Power Mac G5 Dust Out and Thermal Paste Re-do

[philgxxd]

Update:

I finished the BIG G5 cleaning project.

I felt so relieved when I heard the chime after putting everything together again.
Despite the chime I got 3 red Leds turned on briefly after.
I thought that's ok as I didn't had the graphics card in yet and the plastic panel still off but then I saw that I forgot to connect the pump...luckily that didn't damage anything.
So I switched it off and throw in the graphics card.
The next try got a black screen and again some Led's. I began to fear again that maybe the processors aren't seated properly or something worse but why a chime then ?
Stay calm!
I decided to do a SMU reset and that did the trick.

I did that whole procedure to my quad because I recently saw what corrosion did to my 2.7Ghz dual so I had to take a look what's happening inside my quad.

Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any leaks but I could hear the liquid moving while I was turning around the LCS assembly. Air bubbles ?

Despite that I decided not to mess any further with the LCS because it didn't have any temperature problems during operation.

My goal was to take a look at the backside of the motherboard because it always had way too high memory controller temperatures. Easily 80°C while idle.
So everything had to come out. A painful job.

I came across a broken standoff while taking out the power supply but could glue it back again with epoxy. Someone had been here before...

I expected that maybe the plastic pins of the memory controller had broken like I read but that seems to be the case with earlier models. Mine's were perfectly fine and I finally managed to get them out with help from a wood stick applying pressure from the downside while pulling from the upper side. I renewed the thermal paste with Artic Silver 5 because I had that around.

So after putting back my boot drive I was looking forward to see the temperatures.
What can I say...
Instead of the usual 76-80°C of the memory controller I saw 50°C!
Wow...instead of the 3000rpm of the backside fan I was used to it now was chugging away at 1100rpm.

This screenshot is after only 5 minutes runtime but even after 15 minutes more the temperatures didn't get much higher.


So quite a success after all and worth the hassle.

 

[AphoticD]

Update:

I finished the BIG G5 cleaning project.

I felt so relieved when I heard the chime after putting everything together again.
Despite the chime I got 3 red Leds turned on briefly after.
I thought that's ok as I didn't had the graphics card in yet and the plastic panel still off but then I saw that I forgot to connect the pump...luckily that didn't damage anything.
So I switched it off and throw in the graphics card.
The next try got a black screen and again some Led's. I began to fear again that maybe the processors aren't seated properly or something worse but why a chime then ?
Stay calm!
I decided to do a SMU reset and that did the trick.

I did that whole procedure to my quad because I recently saw what corrosion did to my 2.7Ghz dual so I had to take a look what's happening inside my quad.

Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any leaks but I could hear the liquid moving while I was turning around the LCS assembly. Air bubbles ?

Despite that I decided not to mess any further with the LCS because it didn't have any temperature problems during operation.

My goal was to take a look at the backside of the motherboard because it always had way too high memory controller temperatures. Easily 80°C while idle.
So everything had to come out. A painful job.

I came across a broken standoff while taking out the power supply but could glue it back again with epoxy. Someone had been here before...

I expected that maybe the plastic pins of the memory controller had broken like I read but that seems to be the case with earlier models. Mine's were perfectly fine and I finally managed to get them out with help from a wood stick applying pressure from the downside while pulling from the upper side. I renewed the thermal paste with Artic Silver 5 because I had that around.

So after putting back my boot drive I was looking forward to see the temperatures.
What can I say...
Instead of the usual 76-80°C of the memory controller I saw 50°C!
Wow...instead of the 3000rpm of the backside fan I was used to it now was chugging away at 1100rpm.

This screenshot is after only 5 minutes runtime but even after 15 minutes more the temperatures didn't get much higher.

View attachment 853566
So quite a success after all and worth the hassle.

Great work @philgxxd !

Those are impressive running temps.

I still need to make the time to flush and renew the coolant in my quad. I plan to replace the tubing and ring clamps as well as renewing the thermal paste on the CPUs and the underside heatsink.

I haven’t booted it in over 6 months... the time keeps slipping through my fingers!

 

[1042686]

Great work @philgxxd !

Those are impressive running temps.

I still need to make the time to flush and renew the coolant in my quad. I plan to replace the tubing and ring clamps as well as renewing the thermal paste on the CPUs and the underside heatsink.

I haven’t booted it in over 6 months... the time keeps slipping through my fingers!

I keep telling myself I want a quad to rebuild, but I have too many projects already (coupla PII boxes, a K6-2 box & gateway2k waiting for bench time), FT trabajo, kiddo, wifey, kiddo# 2 on the way, housework, car work, etc. Heck, I can’t find the time lol.

Literally, can_not find the time.

 

[AphoticD]

I keep telling myself I want a quad to rebuild, but I have too many projects already (coupla PII boxes, a K6-2 box & gateway2k waiting for bench time), FT trabajo, kiddo, wifey, kiddo# 2 on the way, housework, car work, etc. Heck, I can’t find the time lol.

Literally, can_not find the time.

Congrats on #2 on the way! You are a busy man @RhianB

I kinda dropped off the MR forums map this year... I took up an Apple service technician role 6 months ago and was working 50 hour weeks repairing Macs, iPhones, etc for an AASP. I went through all of Apple's training and exams to attain ACMT + ACiT certs. Two weeks ago I left that job and started a new role as a full stack web dev in python/django/react (which has been all new to me being a PHP diehard!). I've been busy cramming my brain with so much new tech stuffs that my tribe of PowerPCs are getting a bit dusty...

The new job includes a 2018 touchbar MBP, which is nice ...when used with an external keyboard... Go !

I am hoping to get back to plugging away at all of the PowerPC projects again soon... At least with these older systems, I can leave it for months (or years) and come back to pick up where I left off, because nothing has changed! No new system updates, security patches, firmware updates, app updates, architectural changes, etc.. Nope, just good ol' faithful PowerPC reliability (+obscurity).

 

[1042686]

Congrats on #2 on the way! You are a busy man @RhianB

I kinda dropped off the MR forums map this year... I took up an Apple service technician role 6 months ago and was working 50 hour weeks repairing Macs, iPhones, etc for an AASP. I went through all of Apple's training and exams to attain ACMT + ACiT certs. Two weeks ago I left that job and started a new role as a full stack web dev in python/django/react (which has been all new to me being a PHP diehard!). I've been busy cramming my brain with so much new tech stuffs that my tribe of PowerPCs are getting a bit dusty...

The new job includes a 2018 touchbar MBP, which is nice ...when used with an external keyboard... Go !

I am hoping to get back to plugging away at all of the PowerPC projects again soon... At least with these older systems, I can leave it for months (or years) and come back to pick up where I left off, because nothing has changed! No new system updates, security patches, firmware updates, app updates, architectural changes, etc.. Nope, just good ol' faithful PowerPC reliability (+obscurity).

That’s awesome. I bet that was fun & extremely educational and you got paid for it. I dream about that sort of job some days.

 

[chrisdazzo]

Super late reply, but thanks for this. Bought a 2.0 G5 the other day and am in the process of taking it down to the case like this, cleaning, and re-assembling. CPUs freak me out, so the cleaning and re-pasting info was helpful.