New Mac User - Imac G5 startup issues

[spottedhaggis]

Hi all,

I am a new mac user (have used them before but never owned one) and today was given an Imac G5/17/1.8 unit that they cannot get working.

Its in great condition, however when you push the power button, you get a chime sound and the light on the front comes on, then it goes off and every 3-5 seconds the light comes on and goes off again.

In the mean time the fans are going hell for leather.

I opened up the unit since it is probably outside of any warranty now anyway, and found the Hard drive had been unplugged, so I re-connected it, however I also noted the ram was missing.

Will a mac boot up without any ram in it, and assuming I put ram in, and the issue remained, what would be the most likely cause of this problem on startup.

I would love to have this working.

 

[Queso]

That model didn't have any RAM on the logic board, so you'll have to get a chip to put in it to go any further. The OSX kernel has routines in it for temperature control, so if you can get it to boot the fans will calm down.

The chips you need are here, although you should be able to find them cheaper from other suppliers if you don't want to pay Crucial prices. You can fit a maximum of 2GB.

 

[spottedhaggis]

So your thiknking is it has no memory so wont boot up?

This does make some sense even to a non mac user like me, the flashing power light is the part i am not sure about.

I have read many comments about power coming on but no display however they all say they get no chime on power up and their issues lie in a faulty logic board or power supply, where as mine does make a chime sound on power up

 

[Queso]

There are some LEDs inside the case that will help you find out for sure.

Apple Support article

 

[DoFoT9]

So your thiknking is it has no memory so wont boot up?

This does make some sense even to a non mac user like me, the flashing power light is the part i am not sure about.

I have read many comments about power coming on but no display however they all say they get no chime on power up and their issues lie in a faulty logic board or power supply, where as mine does make a chime sound on power up

the flashing power light is somewhat like the beep errors from PCs.

i am with Queso, get some RAM if there is nothing in there!

i am just hoping that the pervious owners didnt have it stop working, then pulled everything out - it would be a shame if you bought RAM + time and there was a logic board failure or something.

 

[spottedhaggis]

I had some ram from an old system, only a 256 stick but should be ok, same issue with ram in, so my question is this.

What are the main causes for the following.

1. Power is fine, front LED comes on then flashes and goes off, coming on again at intervals of approx 5 seconds
2. Chime on power up is heard clearly
3. Board LEDs - seems 3 light up (I believe there are 4) what are the LEDs
4. Fan going at full throttle

 

[spottedhaggis]

ok I went through the article posted on troubleshooting.

LED 1 lights up when I plug in the mains so thats ok.
when I push the internal Power button it powers up and LED 2 and 3 light up and stay constant.
LED 4 does not do anything.
Reset NVRAM also has not changed anything.

Does anyone know what could be the cause of this.

I assume like a pc this system has some sort of bios and so if no hard drive was in the system you would still get something on the screen (their is a hd but I am unsure as to if it works or not)

Memory is good as this has been tested

 

[spottedhaggis]

Picture 1 - power cable plugged in but system not turned on

Picture 2 is with the power switched on

 

[spottedhaggis]

I assume from the lack of comments that no other person has had this before. Should I just throw it in the bin?

 

[DoFoT9]

I assume from the lack of comments that no other person has had this before. Should I just throw it in the bin?

sorry. never had one of those imacs so i cant help you ill give it a re-read over when i finish work but yea...