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Q: PowerMac G5 won't start; Power on light blinks.

Hi, everyone.

My PowerMac G5 dual processor stopped working yesterday. It had been behaving unusually lately with frequent freezes that required it to be turned off and them restarted. I have removed both internal drives and them are both working fine. I also blew some of the dust inside built-up around the electronic boards and the internal fans. In addition I also pressed the reset button to see if it would solve the problem. It still won't start.

As I press the power on button to start the computer I notice that a few seconds later the power on light starts to blink. Not the type of blink that alternates between light on and light off. Instead the light will vary its intensity between low and high. It blinks three times than an short interval follows. Then it blinks three times again followed by an interval. And it continues following this pattern.

Any ideas of what it might be ?

Thank you in advance.

MacBook Pro i7 17", 8 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Mac OS X (10.6.4), PowerMac G5 dual 2.0 GHz

Posted on Oct 20, 2010 11:57 PM

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Q: PowerMac G5 won't start; Power on light blinks.

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  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Nov 3, 2010 7:19 PM in response to apple_customer
    Level 10 (123,501 points)
    Nov 3, 2010 7:19 PM in response to apple_customer
    I understand completely, thanks for the report, & good luck.
  • by Kaprolat,

    Kaprolat Kaprolat Nov 27, 2010 9:52 AM in response to apple_customer
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 27, 2010 9:52 AM in response to apple_customer
    Hi!

    I have a PM G5 modell 11.2. The PM G5 froze so I had to power it off by pressing the powerbutton until it shut off. When restart I did not have any signal to the monitor and I found out that the LED 7 was blinking red. The machine went through apple support and the sad news was that the prosessor or mainboard (Logicboard) was broken..
  • by Dean W.,

    Dean W. Dean W. Nov 28, 2010 9:58 PM in response to apple_customer
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 28, 2010 9:58 PM in response to apple_customer
    Just a heads up, this happened to my Powermac G5 Saturday, and I've figured out how to fix it. One thing to test first is to see if pushing on the lower bank of RAM closest to the processor helps make it boot up. If it has, that's the area you need to fix.

    So yes the logic board is bad, but if you have a soldering iron, and about 4 hours to waste, it's potentially repairable.

    Here's what I did.
    1. Spend an hour on Youtube looking for videos for disassembling your G5 - you'll need to know how to remove the logic board, and take out the processors. This isn't a trivial process, and putting it back is just as annoying, but it's do-able and you've got nothing to loose.

    2. On the back of the Rev A logic board, you'll see a heat sink around the bank of memory closer to the edge of the board. The side that is furthest away from the edge is where you need to work (closest to the processor).

    3. Using the soldering iron, carefully try to heat all the little contacts you can see for bank 1 and 2 of the lower set closest to the processor. If it's a Rev A, you don't need to remove the heat sink. You just need enough heat to melt the solder and let it harden again.

    4. Re-assemble and test (remember to press the button on the motherboard to reset the motherboard settings if it gets beyond the 3 flashes and the Mac won't boot up).

    In my case, the dual 2Ghz G5 (rev A) is working again, and as an additional bonus, it is noticeably snappier.

    Good luck.
  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Nov 28, 2010 10:50 PM in response to Dean W.
    Level 10 (123,501 points)
    Nov 28, 2010 10:50 PM in response to Dean W.
    Great post/help Dean, thanks!
  • by Kaprolat,

    Kaprolat Kaprolat Dec 5, 2010 6:06 AM in response to Dean W.
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 5, 2010 6:06 AM in response to Dean W.
    Hi Dean!

    Is your PM G5 a modell 11.2 you repaired?
  • by jehvicbc,

    jehvicbc jehvicbc Jan 26, 2011 8:46 PM in response to Dean W.
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 26, 2011 8:46 PM in response to Dean W.
    This post was my motivation to take apart my Power Mac G5 1.8 Single and fix the blinking lights problem. The symptoms were the same as Dean W’s: pushing on the lower RAM bank closest to processor made it boot.

    I took my time taking the machine apart, watching various repair videos as needed. The ones available are for the dual G5 machine but were enough to get me down to the logic board. Once I found an overlooked screw beside the upper memory bank I was able to work the logic board out, barely clearing the power supply cables.

    The area that needed soldering was partially shielded by a heat sink. I didn’t remove it and was worried that neglecting these pins would mean a failed repair but it was not obvious how to remove the sink and all the accompanying hardware. There were about 300 tiny pins that needed solder re-flowing. I used a magnifying glass to see where to aim my pencil-tip soldering gun. Some pins didn't seem to react to the heat; others instantly had their solder melt. To this point took about 2.5 hours. I put down my tools and left the re-assembly for the next day.

