Power Mac G5 Random Freezing and No Signal Going to Display

[thejaffinator]

Hi guys!! This is my first post because I've never really had many problems before with either of my computers. Well, I knew that I was going to get some bad luck soon, and it happened, so I came here!!

Anyways, enough of the babbling on. Here's my problem:

So, I've had a Power Mac G5 for quite some time now. I had previously thought that it was an early 2005 model, but according to it's serial number, it's actually an early 2004. In all the time I've had it, it's never had any problems, until now.

About a month ago, I repartitioned the HDD so that I could dual boot Ubuntu. However, the installation went slightly awry, so I got rid of Ubuntu using the Leopard Installation Disk. Since then, the G5 has been plagued by random crashes, which I first attributed to EyeTV. During these crashes, the computer became completely unresponsive to anything apart from the off button. Then the crashes started when I wasn't running EyeTV, so I kept on having to force shut down. During this time, the G5 never once gave me an error report.

However, when I started up the G5 this morning, I was met with a startup sound... And a blank screen. My monitor refused to acknowledge that there was a signal coming through, so I tried a different one. This monitor gave me the whole startup, but then crashed soon after giving me the desktop. However, I did briefly see an error report on the desktop saying' Mac OS X quit unexpectedly' before the screen went blank.

Since then, I have tried a multitude of solutions, from resetting the PRAM and the PMU (twice), to reseating the graphics card. I have even tried booting in safe mode (also twice), and I ended up with a Kernel panic 'You need to restart your computer' screen and a safe mode desktop that soon froze and crashed.

I know some people have had similar problems, but does anyone have the solution, or if not, another different possible solution that might work?

Thanks for your time.

 

[jezzy]

are you able to remove the ram and only put a few sticks in at a time to see if you have defective sticks?

 

[thejaffinator]

It only has the default 2x1GB sticks in, so should I remove one and then the other??

Also, if I had defective RAM, wouldn't there be a flashing power light?

 

[mike457]

If I recall, Ram in a G5 has to be in pairs, so you cannot remove just one chip.

You won't necessarily get a flashing light. When I bought a G5 last year, it came with Tiger installed. I only learned the RAM was defective when I tried to upgrade to Leopard. The new RAM I bought worked fine, but the RAM the computer came with caused the install to freeze.

 

[thejaffinator]

So, are you suggesting that I buy some more RAM and take the old stuff out?

Just to say, when I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, there were no problems. Are you then saying that something (maybe the failed Ubuntu install) has in some way corrupted my RAM so it only works in sporadic bursts?

 

[Nameci]

I might suspect the HDD is about to fail anytime soon than RAM.

More RAM is not bad at all, it even improves the performance of your G5. If I were you I would max out the RAM on that box.

 

[thejaffinator]

So, you're suggesting getting a new HDD and more RAM??

Maxing out the RAM would be about £150, and a new SATA would be around £80 - £100. The problem is that I kinda can't afford to spend that much money on a nearly knackered, old computer. If there is some kind of a solution, then I'll take it and keep the G5, but if there isn't, then there's no point spending money trying to save it.

 

[thejaffinator]

[NOTE] I just managed to start it up in Safe Mode, but I did it with Cmd+V, which shows you what it's doing. It came up with a load of errors about the fact that it couldn't find the driver for 'AppleCPUPowerManagement'.

Has anyone else had this problem, or does anyone know how to fix it?

 

[Lil Chillbil]

off the top of my head I would think to just wipe the hard drive and re-install leopard

 

[Nameci]

So, you're suggesting getting a new HDD and more RAM??

Maxing out the RAM would be about £150, and a new SATA would be around £80 - £100. The problem is that I kinda can't afford to spend that much money on a nearly knackered, old computer. If there is some kind of a solution, then I'll take it and keep the G5, but if there isn't, then there's no point spending money trying to save it.

If we are talking about money, you will be better off spending somewhere else.

I am only suspecting your HDD, I am not suggesting for you to buy a new one.

You will breathe a new life to your G5 by adding more RAM. If you cannot afford it, then there is nobody here that is forcing you to do it. That is if I were you.

Better yet do a clean reinstall on your HDD if that would fixed your issue as what the other poster suggested.

 

[thejaffinator]

Thanks for the response.

The only problem with wiping the HDD is that the Leopard install disk behaves the same way as Leopard itself, in that it just freezes and I have to force shut down.

Also, does anyone have any ideas about the 'AppleCPUPowerManagement' driver problem, as I suspect that it might be the problem that is causing everything to freeze in the first place.

 

[Nameci]

Thanks for the response.

The only problem with wiping the HDD is that the Leopard install disk behaves the same way as Leopard itself, in that it just freezes and I have to force shut down.

Also, does anyone have any ideas about the 'AppleCPUPowerManagement' driver problem, as I suspect that it might be the problem that is causing everything to freeze in the first place.

