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Powermac Dual 2.0 G5 problems

Indohottie

Indohottie

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 1, 2004
275
0
So I recently purchased a used Dual 2.0 G5.. it had a fresh install of Tiger on it. The first thing I did was update software to 10.4.11.. however after prompted to restart, the computer will not. It powers up, but nothing is displayed on the screen. After a couple mins, the fans speed up to maximum (or what I think is maximum) speed but still nothing.

Couple questions...

1. Anyone experience this before?
2. Since I can not get anything on the screen, how can boot off of the cd to reinstall Tiger, since that seems to be the problem.
3. How do you insert a cd in to the optical drive on a powermac

Thanks for your help and patience..
 
I have one that does the same thing. It started out rarely happening (once every 6 months), now it's all the time. The fan going berserk is indicative of an SMU issue. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1436 on how to reset it. Zapping pram is also sometimes necessary.
The Geniuses at the local Apple Store told me it would cost $80 for them to diagnose and probably $500+ to fix since a hardware issue would require the motherboard being replaced. I'm about to replace it with a MacMini.
 
i reset SMU and tried to reset the PRAM.. however still nothing.. any other trouble shooting tips?
 
i also noticed a red light on the motherboard is lit.. does this have anything to do with my problems??
 
Mike V said:
I have one that does the same thing. It started out rarely happening (once every 6 months), now it's all the time. The fan going berserk is indicative of an SMU issue.
Click to expand...

I'd say the fans going "berzerk" is more indicative of the Mac not fully booting. Since the Mac does not fully boot, MacOS X can't control the fans.

Sounds like there is a problem in the bootup sequence. Since you can't get the monitor to show anything, verbose mode Cmd-V on startup might not work.

To eject the CD-tray on boot-up, hold down the mouse button on start-up and the DVD tray should open up. You can then insert the DVD and close the tray before shutting down (push it and it should close). Then restart and hold down the "C" key to start from the DVD.
 
de ja vous

Indohottie said:
So I recently purchased a used Dual 2.0 G5.. it had a fresh install of Tiger on it. The first thing I did was update software to 10.4.11.. however after prompted to restart, the computer will not. It powers up, but nothing is displayed on the screen. After a couple mins, the fans speed up to maximum (or what I think is maximum) speed but still nothing.

Couple questions...

1. Anyone experience this before?
2. Since I can not get anything on the screen, how can boot off of the cd to reinstall Tiger, since that seems to be the problem.
3. How do you insert a cd in to the optical drive on a powermac

Thanks for your help and patience..
Click to expand...


I have pretty much the same machine with the same issue. However, I've tried booting from the installer disk - NOTHING... it scans the disk for about 5 seconds and then ejects it. I do however have a display but it just gives me the "classic" lashing question marked folder - no recognised system :eek:.
I've even bought another hard disk, correctly formatted it and gone through a complete install of both Tiger and Leopard. Install processes normally and completes normally. Restart and.... NOTHING. :mad:
To answer your questions:

No. 2 Have you tried booting in target mode from another Mac via Firewire (T key depressed upon boot up) to see if you get any display this way? I get the floating FW symbol so I know it isn't the video card par se.

No. 3 if your optical drive tray won't open n the normal way, you can force open the CD tray by holding down your mouse button upon booting or you can open it manually with a paperclip via the small hole on he optical drive, just below the tray front. When you have the disk physically loaded, switch off the G5 and restart with the C key depressed....

I really hope you have more luck than me:eek:
 
I think you guys are on to something with teh boot sequence.. however I can not get the optical drive to open up... holding down the mouse button or the option key does not work thus far, and I have been unable to find the pin hole to open the optical drive.. where is it located on the front (lower right or left)..

The red light on the motherboard was related to me having the plastic cover off of the side of the computer when I booted it up.. i put the cover on and it has not shown up.
 
Just pull the drive and see if the machine boots normally from the optical.

If that works, select another drive as the boot drive, and then you can put the problem drive back in and fix it.

---

Since this is a tower, it isn't too difficult.

And yes there is a reason this happens with Open Firmware machines due to the boot process. And if there is a problem with the boot drive you won't be able to use key modifiers or even boot from the optical.

If you have and Apple keyboard, opening the optical drive is the solid up arrow with the line under it (eject key), or when you restart the machine hold the mouse button down.
 
I think I am going to reformat my hd in the G5 and clone my hd from my macbook.. and try to reboot..

Will there be any issues using a macbook clone on a g5? I have access to a G3 ibook that I could use to clone as well.
 
Indohottie said:
Will there be any issues using a macbook clone on a g5? I have access to a G3 ibook that I could use to clone as well.
Click to expand...

You can't clone a Macbook MacOS to a PowerMac G5 as the Macbook has an Intel copy of MacOS and the PowerMac G5 needs a PowerPC copy. The G3 iBook... hmmm... I think that will work, as long as it's a high enough version of MacOS X that the G5 can boot with it. Ie. you can't put a MacOS X version lower than what that machine came with, normally.
 
i figured that might be the problem.. one question:

Can I use a macbook to load leopard onto an external HD that could work as a boot disk for the G5?
 
Indohottie said:
i figured that might be the problem.. one question:

Can I use a macbook to load leopard onto an external HD that could work as a boot disk for the G5?
Click to expand...

No, you CANNOT. Remember, there's a PowerPC and Intel version of Tiger. You can't mix and match, because of different architectures.

You can load a version of Tiger from your G3 to your external, and see if that works. The lowest version of OS X that is compatible with your G5 (assuming that it is indeed the original dual 2.0 Ghz G5) is 10.2.7, if I remember correctly. So if you have any retail installer discs between that and 10.4/10.5, then you should be able to install on an external, and see if that works.
 
Once I have OS installed on teh external, can I just hook the drive up as an internal drive and boot or must it stay an external drive?
 
Indohottie said:
i also noticed a red light on the motherboard is lit.. does this have anything to do with my problems??
Click to expand...

I'm really sorry to have to tell you this, but it looks like your CPU and/or Logic Board is fried. I was having the same issue, described in full in this thread. Especially if the LED is LED #7, you've probably got a dead computer on your hands. I took mine to an authorized Apple specialist and for $100 they told me "at least" my CPU needed replacement (as they have to replace one to test the next component). Replacement prices are noted in my thread but long story short, I'm shopping for a new or refurb Mac Pro.

Edit: Guess I should read the rest of the thread before responding -- please disregard my post! Mod: you can delete.
 
Indohottie said:
i figured that might be the problem.. one question:

Can I use a macbook to load leopard onto an external HD that could work as a boot disk for the G5?
Click to expand...

you can install leopard on an external drive from any Mac and then use that to boot up the G5 no issues.


thats how I usually tested some of my older acquired machines, works fine.


Indohottie said:
Once I have OS installed on teh external, can I just hook the drive up as an internal drive and boot or must it stay an external drive?
Click to expand...

You can leave it as an internal as well.
 
So my problem has been resolved.. it turned out to be a bad boot sequence when I updated to 10.4.11...

I ended up pulling the hard drive, and the computer booted perfectly. So I wiped the drive, and booted from my leopard OS dvd and reinstalled. Since then the computer has been running beautifully.

Thanks for everyone's help!
 
I found out about Open Firmware and the boot issue long time ago.

Only way around it seemed to be on machines with dead PRAM batteries, which would catch the first key modifier about half the time the very first time they booted after they were first plugged in.

Otherwise, the drive would keep locking up as long as that specific drive was selected as the "startup drive"

---

Pulling drive always seems easy if you have a tower, the iMac and notebooks made this difficult.
 
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