    Before putting the machine back together, I went over the repair area checking for any missed pins or messy solder splatters. Re-assembly was easier than disassembly, once I remembered to put the power supply cover on before installing the rear fan unit. The order of assembly after that was fairly straight forward. The fiddliest part was re-attaching the cables along the top of the logic board. Another hour or so spent to complete the assembly.

    Once assembled, the first attempt at power-up did nothing. I re-plugged the small connector from the front panel onto the logic board and then it booted up. Success! Except no video. Power down, reseat the video card, and now I have a functioning Power Mac, from which I am posting this comment.
  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jan 26, 2011 10:54 PM in response to jehvicbc
    Level 10 (123,501 points)
    Jan 26, 2011 10:54 PM in response to jehvicbc
    Hi jehvicbc, and a warm welcome to the forums!

    Great work, fantastic post thanks!
  • by Dave13,

    Dave13 Dave13 Feb 1, 2011 10:07 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Feb 1, 2011 10:07 AM in response to BDAqua
    Hi Dean W. and jehvicbc -

    How are you're repairs holding up - still working OK?

    David
  • by upland13,

    upland13 upland13 Feb 8, 2011 3:05 PM in response to Dave13
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 8, 2011 3:05 PM in response to Dave13
    I have the same problem with my powermac g5, none of the ram slots work so i pressed on the BGA chip thats by the cpu and it booted. I knew it had to be soldering, so i bought a heat gun and heayed it and it worked for about 8hrs. Then the 3 blinking lights, and now I can't fix it. Did I melt something? Did my ram suddenly fail, has the pm decided to reject my ram?
  • by Matthew Knice,

    Matthew Knice Matthew Knice Feb 9, 2011 10:27 AM in response to Kaprolat
    Level 1 (70 points)
    Feb 9, 2011 10:27 AM in response to Kaprolat
    Hi again guys,

    Oh, well it looks like somebody else beat me to the point. But I was gonna say check out this thread, Ive not seen this method, but it appears to work well or so I think. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2739578&tstart=30

    Cheers.

    —Matthew—
  • by Kaprolat,

    Kaprolat Kaprolat Jun 27, 2011 1:45 AM in response to upland13
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 27, 2011 1:45 AM in response to upland13

    Hi Upland13!

     

    Which modell PM G5 do you have? I have an PM G5 modell 11.2 - 2.0 GHz CPU. This machine wont boot at all, no screen activity at all.

  • by woodsman124,

    woodsman124 woodsman124 Jun 27, 2011 6:28 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 27, 2011 6:28 AM in response to BDAqua

    This post got me back up and running.

     

    I was not using the hair dryer long enough. 4 - 5 minutes did it.

     

    I am back up and all memmory is good. I used a Conair 1875 watt.

     

    I tried it yesterday but only for about one minute. Thanks

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jun 27, 2011 10:58 AM in response to woodsman124
    Level 10 (123,501 points)
    Jun 27, 2011 10:58 AM in response to woodsman124

    Great to hear, thanks for the report!

  • by Kaprolat,

    Kaprolat Kaprolat Jun 28, 2011 4:08 AM in response to woodsman124
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 28, 2011 4:08 AM in response to woodsman124

    Hi woodsman124!

     

    Does this trick concern ALL models of PM G5 or a specific modell? Which modell PM G5 did you try out the hairdryer trick?

     

    Did you have to remove the logic board completely out of the case to use the hair dryer?

  • by woodsman124,

    woodsman124 woodsman124 Jun 28, 2011 5:48 AM in response to Kaprolat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 28, 2011 5:48 AM in response to Kaprolat

    I turn my G5 off at night. Last night I turned it off but left the surge protector on. When I tried to power up this morning I got the 3 blinking lights. I heated the board for a little over a minute and it fired up. I am going to leave it on from now on.

     

    Kaprolat - My G5 - I only have one so this worked for mine only.

     

    Hardware Overview:

     

      Model Name:    Power Mac G5

      Model Identifier:    PowerMac7,2

      Processor Name:    PowerPC 970  (2.2)

      Processor Speed:    1.8 GHz

      Number Of CPUs:    2

      L2 Cache (per CPU):    512 KB

      Memory:    5 GB

      Bus Speed:    900 MHz

      Boot ROM Version:    5.1.5f0

      Serial Number (system):   

      Hardware UUID:    00000000-0000-1000-8000-000A95B65D78

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