Have you tried resetting PMU?

 

[thejaffinator]

Yep. I did it twice, but to no avail.

 

[havokalien]

Asd 2.5.8

I think you need asd 2.5.8 and hold the option key down on boot and it will check your hardware. From the sound of it a CPU is failing which is very common in these. Good luck.

 

[thejaffinator]

[LATEST UPDATE] I left the G5 unplugged for about 40 mins, and when I came back and started it up, it worked for about 2 minutes before crashing. I started it up again and looked at the error report. I decided to send the report to apple, when I remembered that I had to plug in the Airport card. So, I put it into the bac of the computer, and I connected to my wifi successfully. I clicked the 'Send to Apple' button,and it came up with the kernel panic screen, forcing me to shut down.

I didn't know if this would be of any help to anyone, but I decided that it could be, so I put it up here!

----------

I think you need asd 2.5.8 and hold the option key down on boot and it will check your hardware. From the sound of it a CPU is failing which is very common in these. Good luck.

What's 'asd 2.5.8'?? And if you hold down alt, it gives you the boot selection menu.

 

[PowerPCMacMan]

Hi, to answer your question. ASD is short for Apple Service Diagnostic - its a more comprehensive hardware testing application usually restricted to Apple techs only and not available for the general public. Unlike the Apple Hardware Test which if any errors in hardware do come up, it gives you a hex type cryptic error message which sometimes can't be deciphered, where as ASD tells you in simple english what the error is.

I have 2.5.8 and also 2.6.3 for those who need them. Every mac user, whether you have a G4, G5 or intel mac pro SHOULD have these important comprehensive testing applications.

Send me a private msg and I can hook you up if you need it.

PPCMM

[LATEST UPDATE] I left the G5 unplugged for about 40 mins, and when I came back and started it up, it worked for about 2 minutes before crashing. I started it up again and looked at the error report. I decided to send the report to apple, when I remembered that I had to plug in the Airport card. So, I put it into the bac of the computer, and I connected to my wifi successfully. I clicked the 'Send to Apple' button,and it came up with the kernel panic screen, forcing me to shut down.

I didn't know if this would be of any help to anyone, but I decided that it could be, so I put it up here!

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What's 'asd 2.5.8'?? And if you hold down alt, it gives you the boot selection menu.

 

[Cooknn]

The same thing *just* started happening to me. I've had this box since 2003 and never had a problem. Hope it isn't giving up the ghost

 

[justperry]

There are plenty of things you can do.
Some of them you already tried, like resetting PRAM.

Did you Partition the disk when you reinstalled Leopard?
If you start up from the Install disk and start in Verbose mode(-v) do you get the same problem with the AppleCPUPowerManagement?

What I would recommend is to find someone with an old computer which gives it away for free, or maybe you have friends which have an old hard disk lying around, even when it's just a 10GB disk that would do, try and install Leopard on it, I am pretty confident that there are computer stores nearby to you which will give you one for free.(Check first though if it's an Sata or Pata disk, should be SATA, I just checked)
If you are able to get one and install Leopard on it and it runs well it will tell you the old HD is on it's end of life.
You say you also have the problem with the Install disk, there is always a chance that this disk is not 100% either.

Do you own another firewire capable computer, if so start the G5 up in Target disk mode and connect it with a firewire cable, then retrieve your system log, edit it to only show the last startup(otherwise it's probably way too long) and post it here.

What might be a problem is that the HD has failing sectors on it in the beginning of the disk, the system gets written from the start(more or less) so partitioning it in two and write to the second partition might solve it for a while.
I myself think it's more a HD problem than a RAM problem.
Regarding price, I just checked Crucial and 2GB set is ~$60,dependable on how many slots you have you spend $120 to $240 to max it out.
EDIT:Next time tell us what model you have, so we can actually find the model.

Regarding ASD, you can find ASD on Apple's site, but if you can't start up from your G5 you need to download it from a different computer and burn it to a CD/DVD, then start up from that one and it will tell you if there is something wrong with your hardware, it is not 100% sure to find problems though.

 

[thejaffinator]

I've put the Leopard install disk into my laptop and all of the applications work fine. Also, just before the freezing started, I used it to get rid of the Ubuntu partitions, and it worked fine.

I have a few SATA's lying around, but the problem is that the install disk will still crash, even if I don't go any way near the main HDD. However, I will try starting in verbose mode when i figure out how to (do you start up holding c+cmd+v by any chance?).

Sorry if I'm being stupid, but where is system.log?? I've looked around quite a bit and I still can't find it! Once I've found it, I'll get back to you.

If you want to know the G5's specs, do you want me to give you the serial number to look up on http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html??

I have now also got ASD, so I'll try that out soon as well.

[NOTE] I never reinstalled Leopard, because I only resized the partition when I installed Ubuntu, so that I could dual-boot

 

[justperry]

I've put the Leopard install disk into my laptop and all of the applications work fine. Also, just before the freezing started, I used it to get rid of the Ubuntu partitions, and it worked fine.

