Power Mac Dual G5, probably stupid question. Do I need a keyboard connected to start?

[Scottsdale]

I have a bluetooth wireless Apple keyboard and magic mouse combo.

I bought a Power Mac Dual G5 from a friend just to "play" with as my friend needed money badly. In fact, I am letting him buy it back if he comes up with the money within a year - forget the fact that I loaned way more than it's worth, but I just want to see if I can play with it to get something for my terrible investment.

I don't have a wired keyboard and mouse for it. He told me it has bluetooth AirPort card installed in it.

When I try starting up, all I get is the grey screen with the Apple logo and spinning circle thing. I had hoped it would just "auto sense" my Apple bluetooth keyboard and magic mouse, but it doesn't appear to be.

This may be a stupid question, but is there any way to have it automatically find my bluetooth keyboard and mouse or do I need a wired keyboard and mouse to even start it up?

Thanks in advance for the reply.

 

[d88co88]

You gotta have a wired keyboard and mouse first. See if one of your friends or neighbors will let you borrow theirs for a few minutes, any USB keyboard or mouse will work.

 

[Scottsdale]

You gotta have a wired keyboard and mouse first. See if one of your friends or neighbors will let you borrow theirs for a few minutes, any USB keyboard or mouse will work.

Ok. Thanks. I figured this was the case, but thought maybe there was a way to force it.

I don't get how new Macs ship with just wireless keyboards and mice then? How do they work around that? Seems odd? I hoped there was something that could be done anyways.

Thanks for the info.

 

[FourCandles]

...
I don't get how new Macs ship with just wireless keyboards and mice then? How do they work around that?
...

Presumably they are set up and "paired" at the factory.

 

[Makosuke]

New computers ship paired with the peripherals they're with, but as of either 10.5 or 10.6 (I forget which) if the computer doesn't see any mouse or keyboard attached when it finishes booting, it automatically launches the "add peripheral" tool, which sits there looking for something to pair with. Theory being if your keyboard/mouse broke and you replaced it, or they're just not in range, it'll sit there hunting for a new one. If the pre-paired device (or a wired one) appears, it cancels the search and resumes normal operation.

That said, it sounds like your computer is hanging on the grey screen with the spinner, which is NOT because there's no keyboard/mouse connected--the MacOS has no problem booting fully with nothing attached. If it shut down improperly last time it can sit at that spinner for quite a while (as in, say, a couple of minutes) checking the disk, but it should eventually boot into the OS, peripherals or no.

Since you're seeing the spinner it's at least finding the internal drive, it's just hanging before booting further. Did you get the OS discs along with it? (You'll of course need a keyboard, probably wired, to hold down C on to force boot from the optical drive...)

(If I misunderstood and it's booting to the desktop, ignore that.)

Interesting aside: We set up a bluetooth-only Mac Pro at work recently, and it appears to actually sit there pre-boot and connect to the wireless keyboard before even starting the OS boot process, so that you can hold down a key at startup to bring up the firmware-based OS selector. It slows the initial part of the boot down quite a bit, but it's kind of a neat solution.

 

[mrsir2009]

Makosuke, I think your right. When I had no keyboard or mouse plugged into my iMac when I tried booting it, it started hunting for a mouse and keyboard.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

That said, it sounds like your computer is hanging on the grey screen with the spinner, which is NOT because there's no keyboard/mouse connected--the MacOS has no problem booting fully with nothing attached. If it shut down improperly last time it can sit at that spinner for quite a while (as in, say, a couple of minutes) checking the disk, but it should eventually boot into the OS, peripherals or no.

This was my first thought (or at least part of it was). How long does it hang?

If it hangs for more than a few minutes, there's likely something else wrong and you'll need to do some verifications/repairs with the OS install disc that came with the computer.