Maybe you Mac-heads can help. . .
Wow . . . two new forum topics in one day. . . its an epidemic! LOL
Here's the problem: My Mac (tower) dual 2.0 G5 (ever the old faithful) has started to give me some problems. The MAIN problem is that if I RESTART it, it will load the Apple logo on boot and the spinning icon and then . . .
poof
It will switch off. No sound, no freeze, just OFF. Pressing the power button to boot it will only result in the same thing. . . spinning animation for a few seconds and then. . . off
I have disconnected everything, swapped RAM, everything. . . the ONLY thing so far that it does CONSISTENTLY is that if I press the CUDA button on the logic board for 20 seconds and THEN start up. . . it boots normally and the machine works fine. . . I JUST can't shut it down or restart!
I have searched around on google but not knowing WHAT to search FOR I haven't been able to figure out what could be wrong. . .
Does anyone have a clue?
Thanks.
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Try this..
Restart in Safe Mode: Hold down the shift key before restart and hold until you see the apple logo.
If the finder comes up, run Disc Utility (Applications/Utilities/Disc Utility) and verify and repair permissions on the startup disk.
If this doesn't work, restart from the Mac OS Install disc (the DVD that came with your Mac, or Leopard install disc). Once you get the installer screen, access Disc utility from the menus at the top of the screen (Tools, Utilities maybe... I forget what the menu is called) and run Disc Utility from the install CD. Repair permissions on your usual startup Disc.
Sounds like your permissions may be hosed.
Let me know if this works.
Terry Thornhill
e-zign Design Group
lol
My MAJOR fear is that if I TRY to restart at all it won't come back up! I really can't afford to not have my machine running. . . I guess I'll have to wait until December (unless forced to do so by a power outage! lol) or some sort of incident, to try the restarting bit. Its running now so I'm getting all my work done normally. . . sigh . . . equipment failures REALLY are a bitch!
"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda
What OS are you running? If
What OS are you running? If it is 10.4.x or earlier, I would recommend trying Applejack. http://applejack.sourceforge.net/
They also have a version for 10.5, but it is a recent release and I haven't tried it yet.
Applejack is run at the root level and therefore can solve your problems before the os even loads up, much like the disk utility. It just performs different maintenence functions. Give it a go, it has always worked well for me.
10.4.11
BUT
Again. . . what IF I restart and it doesn't want to come back up. . . I don't have a machine to fall back on and I can't afford the down time right now. . .:P
Again. . . I'll have to wait till December (after the Christmas rush) to deal with this. . .
"Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!" :)
"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda
CUDA button
Alright, you ask for help and the above two are very good suggestions.
If you are able to re-start using CUDA button on the logic board and since you indicate that's the only thing consistently about your mac. Why can't you try the above suggestions and if it does not work, re-start using your method?
Hmmm
Because there's no guarantee that it will ACTUALLY restart. . .
I'm really looking for a "sure" fix before I take a chance on restarting and then finding out. . ."well frak. . .look at that . . . it didn't restart!" :) lol
I hope to be able to get to it next week. . . fingers crossed. . .
"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda
Make sure you get your
Make sure you get your install disk into the drive before you restart. That way, you restart with the C key and it should boot to the cd drive instead of your OS X installation on your computer.
Run the Disk Utility from the install disk but DO NOT reinstall OS X just yet.
Make sure you didn't delete any required system folders. Make sure you have any ethernet cables unplugged from the comp and that you have wireless and all other networking turned off; might help the restart.
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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"
Not sure about that model -
Not sure about that model - but older Macs used to have a small internal battery (usually similar to a watch battery) that would burn out and cause a similar issue. The battery would maintain your PRAM (or the basic settings of your machine, like time, etc) One of the key clues to look for was the clock would reset itself to 12:00 1968 or similar. If that started happening you knew your PRAM battery was going out. Worth looking at though. Do a search for "PRAM battery"
Just to give an update
I am in serious pain now. I did a couple of the suggestions that were available to me by you guys and some research on the net and now my G5 is useless. . . sigh. I'm not blaming anyone here! Its just not an easy problem to solve so I really appreciate all the help and suggestions, I just hoped that I could have resolved the problem myself. This morning I found it off so I dutifully (as I usually did) popped it open and reset the CUDA switch, it refused to boot. I Yanked the RAM and I changed the internal battery, no dice. I booted from the Install DVD and ran the hardware test, everything came back fine, I ran disk utility from the install DVD, everything is ok. . . BUT it still shuts down on startup. SO I did an archive and re-install. . . now its completely hosed because NOW it won't boot (for the same aforementioned reasons) and so it can't FINISH the installation routine. . .
So I packed it up and ran it over to a Authorised Apple tech. . . I'm out of a machine for a few days now in the MIDDLE of the Christmas rush. . . THANKFULLY I have a fall back position with my personal laptop, but I am pissed that I have to use MY OWN equipment to do office work.
So any advice on how to charge my company for the use of my own equipment?
thanks
"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda
Supply unit
We had a similar problem with a couple of G5 imacs last year. Turned out to be a power supply unit failure along with the logic board. Apple fixed them, but then it was a known issue with that gen of imac. Dunno if it spread to the power mac.
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Richard Ramsay :: Graphic Designer
UPDATE!
After two weeks I got back my machine from the Techs (after they said this machine is working!) lol And found out that its was a pair of errant RAM modules. Once they were removed I have been starting up normally for the last four days. Yay! Back in business but now I only have 1 GB of RAM so I've convinced IT to let me max out the RAM in the machine. Yay 4 GB of goodness lol. So lets hope I get that RAM B4 next year Christmas! :)
Just wanted to let you guys know.
"Try not, Do! or do not, there is no try."
-Yoda
WOOP !!! 4GB
WOOP !!! 4GB rocks!
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UPDATED PORTFOLIO
www.jhousedesign.com
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"Did I really try to find an "undo" button on a vending machine?"
all graphics machines should
all graphics machines should be maxed out for RAM anyway. Hell...ALL graphics work should be done on maxed out high-end machines, although with modern advances there's not so much of a performance difference between high-end and low-end machines anymore unless you start talking about the really high end machines that only huge organizations can afford.
"...and mamma cried: Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" - Frank Zappa