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Rebuild of iMac G5
- Thread starter S.B.G
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It's fully updated with all Apple updates and seems to be running fine.
I have SimCity 4 Rush Hour patched with 1.0.2 and it's running just fine.
Overall, the OS is running okay, but with just a hint of choppiness. I think it's because of having only 1GB of RAM. I will be looking closer at the RAM I bought to see what I did, because I think I got the wrong kind. Then I'll order the proper RAM and get it running better.
I'm still looking into an SSD as well.
I have SimCity 4 Rush Hour patched with 1.0.2 and it's running just fine.
Overall, the OS is running okay, but with just a hint of choppiness. I think it's because of having only 1GB of RAM. I will be looking closer at the RAM I bought to see what I did, because I think I got the wrong kind. Then I'll order the proper RAM and get it running better.
I'm still looking into an SSD as well.
Then it might be worth looking at replacing it, since that will annoy me to no end.
I put it to sleep for the first time today. Why on Earth did Apple put a giant spot light on the face of the iMac? That thing is huge and I can imagine at night it being really annoying, like a lighthouse shining in your window.
Otherwise, it's running well so far. I played SimCity 4 for a while today too. It plays with the tiniest bit of lag, but I think it's due to the 1GB of RAM. The other 1GB is en route.
On payday next week I will probably order an SSD and new upper fans. I'll get the fans replaced so that I don't have to hear that high pitched fan noise.
Otherwise, it's running well so far. I played SimCity 4 for a while today too. It plays with the tiniest bit of lag, but I think it's due to the 1GB of RAM. The other 1GB is en route.
On payday next week I will probably order an SSD and new upper fans. I'll get the fans replaced so that I don't have to hear that high pitched fan noise.
It's amazing how much money you are putting into an iMac G5. Sure, they are still gorgeous to look at and can do simple browsing, old games and some spotify and word processing, but they are OLD.
An iMac G5 yet remains one of the most unreliable machines. I've had an 20" ALS 2.0Ghz model with 2GB and 60GB SSD for some time. It ran great, but I did sell it because it even with this configuration was a tad slow.
It's fully updated with all Apple updates and seems to be running fine.
I have SimCity 4 Rush Hour patched with 1.0.2 and it's running just fine.
Overall, the OS is running okay, but with just a hint of choppiness. I think it's because of having only 1GB of RAM. I will be looking closer at the RAM I bought to see what I did, because I think I got the wrong kind. Then I'll order the proper RAM and get it running better.
I'm still looking into an SSD as well.
Good job! It's great to see new life for old Mac's
I'm treating this as a hobby and I enjoy rebuilding computers. I haven't built or rebuilt anything in a long time, so I'm having a bit of fun with it. I received the computer for free, and so far I've only put about $100 or so into it. I may put another $150 into it after the SSD and fans next week.
Plus I get to play SimCity 4 again which is always fun.
Thanks!
Oh, but I do understand that. I'm also into that stuff.
This is different, but look what I did. I think the best way to preserve a 'classic'!
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1290801/
Good job on the BlackBook!
Most of the time I rebuild PC's, but rarely do I get to do a Mac, so this G5 project is a lot of fun.
They fixed that 'issue' with Ambient Light Sensor model, which also brought along improved graphics, standard Airport Extreme & Bluetooth, and a 2.0GHz option.
...Unless you have that model? Have you put it to sleep in a dark room? Looking through the thread you haven't given us any specs
They fixed that 'issue' with Ambient Light Sensor model, which also brought along improved graphics, standard Airport Extreme & Bluetooth, and a 2.0GHz option.
...Unless you have that model? Have you put it to sleep in a dark room? Looking through the thread you haven't given us any specs
Haha, oops! Here are the specs:
PowerMac 8,1
Model A1058
EMC 1989
Order Number M9248LL
1.6GHz PowerPC
1GB RAM (about to get 2GB)
80GB HDD
17" screen
Manufactured from August 2004 to May 2005
This is not the model with the ambient light sensor, BT or WiFi.
As for the SSD, make sure to get an SATA II SSD (Vertex 2 or something). The iMac G5 doesn't want SATA III SSD's. It simply won't see them. Personal experience
Personal experience
Would you elaborate more on that experience? I'm interested to hear what you tried to do, what happened and how you resolved it.
Would you elaborate more on that experience? I'm interested to hear what you tried to do, what happened and how you resolved it.
Well, as of now, I have a iMac G5 17" 1.6Ghz model. (very first model) and a iMac G5 20" 2.1Ghz iSight model (very last model).
These are just hobby machines (as I use a rMBP as my main). Various SATA III SSD's were not able to be recognized by both machines. SATA II SSD's on the other hand, were recognized.
I'm running a 128GB APPLE TOSHIBA SATA II SSD (one that came as an high end option in a 2010 macbook pro) in the iSight model. I run an 128GB Vertex 2 SSD in the other iMac. I can confirm both work fine.
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I have an issue with spinrite. It's a very clever piece of software, however if recovery is required, it should recover to a different hard drive not recover to the same hard drive that is obviously starting to fail.
It's not meant to move data from drive to drive. Only make a drive that has bad sectors useable again. If the drive is failing this can repair it long enough for you to move the data to a new drive.
