Power Mac G5 A1047 sounds like its taking off.

[sneakybells]

Hi moved offices a month ago, my g5 wouldn't switch on, so left it plugged in for the last month and ah ha this morning it switched on, No beeps, but now theres just a black screen and the power button flashes about every 4 seconds.

After about 1 min the fans start to increase in sound and it sounds like its going to take off so i switched it off. Any ideas??

I've made sure the ram is in pairs.

 

[eyoungren]

Either your logicboard or cpu is dead, or both. I'd suggest eBay for replacements.

 

[ouimetnick]

How many times is the power light blinking?

 

[sneakybells]

How many times is the power light blinking?

Continuously, as is the one on the monitor. About every 4 seconds.

 

[tampasteve]

Are there any pauses at all between the flashes? Sounds like a logic board or CPU issue, as Eyoungren said.

What model G5 do you have? There are plenty of spare parts on Ebay, etc. Might want to just pick up a replacement machine, they are going fairly cheap now depending on the model. Then you have a spare set of most everything.

Might try just replacing the battery on the logic board....those things can make stuff act wacky.

 

[ouimetnick]

A power-on self test in the computer’s ROM automatically runs whenever the computer is started up after being fully shut down (the test does not run if the computer is only restarted). If the test detects a problem, the status LED located above the power button on the front of the computer will flash in the following ways*:
• 1 Flash: No RAM is installed or detected.
• 2 Flashes: Incompatible RAM types are installed.
• 3 Flashes: No RAM banks passed memory testing.
• 4 Flashes: No good boot images are detected in the boot ROM (and/or there is a bad
sys config block).
• 5 Flashes: The processor is not usable.
* Note: The status LED lights up when the power button is depressed at startup. Do not count this light as one of the diagnostic flashes.


Also, what model PowerMac G5 is it? Seems certain G5 units are slightly different, so the above info may not be coronet for your model.

What year (early 2005, mid 2004, late 2005)? and What is the processor configuration?

 

[eyoungren]

Also, what model PowerMac G5 is it? Seems certain G5 units are slightly different, so the above info may not be coronet for your model.

What year (early 2005, mid 2004, late 2005)? and What is the processor configuration?

OP indicates in his thread title that this is an A1047. While that model represents a few CPUs, I have the PowerMac G5 1.8Ghz version (single cpu), which is the A1047.

So, that would be a late 2004 model.

 

[simie]

Try checking your graphics card as this happen to me and I re-seated the card and it works ok

 

[Lucky736]

Try checking your graphics card as this happen to me and I re-seated the card and it works ok

Correct. The first thing to try would be to reseat any cards, RAM, and cable for the HD if possible. Something likely just moved. Though it's not impossible to have fried something or for something to have failed, it's not what I would assume right away in this case.

 

[eyoungren]

Correct. The first thing to try would be to reseat any cards, RAM, and cable for the HD if possible. Something likely just moved. Though it's not impossible to have fried something or for something to have failed, it's not what I would assume right away in this case.

I had these same symptoms with my G5. Walked in to work on a Monday morning and the fans were going full blast. Rebooted and got nothing but the spinning gear. No drives recognized. Shut it off, took it home, black screen on boot, no video.

No one had been in that case for years. So, I had to rule out the video card. But just to cover my bases I reseated it and reseated the ram. No dice.

Replaced the logicboard, cpu and heatsink and the Mac came right back up. So, it wasn't an issue with the video card in my case.

I hope for the OP that this is all it is, but my experience tells me it's not. But hey, I'm wrong all the time so this would not be the first time!

 

[Lucky736]

I had these same symptoms with my G5. Walked in to work on a Monday morning and the fans were going full blast. Rebooted and got nothing but the spinning gear. No drives recognized. Shut it off, took it home, black screen on boot, no video.

No one had been in that case for years. So, I had to rule out the video card. But just to cover my bases I reseated it and reseated the ram. No dice.

Replaced the logicboard, cpu and heatsink and the Mac came right back up. So, it wasn't an issue with the video card in my case.

I hope for the OP that this is all it is, but my experience tells me it's not. But hey, I'm wrong all the time so this would not be the first time!

I've also seen this happen though far less often. When electronics find a home and aren't plugged/unplugged, shut down/started up often you never know when the last time may be.

With that having been said, having had my hands on hundreds of these in situations like this try to reseat first. Hope for the best and deal with the worst if need be.

 

[joeyslaptop]

Probably you've got a stick of RAM that's dead. Also remember that on a PowerMac G5, you have to install RAM in pairs - the same exact RAM for each pair. So, for example same brand, model, speed, capacity. Work from slot one out for however many sticks of RAM you want to install.