[MacCheetah3]

Hi
Customer with ~4 year old Power Mac G5 2 x 2GHz / 2 x 512MB / 2 x 250GB / Leopard. Replaced original ( failing ) HDD with 250GB Seagate and upgraded from Tiger to Leopard within the past 6 months. Suddenly a few days ago it won't boot. Only thing right before this is he plugged in his digital camera and everything froze.
- Gets to grey screen with Apple logo without the spinning activity gear
- Takes ~10 seconds from power button press to show video ( this is likely the case before this boot issue but I can't recall )
- Only keyboard / mouse / video connected
- Ran Disk Utility using my MacBook via USB enclosure ( Passed )
- Ran DiskWarrior 4.1 using my MacBook vai USB enclosure
-- Minor Volume Information repaired
-- ~5 Airport Utility permissions repaired
-- ~2 Framework permissions repaired ( I forget what framework )
-- 1 corrupt preference ( com.apple.iphotomosaic.plist )
- Tried PRAM reset ( This makes it not show any video. Next attempt to boot normally results in no boot 'chime' and no video )
- Tried Open Firmware reset ( reset_nvram results in OK but than trying the reset-all command results in a freeze. Past experience with that command has the machine display the OK results for a moment and than automatically reboot )
- Tested PRAM battery voltage ( It's an analog display voltmeter but it looked like it tested at exactly 3.0v. Battery is suppose to be ~3.6v new. I don't have any other PRAM batteries to test right now. One is on order for another machine. )
- Reset PMU
- Tried different RAM
- Removed secondary HDD
- Disconnected optical drive
- Removed extra Apple Gigabit Ethernet Card ( PCI-X slot )
-- Coincidentally after putting it back in, tried booting once; grey Apple. Second try, now it says his RAM doesn't pass; power LED blinks 3 times. Also does this for the two 256MB sticks I tried earlier but two brand new 512MB sticks it works with. )
Last step is to try a clean install ( though I do want to try a new PRAM battery ) but I'm a bit skeptical considering this clean install was only ~6 months so ago but especially the issues with PRAM resetting. Does the reset-al command also try to reset PRAM? Anyone think / know this is a logic board or otherwise hardware failure? As an additional question now, did it fry all those sticks of RAM? I'll try them in another machine when I get a chance.

[rab777hp]

did you try booting from install disc? sounds like symptoms of either a HD or Logic board failure. You might want to look at the physical board.

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
Interesting enough another problem slowly cropped up. It started rejecting his two 512MB sticks of RAM. It would blink the power LED 3 times on boot attempts. A few times I got it to boot by reseating the RAM. Than I got it to boot a few times when it got angry, and reseating didn't work any longer, by switching out with another memory pair. In the end, it wouldn't pass any of three pairs I was trying. Two new 512s, both original 512s, or two working pull 256s. So, I couldn't even try a reinstall or generally booting from the installation CD for troubleshooting. Made it fairly obvious that hardware of some sort went 'south'. He's going to wait ad decide what he wants to do with it. He replaced it with a new 24" iMac but he was hoping to move the G5 to his media center and have it for off-loading rendering in the background ( like a remote slave machine ). Only thing that sort of 'bugged' me was this time the AppleCare rep wouldn't give me a direct Apple repair price. I had zero issues with getting them for an iMac G5, a MacBook, and an iBook. AASPs and Apple Stores were 3x higher priced in those cases than directly through Apple. This Apple rep told me to call local Stores and AASPs for price quotes. :(

P.S. Of course, he is quite 'bummed' as he even bought AppleCare ( extended warranty ) that expired about a year ago. Best thing he could say is that he got ~4 good years out of it. I'm disappointed to see such nice systems go down.
P.P.S. I was able to try a brand spankin' new PRAM battery with no change.

[rab777hp]

Does he have a backup? Because then I suggest getting a new computer and throwing the old one out the window.

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
:D

He does have a backup and he's keeping it around to decide if he wants to fix it yet or not. He just purchased a 24" iMac to replace the Power Mac.

[rab777hp]

well it's his call, but if i was him i'd sell it for scrap

[pimar]

Hi, same on mine on august, 14th.

My serial number is CK501.... What is the start of your serial number ?

I think we have to group serial numbers before attempting something with Apple (as the last replacement program in late 2007 for younger G5 c.f. http://www.apple.com...pairextension/)

PiM

[Mac2009]

The same exact thing happened with mine too... my serial number is G8445... computer's only 4 years old.

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
I don't recall the serial # and he, as I mentioned, took the machine back. If it would be beneficial to him, I'm sure I could get the serial # from him.

[rifraf]

Same thing is happening on my Mac. Its barely a late 2005 G5 2.0Ghz Dual. Seeing a lot of folks are running into this same issue, esp. around the same time, with PPC Macs - I'm started to get a bad feeling about this. I'll be checking on my serial soon, but a question:

Have there been any uniform updates that could be cause or remedy to this? Seems more than random that so many people are hitting this same exact issue.

[Mac2009]

I brought my computer up to the Apple store in Holyoke, MA and the guy at the Genius Bar said it was either or both the logicboard/one or both processors. He never mentioned anything about a power supply problem, but when Apple called me back 2 days later, they said it was definitly NOT the power supply. Which I find extremely odd because when I searched Google for this problem, I kept coming across articles on the power supply. It's kind of odd as to how my computers symptoms match that of the pwer supply failure. I think Apple isn't owning up to their mistake and expects people to pay upwards of $800 to have it repaired. Has anyone called or sent Apple a letter? If so, what did they say? The Apple store said that my case was the second one they've had in the past 2 weeks. Is it possible to get "generic" parts at a much lower price?

[experiment1776]

Same problem. Early 2005 G5. Fried Logic board. Expired, extended applecare. I used DT&T in California to repair. $450. Figured it would be worth it to get another couple years out of it. Got it back and still didn't work. They offered to take it back free shipping and do it over and I am waiting to get it back but I have low expectations. Not at all what i would expect from a 3.5 year old computer that cost me at least several thousand $$$. My g'frnds dell is older than that and is ticking just fine!! I don't have the serial # with me but if anyone is writing a letter to Apple and would like to include it as futher evidence let me know. I think this is poor value for money. And to think how many people I convinced to buy an apple.

[experiment1776]

I too wondered this after downloading an OSX update approx 1-2 mo ago and all hell broke loose shortly thereafter. But since then I have been told it was the logic board but I have even questioned the power supply. Who knows.

[rifraf]

I'd be more than willing to draft something and throw my serial # into the pot as well. Something is off about this, I spoke to my neighbor...his PPC iMac - same exact issues. There is something going on with the PPC macs that seems to be more than isolated quirks - I think my last update was 10.4.11 - shortly thereafter - kapput!