profile so that we can know exactly what we're dealing with? Then we can start to rule out GPU options.

Screenshot with Command + Shift + 4.

Sorry I didn't mean to annoy you.
Heres the thing though I am trying to find a way to display the computer, there isnt an OS installed because i dont have any kind of display output

Here is the link to it on everymac I guess it says 2003-2004?
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/specs/powermac_g5_2.0_dp.html

 

[LightBulbFun]

while it would be possible to use a stock PC card in a PowerPC mac using linux, its most of the time not an OOB thing so not suitable for what your trying to do

if you can, do list what video cards you have, because some cards can be flashed in a Mac without the need of a PC

you can enable remote desktop in OS X, what I recommend in your case is going into your iBook G4 and going into system preferences, sharing, then ticking the screen sharing box, then you can put the iBook into TDM plug it into the G5 and power on the G5 (with an ethernet cable or so plugged in) where it should automatically boot from the iBooks hard drive and then you can remote into it over the network or you can clone the iBook to another HDD after enabling screen sharing and put that into the G5 for the same affect

 

[z970]

Sorry I didn't mean to annoy you.
Heres the thing though I am trying to find a way to display the computer, there isnt an OS installed because i dont have any kind of display output

Here is the link to it on everymac I guess it says 2003-2004?
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/specs/powermac_g5_2.0_dp.html

No no, you didn't annoy anybody. Don't worry.

I'm sorry, I forgot you didn't have an OS installed...

@LightBulbFun is much more experienced at this than I am, so I would forget I said anything and just go with him at this point.

...This is embarrassing...

 

[KawaiiAurora]

while it would be possible to use a stock PC card in a PowerPC mac using linux, its most of the time not an OOB thing so not suitable for what your trying to do

if you can, do list what video cards you have, because some cards can be flashed in a Mac without the need of a PC

you can enable remote desktop in OS X, what I recommend in your case is going into your iBook G4 and going into system preferences, sharing, then ticking the screen sharing box, then you can put the iBook into TDM plug it into the G5 and power on the G5 (with an ethernet cable or so plugged in) where it should automatically boot from the iBooks hard drive and then you can remote into it over the network or you can clone the iBook to another HDD after enabling screen sharing and put that into the G5 for the same affect

Now that's a really creative way :O He should make sure that the iBook is running a supported version of OS X (10.5 preferably since some newer PMG5s needed a machine specific version of 10.4). If your Mac is exactly like the EveryMac link you shared, 10.3+ should work fine.

 

[MagicBoy]

OK first of all, according to EveryMac, there was no Mid 2005 DP 2 GHZ model with PCI-X. Could you first take a screenshot of your system profile so that we can know exactly what we're dealing with? Then we can start to rule out GPU options.

Screenshot with Command + Shift + 4.

How is the OP going to do that in a machine with no graphics card or OS installed?

 

[AphoticD]

you can enable remote desktop in OS X, what I recommend in your case is going into your iBook G4 and going into system preferences, sharing, then ticking the screen sharing box, then you can put the iBook into TDM plug it into the G5 and power on the G5 (with an ethernet cable or so plugged in) where it should automatically boot from the iBooks hard drive and then you can remote into it over the network or you can clone the iBook to another HDD after enabling screen sharing and put that into the G5 for the same affect

A slight variation which results in persistent Remote Desktop headless mode (if Mac OS X is already installed on the G5 by the previous owner).

1. Power on the G5 holding T key.
2. Connect FW cable between iBook and G5.
3. Power on the iBook holding option key.
4. Boot the iBook using the G5's HDD.
5. In System Preferences -> Users / Accounts, create a new admin account with a password. Change auto login to the new admin user.
6. Log out of the old user account and login with the new.
7. In Sharing Preferences, enable Remote Desktop or Screen Sharing. Plus File Sharing and Remote Login (SSH) if you want these.
8. Shut down both machines and reboot normally.

The G5 will now be accessible as a headless server.

Note that screen sharing performance is slower (choppy) due to the lack of GPU acceleration.

 

[The_DarkFire]

while it would be possible to use a stock PC card in a PowerPC mac using linux, its most of the time not an OOB thing so not suitable for what your trying to do

if you can, do list what video cards you have, because some cards can be flashed in a Mac without the need of a PC

you can enable remote desktop in OS X, what I recommend in your case is going into your iBook G4 and going into system preferences, sharing, then ticking the screen sharing box, then you can put the iBook into TDM plug it into the G5 and power on the G5 (with an ethernet cable or so plugged in) where it should automatically boot from the iBooks hard drive and then you can remote into it over the network or you can clone the iBook to another HDD after enabling screen sharing and put that into the G5 for the same affect

Oh my god thank you all for these ideas!
The unflashed graphics card i have is an Nvidia GeForce 6200 AGP 8x with 256 MB of ram. I actually have found the correct file to flash it with don't worry I know its compatible.I'm gonna try these ideas right now. But is the card a correct one to use?

