PowerMac G5 A1047

Jesse714

Jesse714

Tech In Training
I just picked up a PowerMac for a really good price, But, I'm having some trouble troubleshooting it, When i turn it on, i get no startup chime, nor display, if i take off the airdeflector, the fans spin rapidly, and also i get 2 blinks, which from what i have read means no ram/faulty ram, but when i first went to look at it, the light stayed constant, there just wasn't any display.. So I'm stuck between a PSU, and RAM. I'm going to try the ram first, but i'm thinking its the powersupply.
What do you guys think?
Is the powersupply still covered by apple?

Thanks
Jesse
 
Two blinks does not mean no ram/faulty ram - but means that the ram installed is not compatible. You may have a G5 that requires PC3200, and have one or more PC2700 chips installed. Any ram must be installed in identical size pairs, from the middle pair of slots out.
Does your G5 have a single processor, or dual? Exactly which model? - I can check by serial number, if you can provide that.
 
Power light status What it means
On and solid Computer is on and running
2 flashes, pause No memory (RAM) is installed
3 flashes, pause Incompatible memory (RAM) is installed
4 flashes, pause No good DIMM banks detected
5 or 6 flashes, pause Contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2652?viewlocale=en_US

Its the Dual 2.0, its not the watercooled. I can get the serial number if you still need it.
Thanks delta.
 
Jesse714 said:
I just picked up a PowerMac for a really good price, But, I'm having some trouble troubleshooting it, When i turn it on, i get no startup chime, nor display, if i take off the airdeflector, the fans spin rapidly, and also i get 2 blinks, which from what i have read means no ram/faulty ram, but when i first went to look at it, the light stayed constant, there just wasn't any display.. So I'm stuck between a PSU, and RAM. I'm going to try the ram first, but i'm thinking its the powersupply.
What do you guys think?
Is the powersupply still covered by apple?
Click to expand...

If you remove the air deflector the fans will ramp up because they are supposed to. There is a magnet on the bottom of the shield that works like a sleep magnet where if it removed the fans go high. Unfortunately the reason the machine was so cheap is because its getting to be fairly common in my experience troubleshooting these machines that a common symptom of when the main logic board has bit the dust you will get a flashing no memory installed LED. So you can try RAM and it might even give you some false hope that it is the RAM because it may start fine once or twice, but eventually its right back to the no memory flashing LED. I've even seen them on some occasions that will start up fine every time you reseat the RAM, but go to shut down and startup or restart and its right back to square one. So its not a power supply or anything else going on with the machine and its not covered by Apple. If you want to play with it you can try reseating the processors or swap configurations and it may start up from time to time, but most of the time its going to go right back to what its doing now.
 
Okay, Thanks for the help, ill try the ram i guess, it was only 10 bucks on ebay, so i guess i won't be out on anything, i paid 200 and it came with the 17" cinema display, keyboard and mouse, so i guess i could give it a go on ebay if all else fails.
do both processors interchange? I can't really see why it would matter.
 
Jesse714 said:
do both processors interchange? I can't really see why it would matter.
Click to expand...

A fairly common trouble shooting technique with these things is moving around the processors or swapping configurations which is useful in determining a bad processor or logic board. You can try reseating or trying the top processor in second bay and bottom processor in top bay and it will help in ruling out a faulty processor. But unfortunately with yours I am leaning towards a bad logic board. But still, reseating and swapping processor locations may help confirm a bad logic board.
 
I'll give it a shot, i've seen them on ebay go for more than 200 for "parts" so i don't have anything to lose.
Thanks a lot bro.
 
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