I have a few SATA's lying around, but the problem is that the install disk will still crash, even if I don't go any way near the main HDD. However, I will try starting in verbose mode when i figure out how to (do you start up holding c+cmd+v by any chance?).

Verbose mode : The "v" key for verbose mode. (Command-V)
And, if you are able to access the disk there is a file called com.apple.Boot.plist, path to this file is /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
You can only edit it if you have root access.

Contents are as follow↓↓↓↓↓↓ if empty, in the line under <key>Kernel Flags</key> add -v so it looks like <string>-v</string>
If you do this your mac will always start up in verbose mode.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>-v</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Normally I use Property List Editor to Edit this file, but it's only there if Developer Tools are installed,textEdit will do the job as well.

Sorry if I'm being stupid, but where is system.log?? I've looked around quite a bit and I still can't find it! Once I've found it, I'll get back to you.

It's here↓↓↓↓↓↓, but you need to switch on show invisible files, easiest way is to get this app: Show & Hide, there are other Apps as well but this one is easy, you can also Edit the com.apple.Finder.plist in your preferences to show them but just download that small program.

/private/var/log
EDIT:You need the System Log

If you want to know the G5's specs, do you want me to give you the serial number to look up on http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html??

No, it's always makes things easier if you say the MODEL number, so we might know if certain models have known defects.
Possible Model numbers:
PowerMac7,2 M9032 (dual 2.0 GHz) M9020LL/A (1.6 GHz), M9031LL/A (1.8 GHz), M9393LL/A (dual 1.8 GHz), M9032LL/A (dual 2.0 GHz)
PowerMac7,3 A1047 M9454LL/A (dual 1.8 GHz), M9455LL/A (dual 2.0 GHz), M9457LL/A (dual 2.5 GHz)
PowerMac9,1 M9555LL/A

It's should be on you Mac somewhere, most of the time it's something like M9555LL/A

I have now also got ASD, so I'll try that out soon as well.

Good, try that first.

 

[thejaffinator]

Ok, thanks for the info!

Only problem is that it's giving me a black screen on startup every time, so I'm leaving it unplugged for 30 mins (because that usually works).

In answer to the model, I have a PowerMac7,2 M9393LL/A (dual 1.8 GHz)

[NOTE] I've also noticed that the fan noise when I press the power button seems to have got quieter. Is this a problem with the power, maybe?

 

[justperry]

Ok, thanks for the info!

Only problem is that it's giving me a black screen on startup every time, so I'm leaving it unplugged for 30 mins (because that usually works).

You're welcome

If that is the case it often points to a hardware problem.
Just an example, there could be a crack in a electronic component, a resistor,Capacitor, transistor or a bad soldering point, when it's cold it works but when the machine gets warm the crack widens and disconnects.
In the older Tube televisions this was many times a problem.
This COULD be the case,I am not saying it is the problem.

In answer to the model, I have a PowerMac7,2 M9393LL/A (dual 1.8 GHz)

[NOTE] I've also noticed that the fan noise when I press the power button seems to have got quieter. Is this a problem with the power, maybe?

Might be a power problem, these power supplies do die down sometimes.

Just looked for ram on ebay, one as low as $11 for 2 x 512MB, but I am more and more convinced that it is not your RAM, there is a utility which tests your ram in single user mode(Command -s), I think it's called memtest but you need to install it first on a running system, then restart, hold the Command and s buttons and type in a command/commands, fairly easy though.

If you only had a powersupply and different ram at hand, you would be able to see fast enough if that's the case.
I know that on ebay there are people selling power supplies with return option but most of them are in the states and sending a "heavy" power supply up and down is not cheap.
Could be the motherboard as well.

But, I would recommend running ASD first.

Edit: Look at this power supply, $20
Edit 2: The above one is just an example, don't know if it's the right one and if you really need it.

 

[thejaffinator]

I've got the ASD CD ready, but I'm still just getting a blank screen

[EDIT] So you're saying that, if it is a problem with the crack like you just described, that it's pointless trying to repair it anyway?

----------

Edit: Look at this power supply, $20
Edit 2: The above one is just an example, don't know if it's the right one and if you really need it.

The only problems with that are:

1: It's America delivery only, and I'm in the UK
2: I have no idea of how to check if it even fits, let alone how to fit it.

 

[thejaffinator]

Just to say, I'm gonna be gone for a few hours, so I can't test anything. I'll leave the G5 unplugged with the case off to see if it helps to cool it down at all, and I'll try ASD when I get back.

 

[mike457]

It's probably worth remembering, before throwing money around, that old G5s are available in the $100-200 range. While I hate to see any computer go on a scrap heap, if the OP's problems are more than software, he very quickly will approach the point where he would be better to buy a "new" old G5.