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powermac g5 playing up

firelighter487

firelighter487

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 30, 2014
386
239
The Netherlands
hi everybody,

i have a powermac g5 dual 2.0 ghz, and it has a couple of things wrong with it.

a while ago i replaced the thermal paste on the cpu's because it was getting crazy hot. after that, the fan from cpu a gets really loud when i'm doing something. but the cpu b fan doesn't.

and i lived with it for a while, but it recently refused to boot up, saying that there is no ram detected. i have tried various ram sticks, in all of the slots, but nothing has worked.

could easely buy another powermac g5, but i would like to save this one since it is the first mac i have ever owned. and for anyone who's going to suggest buying a mac pro, i don't have the money.

does anyone know how i can fix it?
 
firelighter487 said:
hi everybody,

i have a powermac g5 dual 2.0 ghz, and it has a couple of things wrong with it.

a while ago i replaced the thermal paste on the cpu's because it was getting crazy hot. after that, the fan from cpu a gets really loud when i'm doing something. but the cpu b fan doesn't.

and i lived with it for a while, but it recently refused to boot up, saying that there is no ram detected. i have tried various ram sticks, in all of the slots, but nothing has worked.

could easely buy another powermac g5, but i would like to save this one since it is the first mac i have ever owned. and for anyone who's going to suggest buying a mac pro, i don't have the money.

does anyone know how i can fix it?
Click to expand...
I can't really help because I've never really dealt with this. But there are people here who have and will probably be along soon.

But I am responding just to the comment about getting a Mac Pro.

You're posting in the PowerPC forums. We won't make that suggestion to you (it's a non-starter) because we use PowerPC Macs here. So, you are in good company.

Welcome to the MacRumors PowerPC forums. :D
 
The RAM issue could be the BGA under the U3(I believe) chip coming up. This would require the logic board to be replaced. The CPU issue could be related to either the processor failing, or the thermal sensor being damaged. Either way, the CPU would need replacing, along with the logic board
 
that sucks. so i'm going to have to replace it then.

i failed to mention that i could run it for a while with a ramstick in the bottom and top slot. not the middle ones. if i'd put a third stick in one of the middle slots it would fail. did this have to do with the u3 (slowly) failing?

and eyoungren, thanks for correcting me about my mac pro suggestion. i only said it because i have another thread running about my old macbook and someone suggested that i buy newer tech rather than spending money on a machine that's 9 years old :)
 
firelighter487 said:
and eyoungren, thanks for correcting me about my mac pro suggestion. i only said it because i have another thread running about my old macbook and someone suggested that i buy newer tech rather than spending money on a machine that's 9 years old :)
Click to expand...
No worries man. It wasn't a correction, so much as an affirmation that you are in the right place and among friends who have similar interests.

I might suggest however, any future postings about older Intel Macs be posted here. The Intel Mac fanboys in the Intel Mac sections look down as much on older Intel hardware as they do PowerPC. Consequently, some of us PowerPC users who also own older Intel Macs (I have a 2006 17" MBP) also post here as well.

We've petitioned the management for an older Intel Mac forum separate from both the PowerPC forums and the Intel forums but so far it hasn't happened.
 
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firelighter487 said:
hi everybody,

i have a powermac g5 dual 2.0 ghz, and it has a couple of things wrong with it.

a while ago i replaced the thermal paste on the cpu's because it was getting crazy hot. after that, the fan from cpu a gets really loud when i'm doing something. but the cpu b fan doesn't.

and i lived with it for a while, but it recently refused to boot up, saying that there is no ram detected. i have tried various ram sticks, in all of the slots, but nothing has worked.

could easely buy another powermac g5, but i would like to save this one since it is the first mac i have ever owned. and for anyone who's going to suggest buying a mac pro, i don't have the money.

does anyone know how i can fix it?
Click to expand...
Could the CMOS be dead?
 
my g5 is weird. i was troubleshooting it just now and the only way i could get it to stop blinking its power button, was to populate all of the ram slots with mismatched ram. two 1gb sticks and two random 256 mb sticks. but, in theory, it should boot now.

i'm going to attempt to install leopard tommorrow. i will let you know if it works again or not.
 
leopard installed, all of my apps and data on it, and it runs like a dream.

the only thing is that is doesn't see the two 256 mb sticks, but i'm not going to care too much, because its working now. it still has the cpu fan problem, but i can live with that.

i'm still curious why without the 256mb sticks in it says incompatible ram, but with the 256 mb in it doesn't detect them.
 
firelighter487 said:
the only thing is that is doesn't see the two 256 mb sticks, but i'm not going to care too much, because its working now. it still has the cpu fan problem, but i can live with that.

i'm still curious why without the 256mb sticks in it says incompatible ram, but with the 256 mb in it doesn't detect them.
Click to expand...

They maybe different types of 256 MB sticks. If they are not in use by the computer then I would remove them. In regards to the CPU fan issue, you are going to need to run a thermal calibration in Apple Service Diagnostics to restore them to full proper functionality.
 
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