New to Mac

M

MacG5

Registered
Hello,

I have not used an apple in 19 years so I am very rusty navigating an apple. I just bought a G5 tower used off Craigslist. I got it today and the computer makes a noise now and then like a capacitor blowing. It seems to be intermittent and on a cycle and it runs fine otherwise. I googled some info and found out there is a hardware test on the OS disk but the OS is on a partition on the second hard drive.

I wish now I had got hard copies of the OS but this deal was too good to pass up and I don't know any mac people

Its a dual core Leopard 10.5.8 w/ 3 gb ram.

How can I run a stess test on this computer? That noise is so annoying. It sounds like the tower is going to blow up :)

I used to be a PC desktop tech so I am knowledgeable but when it comes to apples I'm in uncharted water so to speak. I need someone knowledgeable with macs to help.

Thanks so much in advance
 
Thanks for the post. As i mentioned in my first post I have not used a mac in 19 years so I don't know how to clean out the video card fan. Other than using compressed air I wouldn't know where to begin.

I've worked with PC for many years and can diagnose and repair a PC if it so much as hiccups, I need someone who is equally as knowledgable about macs because I am not. I know there is someone out there who knows what this noise is that again sounds like a capacitor blowing but there is nothing wrong

Best regards
Scott
 
Computer hardware is computer hardware: you would clean a Mac video card in the exact same fashion that you would clean a PC video card. Compressed air is a good place to start, followed by a static-free brush to remove any stubborn dust in the fan and/or heatsink.

Can you describe the sound that the computer is making? A "capacitor blowing out" is something I've never experienced myself -- while a computer of mine had a capacitor "blow out," it did not make a sound when it did so (or at least didn't make a sound while I was present -- you know, "when a capacitor blows out in the forest and no one is around to hear it...")
 
Its hard to describe... after listening to it for a few times it sounds like a bolt action rifle pushing the bolt forward and down but much more silent. That sounds weird typing it but its the nearest approximation I can make.

btw, I found out if a capacitor blew the computer would stop working.

thanks
 
I already ran the HD verify test in utilities and it says its ok so I do not think it is that. I will open it up and look inside.
 
Good call, ran it on the second hd says its good too... it does allow me to click on repair disk, repair disk permissions and verify disk permissions where the primary HD would not. I am guessing that is a safeguard anyway I'll open it up tomorrow off and turn it on and listen for the noise. It seems to happen when I turn the machine on (only did that once though) so I need to test that a few more times.

Thanks
 
You said that you don't have an OS X installer disk, so here's an alternate method to run a quick scan of your boot drive's directory:
You can do a directory scan of your system drive, by booting to single user mode (hold Command-S while booting until you see the text screen), then type fsck -fy and press enter. You'll see the hard drive test proceed. If that reports or fixes any errors, run the same command again, until no problems are found. Then, type reboot and press enter. Your Mac will then restart normally.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top