PowerMac G5 will not boot

[tlindsay42]

I have a PowerMac G5 running OSX 10.3.9 that will no longer boot up. It gets to the gray screen with the Apple logo, but it does not show the circular progress meter. After sitting there a minute, the fans start winding up faster and faster.

I tried booting into Safe Boot, Single User Boot, and Verbose Boot, but get nowhere. I do not have an external hard drive or CD-ROM to boot from. I cannot open the optical drive to try and boot from there. I do, however, have another G5 with a known good hard drive and OS (also 10.3.9), and when I swapped the drives, the problem stayed with the machine, so its not file corruption. I booted with no hard drive attached and it recognized that it had nothing to boot from with the little folder with a face icon. I tried switching the hard drive to the secondary controller and received the same icon for about three seconds before it switched back to the logo screen sans progress meter.

I'm not very experienced with Mac, but is there a BIOS reset or something equivalent?

Thanks,
-Big T

 

[Zelandakh]

OK, this is probably a single processor 1.6Ghz or an early dual 1.8Ghz machine.

There is a programmers button on the motherboard. Press that while the machine is off but powered. If that doesn't not work, SOMETIMES you can get round it by removing and reseating the processor and RAM and logic board and reseating them. If not, you need a new logic board. Those are expensive. I'm seeing this on about 5% of units.

 

[jmgalvin]

You might try resetting your PRAM.

Hold down the Command (Apple key), Option, P and R keys while starting up. You might hear the start up chime a second time. That's when you release the keys. See if the thing boots. While it hasn't been as common as in OS 9 and earlier, scrambled PRAM was one thing that would get Macs to the state you're describing.

I'm not familiar with G5s, using a g4 for my main machine and a 20 in iMac as backup, but if you have a little door that opens when the CD tray opens, pull it down. On the tray mechanism you might find a tiny hole (you might need a flashlight). That hole is used to insert a straightened paper clip to open the cd tray. If you can do that insert your OS cd/dvd. Start the machine holding down the C key. The tray should go in and the machine should boot from the CD. If you can boot from the cd, see if there's a check hardware tool on it and run it on your machine,

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[Zelandakh]

If it is PRAM, you need to do it at least twice as the PRAM isn't normally wiped first time IME from G3 onwards. I've not got an aeroplane problem back by doing it though.

 

[tlindsay42]

Unfortunately, the PRAM produced no results and I have not been able to find the programmer's button or documentation on it. If you know, would you please describe its location on a 2.5GHz dual processor board? Thanks much.

Thanks,
-Big T

 

[Zelandakh]

Its a 2mm circular button on the motherboard. It is black but I can't recall whereabouts it is

 

[mjameshall]

Mr. Troy!!

Try This..It worked for me once.

With the computer off, press and hold the CUDA reset button on the motherboard for 10 seconds. Then try booting again. The CUDA switch is usually located near the battery.

A link to the picture is here...

http://members.dslextreme.com/~readerforum/forum_help/CUDApic.jpg

I hopes it works for you, Take care and say hi to Sara.

-james

 

[Zelandakh]

That's the boy. So I got the name wrong (and have been getting the name wrong for many years!!).

Press it, hold it, then cross your fingers.