[lagomorphmom]

Hi all,
Hopefully someone can help. We had a power failure in the neighborhood about an hour ago. My G4 (mirror door unit) was 'asleep' at the time. It was not plugged into a UPS, but a fairly pricey surge protecter with a high surge rating. Power still off when I got home, so I unplugged everything on the 'off chance' that we got a surge on power up. Well, power is back on, but when I plugged it all back in, it won't start. No damage apparent to printer/monitor, tv, etc., nor nowhere else in the house (hi-fi and my husband's Win box I'm using now). Surge suppressor was not 'kicked off'. By "won't start", I mean the button glows when I push it, but no CPU/fan/etc. activity, just the glowing button. I'm having a bit of anxiety, so if someone has any good ideas I'd be really greatful.
Thanks,
Kerin

[Chris Breen]

With the Mac off, open the Mac up and search around for a small button near the RAM slot. This is called the Cuda button. Push the button ONE TIME ONLY. Close up the Mac and restart. With luck, it will boot as it should.
Chris

[lagomorphmom]

Thanks for replyiing, Chris. Got her cracked open, but don't see a 'button' near the memory slots. How small is 'small' and is it labeled 'CUDA'?

[lagomorphmom]

Woooooo-hooooooo!!! You are a god! I finally found it on my board labeled 'Reset PMU' and (facing the front of the box and the door to the right) it was actually left, or toward the bottom of the board with the door closed, near where the ATA's plug in, in case anyone else can't find this alternate location. Phew! I cannot thank you enough - after a really long day, this was enough to get me breathing in a paper bag. I am off to back up my files ;-)
Ciao,
Kerin

[Chris Breen]

Cool, glad it worked.
Sorry about the location. The last time I banged one of these buttons, it was near one of the RAM slots. Nice to hear that Apple labeled it. They haven't always done so.
Chris

[lagomorphmom]

[Sorry about the delay. I replied before, but was a goof and replied via the e-mail notification, duh.]
On 11/17/03 10:04 PM, "forums@macworld.com" <forums@macworld.com> wrote:
> Sorry about the location. The last time I banged one of these buttons, it was
> near one of the RAM slots. Nice to hear that Apple labeled it. They haven't
> always done so.
Sounds like they haven't, once I had the name of it, I looked on the Apple site and they said it was to the right of the battery (course they're electronic geeks and don't tell you the orientation of the box so you know which way is 'right' ;-)
All right, now that life is good again, let me ask a couple of quick follow ups:
1) I'm assuming there was no spike since no other equipment had symptoms; however, was this due to sudden power loss, or just a random event?
2) I've had a sharp increase from never to a couple times a week, of kernal panics. I'm assuming it's an Orange Micro 4-port USB hub I've installed somewhat recently, according to Randy Singer's trouble shooting site? Do you have any other pointers/links that I might use as resources to get up to speed on this type of problem (I have been searching the archives)? I have DiskWarrior, I gather I better learn how to use it, because the panic log doesn't mean anything to me. Sounds like I'll be in a steep learning curve for awhile - while reasonably well versed with the old OS 9 file structure, I have to say I really haven't spent much time learning how OS X works or needs to be maintained except on an as needed basis, sounds like a great idea for a book: "Routine maintenance for OS X"?
Any thoughts on your end about kernal panics causing the PMU to need to be reset OR other possible problems?
Finally, if you ever get sick of answering 911 problems, I'll leave you with a few thoughts expanding on my appreciation you can save for a future bad Dilbert 'desk job' day. Being left in the lurch with a suddenly non-functional computer was such a huge source of anxiety, I cannot tell you. Amazing, since I do not use it for work; however, it is a bigger conduit to friends, family, hobbies, the world, etc. than I think I realized. We were talking about this at work today. I thought it would've been easier to have just been simply without the power or even the telephone (better expectation of those being fixed in the near future, I guess). This was more like if someone took the phone away from you 20 years ago and suddenly your communication needs revert to post cards and letters. What was also odd, looking at what electronic customer service I've had elsewhere, the Apple site was a huge disappointment, which makes resources forums like MacWorld essential. On the other had, I've had a Mac since the first MacII and this is the first time something this 'bad' happened, short of the battery going poop. Additionally, while MacWorld forums are great, the good thing about user groups of the past, was local resourcing - now I wouldn't even know which Mac shop I would've taken my box to, had I needed to (my best hope was the power supply so I could fix it myself), which was another source of anxiety had you not come through for me. Interesting, reflective stuff on my new dependence . Just wanted to pass on my great 'appreciation of your time', rather than perfunctory 'thanks!'.
Thanks again,
--
Kerin

[Chris Breen]

1. The loss of power was what set off the alarm in my head. My Power Mac 933 went through a similar event -- loss o' juice -- and behaved the same way. No action from the Power button. Slamming the button is far down on the list of things to try but it was time to try it. It worked for me and I hoped it would for you as well.
2. It could be the hub. Kernal panics are sometimes caused by hardware that doesn't see eye to eye with the Mac. The best way to find out is to pull the hub out of the equation and see how the Mac behaves. If it still panics, the hub's not your problem (or at least not all of your problem).
Disk Warrior is worth a shot just to see what it turns up. It can be a miracle worker. It's easy as pie to use. Give it a try and then see how your Mac fares.
Chris

[Damien]

Pushing the CUDA button resets the Power Management Unit (PMU) on the logic board of your computer. By resetting the PMU, you've solved the first problem of your computer not booting up after a power failure. This is common and I see it often.
However, what also often happens in these types of situations is the NVRAM setting on the logic board also become corrupted an can cause problems like you're describing. You can reset your NVRAM by booting into open firmware.
1) Hold down COMMAND OPTION O + F keys at startup.
2) Releease the keys when you see the white text on grey open firmware screen and the OF command prompt.
3) At the OF command prompt type: reset-nvram
4) Hit enter. It should return OK as feedback.
5) At the OF prompt, type: reset-all
6) Hit enter and the computer will boot.
This resets the NVRAM, the PRAM and some logic board settings. PRAM is also reset when you reset the PMU, but it doensn't hurt to do it here (it's the advisable procedure).
Try this. Let us know if your kernel panics continue.