Power PC G5 help...

[Bubbagaloot]

Hi there,
I have recently had a replacement Dual 2 GHz Power Pc G5 as my previous one's motherboard bit the dust. This one works fine except for two problems:

1) Every now and then the fan will kick into high speed for about 5-10 seconds while the computer is on then go back to normal. This happens regularly but doesn't affect the usage of the computer.

2)It will only read certain DVDs or cds. For example, a dvd I burnt at work on a similar machine can't be read on my replacement one. Also it won't read music cds, and these are legitimate ones. My previous G5 was able to read any disc. Is there any software available to enable my mac to read any cd, dvds?

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas/clues on these conundrums...

 

[chrismacguy]

In response to the second part of your question, have you kept the same optical drive, as it sounds like the Drive itself could be at fault. (Some Earlier DVD-RW or DVD+RW drives could only read one or other of the formats, and if the drive isnt the original, its possible its been replaced with one of these) - If its the same drive, it sounds like a replacement is in order as the drive is faulty in someway.

 

[Makosuke]

The optical drive could well be bad, though before replacing it I'd try one of those cleaning discs--I've had similar symptoms due to a dirty lens. They're cheaper (by a little, anyway) than a new drive, so probably no harm in at least trying.

On the fans, do you mean that they suddenly kick into full speed for a while, or that they ramp up over a relatively short period of time, then ramp back down? In the latter case it could well just be that something is hitting the processor hard for a little bit and the fans are responding--I've noticed exactly the same behavior on both my 1st gen G5 tower and Lenovo PCs with temperature-controlled fans.

You could also try running with Activity Monitor open (bring up the little floating bar graph and just stick it somewhere inconspicuous in the corner of the screen--I ALWAYS have mine sitting at lower left). Next time the fan ramps up, glance down and see if there's a CPU spike corresponding to it.

 

[BlueRevolution]

By the way, PowerPC is a processor architecture. The computer you're using is called a Power Mac.