The insides are a beauty with all the hatred towards the problems with these, they still have a great inside i am impressed, good luck with it. It looks like you have a nice handle on it and a ssd could probably do some great work for it.
Yes but it puts the drive under a lot of strain when it does that. It may not work again after the repair work has been done.
Someone who knows more than most about hard drives (Scott Moulton) is of the same mind.
I've seen Scott's write up on Spinrite before and while he has some good points, I think he also misses some points about the purpose of Spinrite.
Scott says:
The point of Spinrite is to try and get a corrupted hard drive to be useable again so that the user is able to get the data off the drive, whereas prior to the use of Spinrite, that wasn't possible. In his statement, while not entirely wrong, he's putting the cart before the horse.
That is entirely possible; there is risk in anything you do with a HDD that is on it's last legs. Spinrite has several levels of operation which can be used to mitigate the amount of stress it puts on a HDD. Level 2 for example is a light read/write process that runs relatively quickly and easily over the drive, and is intended for emergency use - e.g. the drive is about dead or already there. Level 4 is commonly used on known "good" drives and does a more thorough job on the surface than level 2. Level 1, is a read only option that will just give you a status of the surface and even works with SSD's.
The main point that Scott doesn't talk about on this issue, is that we should all keep good backup of our drives.
Absolutely true. Steve Gibson, the writer of Spinrite, never tries to make it sound like you can continue to use a HDD that was in bad shape after Spinrite repairs it. A HDD certainly can die again, maybe later that day or weeks and months later, sometimes even years. It just depends on the HDD and how bad it got. Steve always says on the podcast Security Now that if you get your HDD back operational, that you need to move your data off it and onto a new drive. Anyone under the impression Scott talks about, is under it falsely.
Regardless of what you choose to do, I only posed Spinrite as an option and I'm not going to try and strong arm you or anyone into using it. I use it, and use it all the time on my good HDD's and on HDD's that aren't in good condition. I've personally used it to repair dozens and dozens of HDD's over the years for friends and family. It's fixed HDD's in my Mac's and Windows PC's and many BSOD's. I swear by it and that's why I recommend it to people all the time.
How does Spinrite work?
Maybe some advice from the OP then
Because of this thread, I fired up by iMac G5's for fun. the Rev A iMac G5 17" runs great as always with it's little SSD and 1GB RAM (should put in 2).
the very last iMac G5, the 20" 2.1Ghz iSight model, has some issues. Whenever I try to power the machine on, it will give a kernel panic at bootup. It will boot up without issues the 2nd or 3rd time. After that, it runs like normal and fast (SSD and 2GB RAM). Also, when I put it to sleep and try to wake it up immediately after, the screen will remain black and the funs will run highspeed after a few minutes. But when I put it to sleep and wake it up after lets say 2 minutes, it works flawless.
Things I did:
- opened it up and tried a different HDD with 10.5.8 <-- same issues. It's not HDD/SSD related.
- reset SMU
- reset PRAM
- reset NVRAm
- ran Rember (RAM testing software). Passes all tests.
the AHT I can't do, since I have no CD's of any kind. Might be somewhere, but who knows.
What can the issue be? It can do everything once booted up.. But it shows kernel panics at boot up.
On occasion, it kernel panics when just in use. But this only happened once.
What can it be..?
Because of this thread, I fired up by iMac G5's for fun. the Rev A iMac G5 17" runs great as always with it's little SSD and 1GB RAM (should put in 2).
the very last iMac G5, the 20" 2.1Ghz iSight model, has some issues. Whenever I try to power the machine on, it will give a kernel panic at bootup. It will boot up without issues the 2nd or 3rd time. After that, it runs like normal and fast (SSD and 2GB RAM). Also, when I put it to sleep and try to wake it up immediately after, the screen will remain black and the funs will run highspeed after a few minutes. But when I put it to sleep and wake it up after lets say 2 minutes, it works flawless.
Things I did:
- opened it up and tried a different HDD with 10.5.8 <-- same issues. It's not HDD/SSD related.
- reset SMU
- reset PRAM
- reset NVRAm
- ran Rember (RAM testing software). Passes all tests.
the AHT I can't do, since I have no CD's of any kind. Might be somewhere, but who knows.
What can the issue be? It can do everything once booted up.. But it shows kernel panics at boot up.
On occasion, it kernel panics when just in use. But this only happened once.
What can it be..?
A few of things come to mind.
Have you opened it up to check for blown capacitors, both on the PSU and the motherboard?
What process does the kernel panic indicate?
Why would you try to wake it up right after putting it to sleep. Aside from once in a great while forgetting to do something, do you do that often?
I think trying to wake it right after putting it to sleep isn't a good idea because it may still be going through it's "going to sleep" processes. Even on my Intel-Mac's I wait at least a minute before waking it after putting it to sleep.
The waking up from sleep thing was simply a test to see whether or not this functions properly. So, we'll just leave it at that.
With the iMac G5 iSight model, you can't unfortunately just pop of the back and check the capacitors. Once the screen is removed, the capacitors are still on the other side of the board. So I haven't checked. But, since it runs stable when in use, I find it odd that this might be an issue.
The Kernel Panic indicated something like "appleSMU shutdown cause 3" which can be anything, I assume.
I'm not able to check it right now, but I will when it happens again.