Also.. I only have Mac OS X Tiger is that okay?
Finally, I dont have a firewire or thunderbolt cable :l. I guess An Ethernet cable will work as you talked about an Ethernet cable?

 

[z970]

How is the OP going to do that in a machine with no graphics card or OS installed?

I later retracted my statement because I realized that same thing.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Oh my god thank you all for these ideas!
The unflashed graphics card i have is an Nvidia GeForce 6200 AGP 8x with 256 MB of ram. I actually have found the correct file to flash it with don't worry I know its compatible.I'm gonna try these ideas right now. But is the card a correct one to use?

Also.. I only have Mac OS X Tiger is that okay?
Finally, I dont have a firewire or thunderbolt cable :l. I guess An Ethernet cable will work as you talked about an Ethernet cable?

if its a XFX "WANG" card then it can be flashed, but you need a AGP based PC to flash that card (some other DDR2 based 6200s can be flashed too)

ATI cards can be flashed in Macs where as Nvidia cards generally require a PC

OS X tiger should work fine, if you dont have a FireWire cable... do you have any sort of USB to hard drive adapter to image the iBooks OS X install onto a SATA disk for the G5? you could make a Netboot image and NetBoot the G5 from a sever hosted on the iBook but its quite complicated to set up.

 

[The_DarkFire]

if its a XFX "WANG" card then it can be flashed, but you need a AGP based PC to flash that card (some other DDR2 based 6200s can be flashed too)

ATI cards can be flashed in Macs where as Nvidia cards generally require a PC

OS X tiger should work fine, if you dont have a FireWire cable... do you have any sort of USB to hard drive adapter to image the iBooks OS X install onto a SATA disk for the G5? you could make a Netboot image and NetBoot the G5 from a sever hosted on the iBook but its quite complicated to set up.

After a couple hours i actually have a stable remote desktop connection into the powermac G5. Dont worry about that.
Now. is there ANY way i can flash that graphics card without the use of a PC, I dont have one that has AGP.

 

[LightBulbFun]

After a couple hours i actually have a stable remote desktop connection into the powermac G5. Dont worry about that.
Now. is there ANY way i can flash that graphics card without the use of a PC, I dont have one that has AGP.

glad to hear you managed to remote into the G5

the only way you could flash that card without the use of a AGP PC is by using an external EEPROM burner and directly flashing the ROM file onto the EEPROM. otherwise your a bit SOL im afraid :/ but i will say Mac ATI Radeon 9600/9650s are very cheap on ebay and are faster then that video card anyways. So I recommend picking up one of those

 

[The_DarkFire]

glad to hear you managed to remote into the G5

the only way you could flash that card without the use of a AGP PC is by using an external EEPROM burner and directly flashing the ROM file onto the EEPROM. otherwise your a bit SOL im afraid :/ but i will say Mac ATI Radeon 9600/9650s are very cheap on ebay and are faster then that video card anyways. So I recommend picking up one of those

Dang it :l I was just hoping not to spend money. Anyway, Thank you for your help! I'll try and pick on up off of EBay

 

[benwild_33]

its a shame you're all the way in the US, I have a Mac G5 Radeon 9650 sat around doing nothing but shipping would cost too much.

 

[AphoticD]

A stock Mac G5 GeForce FX 5200 64MB card might be the cheapest option and they aren't terrible. Depending on your needs, it might just do the job.

There is still a premium on Mac AGP cards. I went for the top-of-the-line-at-the-time GeForce 6800 GT 256MB and it set me back nearly AU$200 late last year. It was a purchase out of respect for the old beast which didn't necessarily make good financial sense

The 6800 performs great, but the only downside is the cooling fan adds to the running noise, whereas the FX5200 is silent.

 

[LightBulbFun]

A stock Mac G5 GeForce FX 5200 64MB card might be the cheapest option and they aren't terrible. Depending on your needs, it might just do the job.

