Some of you may remember, my dual g5 pm 1.8 died about a year ago. I suspected it was the faulty ram solder issue these macs were plagued with. I finally got around to verifying this today, and it has been confirmed. Anything I can do, or am I just hosed? If hosed, anyone recommend where to get a replacement board cheap? I picked up a dead one on Craigslist about 6 months ago with bent pins on one of the CPU sockets, so I also have a pair of 2.0 CPUs and spare working psu. I really don't care if it is single or dual CPU (I suspect the single CPU versions did not suffer from the faulty ram solder issue)
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Powermac g5 ram solder
- Thread starter Zeke D
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you don't actually have to follow the inside to outside ram pattern, for instance if slots 1 and 2 are burnt, you can not use those slots and instead put them in 3 and 4 or in slots 5 and 6. Like for instance I had ram slots 5 and 6 burn out and can put them in 7 and 8 if you didn't already max out the ram. It should also boot if you just put ram in only slots 7 and 8 or even 3 and 4
You can desolder and resolder the slots, that would be the logical way to fix the problem unless you have zero soldering experience in which you'll probably do more damage than good there are tons of little transistors all around the ram slot pins.
eBay is going to be your cheapest route in finding a new logicboard, should run like $40-$70, I saw a dual 2.0 (june 2004) logicboard for like $60 or $70 the other day, you just have to make sure you have the right year and model, the only boards that are universal are the ones that are over the 1ghz frontside bus, so (dual 2.5 (1.25ghz), dual 2.3 (1.15ghz) and dual 2.7 (1.35ghz) can all use the same logicboard and the cpu plugged in determines what the bus runs at, where as the dual 2.0 has the 1ghz fsb and the dual 1.8 has the 900mhz fsb and only run at that. You can tell the difference between the 2003 and 2004 boards by the serial sticker on it to verify what you need 2003 had the old sticker 2004 had the newer sticker, I'll post a picture in a minute showing you the difference.
All of them will have the same solder issue because they used the same solder throughout the entire process silver bearing solder with no lead, and there's your reliablity problem,that why the nintendo from 1981 still works like the day it did, because it had lead in the solder, though it appears they used some sort of glue in it because of the yellow rust like color on it and around it.
You can desolder and resolder the slots, that would be the logical way to fix the problem unless you have zero soldering experience in which you'll probably do more damage than good there are tons of little transistors all around the ram slot pins.
eBay is going to be your cheapest route in finding a new logicboard, should run like $40-$70, I saw a dual 2.0 (june 2004) logicboard for like $60 or $70 the other day, you just have to make sure you have the right year and model, the only boards that are universal are the ones that are over the 1ghz frontside bus, so (dual 2.5 (1.25ghz), dual 2.3 (1.15ghz) and dual 2.7 (1.35ghz) can all use the same logicboard and the cpu plugged in determines what the bus runs at, where as the dual 2.0 has the 1ghz fsb and the dual 1.8 has the 900mhz fsb and only run at that. You can tell the difference between the 2003 and 2004 boards by the serial sticker on it to verify what you need 2003 had the old sticker 2004 had the newer sticker, I'll post a picture in a minute showing you the difference.
All of them will have the same solder issue because they used the same solder throughout the entire process silver bearing solder with no lead, and there's your reliablity problem,that why the nintendo from 1981 still works like the day it did, because it had lead in the solder, though it appears they used some sort of glue in it because of the yellow rust like color on it and around it.
At the time of failure, I had a 512mb single-sided in each slot for a total of 4gb. So dotting they all failed at the same time. If I were to solder/resolder each slot that would be 168 pins each right? My hands are not as steady as they were 15 years ago, so I don't know if I would be good now. So with a pair of 2.0s and 1.8, I can use any board that says it will gun those frequencies?
sorry i think a made that a little confusing, the dual 2.5 (june 04) dual 2.3 (early 05) and dual 2.7 (early 05) can use the same boards, but in every other case it is specific.
So no the dual 2.0 can only use the dual 2.0 and the dual 1.8 can only used the dual 1.8, what I was trying to get at was there's a 2003 1.8 and a 2004 1.8 they shouldn't matter which one you use but for simplicity its easiest to replace with the same kind. the 2003 cpu and logic seemed to make alot of cricket chirping noise where in the 2004's they didn't, same with the dual 2.0 has a 2003 and 2004 logicboard.
The quick way aside from taking a picture of the inside and the what have you is, on the 2004 logicboards on the serial sticker they end with CHINA MLB where as on the 2003 there is no CHINA MLB, in regards to cpus the 2003's had 2 single G5 logo covers on the cpu where the 2004 had 1 big plate with two G5 logos, if not take a picture of you inside where you can see the ram slots and of the serial sticker to determine which it exactly is and I'll let you know.
So no the dual 2.0 can only use the dual 2.0 and the dual 1.8 can only used the dual 1.8, what I was trying to get at was there's a 2003 1.8 and a 2004 1.8 they shouldn't matter which one you use but for simplicity its easiest to replace with the same kind. the 2003 cpu and logic seemed to make alot of cricket chirping noise where in the 2004's they didn't, same with the dual 2.0 has a 2003 and 2004 logicboard.
The quick way aside from taking a picture of the inside and the what have you is, on the 2004 logicboards on the serial sticker they end with CHINA MLB where as on the 2003 there is no CHINA MLB, in regards to cpus the 2003's had 2 single G5 logo covers on the cpu where the 2004 had 1 big plate with two G5 logos, if not take a picture of you inside where you can see the ram slots and of the serial sticker to determine which it exactly is and I'll let you know.
It looks as if the prices on logic boards are $90 - $130, so I figure that money will be better saved to get me an intel Mac mini. I'm just gonna sell them on Craig's list without optical, ram or hard drives. There is not a high demand for apple products, so the best I will be able to do is $60 each for them. As long as my eMac holds out, I will be all right.
You can always try running a heat gun along the solder joints. I can't count how many times that has saved me.
). It was kbfr08 IIRC.Gotta be careful with a heatgun, as it can blow tiny surface mount resistors and transistors into kingdom come, never to be seen again. I've never done any soldering work on sockets/slots, so I'm not any help other than to say be careful when using a heatgun on surface mount parts.