There is still a premium on Mac AGP cards. I went for the top-of-the-line-at-the-time GeForce 6800 GT 256MB and it set me back nearly AU$200 late last year. It was a purchase out of respect for the old beast which didn't necessarily make good financial sense

The 6800 performs great, but the only downside is the cooling fan adds to the running noise, whereas the FX5200 is silent.

from what iv seen G5 9600s and FX 5200s are going for the same rate on ebay, and the 9600 is better in every way over the 5200 (the FX5200 is/was such a bad card for its time its not even funny LOL) so its a no brainer to get a 9600 (I have seen 9600s as little as 15-20 bucks inc shipping)

I will also say if you dont mind me saying so, that you kinda paid too much for that 6800GT, yeah some Mac cards have premiums but the 6800GT does not carrier THAT big a premium... but whats done is done, and who hasn't paid out the ass for something they shouldn't of had to pay out the ass for

 

[AphoticD]

from what iv seen G5 9600s and FX 5200s are going for the same rate on ebay, and the 9600 is better in every way over the 5200 (the FX5200 is/was such a bad card for its time its not even funny LOL) so its a no brainer to get a 9600 (I have seen 9600s as little as 15-20 bucks inc shipping)

I will also say if you dont mind me saying so, that you kinda paid too much for that 6800GT, yeah some Mac cards have premiums but the 6800GT does not carrier THAT big a premium... but whats done is done, and who hasn't paid out the ass for something they shouldn't of had to pay out the ass for

I made some lucky eBay merchant in China a happy camper. Who knows, that money might be putting their kids through school! I won't complain

 

[jbarley]

A slight variation which results in persistent Remote Desktop headless mode (if Mac OS X is already installed on the G5 by the previous owner).

1. Power on the G5 holding T key.
2. Connect FW cable between iBook and G5.
3. Power on the iBook holding option key.
4. Boot the iBook using the G5's HDD.
5. In System Preferences -> Users / Accounts, create a new admin account with a password. Change auto login to the new admin user.
6. Log out of the old user account and login with the new.
7. In Sharing Preferences, enable Remote Desktop or Screen Sharing. Plus File Sharing and Remote Login (SSH) if you want these.
8. Shut down both machines and reboot normally.

The G5 will now be accessible as a headless server.

Note that screen sharing performance is slower (choppy) due to the lack of GPU acceleration.

Your step#4 would do nothing due to the fact the OP's statement in his opening post, "There isn't an OS installed".

 

[AphoticD]

Your step#4 would do nothing due to the fact the OP's statement in his opening post, "There isn't an OS installed".

Thank you for your eagle eye. However, the OP's statement ended with a '?', which makes it ambiguous, hence my added "(if Mac OS X is already installed on the G5 by the previous owner)."

Ah hah!
[doublepost=1505700145][/doublepost]

I made some lucky eBay merchant in China a happy camper. Who knows, that money might be putting their kids through school! I won't complain

Not totally unrelated, but I should also make mention that the seller has been reliable and I've bought several Mac parts from him, so it wasn't a completely random purchase. He also claims to have a working El Capitan USB 3.1 driver, which I'm hoping to get my hands on for my Mac Pro. Mavericks, Yosemite and Sierra work OOB with my Type A+C USB3.1 card, but El Capitan refuses to recognise it.

EDIT: The driver works! I finally have my cheap (AU$15) USB 3.1 PCIe card working on the Mac Pro under El Capitan (10.11.6).

 

[Mac03ForLife]

Try the nvidia Quadro FX 4500 that's available for DP powermac g5s
Apologies, i was thinking of the wrong card

 

[The_DarkFire]

I will try and get a card sometime when I can money wise, i'm really trying to avoid spending anything. Thank you all for your help! i'll let you know when something finally works!

 

[eyoungren]

Not totally unrelated, but I should also make mention that the seller has been reliable and I've bought several Mac parts from him, so it wasn't a completely random purchase. He also claims to have a working El Capitan USB 3.1 driver, which I'm hoping to get my hands on for my Mac Pro. Mavericks, Yosemite and Sierra work OOB with my Type A+C USB3.1 card, but El Capitan refuses to recognise it.

Don't feel too bad. @LightBulbFun is always quick to point out how you got screwed on eBay. But that's just because eBay runs screaming from him when he starts searching for stuff. Ultimately, eBay has to give it up to him at shameful prices it doesn't give anyone else but that's eBay's fault for not locking him out.

 

[benwild_33]

I went the PC Card with a flash route, I didn't have an AGP PC sat around either but I picked up a dell dimension with an AGP slot for £6 and used that for flashing cards, it worked great, the floppy drive made installing DOS easy. I went with a Radeon 9800 in the end as PC versions are pretty cheap

 

[LightBulbFun]

Don't feel too bad. @LightBulbFun is always quick to point out how you got screwed on eBay. But that's just because eBay runs screaming from him when he starts searching for stuff. Ultimately, eBay has to give it up to him at shameful prices it doesn't give anyone else but that's eBay's fault for not locking him out.

ebay needs to run faster, I just won this (to buy one of these from a wholesaler is something like £100)