This discussion is locked
jcdlc72

Q: Quicksilver 2002 in constant sleeep?

Greetings!.
I bought a used Quicksilver 2002 about a year ago. It didn´t power up, and so we thought it was a dead PSU. Trying to check it, it was indeed bad, so we found a used PSU pull from another QS. Once we installed it, the failure remains, so we were told to replace the Logic Board. And so we did. Found a working pull at eBay and installed it.

Then the story comes: We were lacking two of the screw bases that tighten the CPU to the board and chassis. Still we managed to install the CPU on the new logic board. The failure now was: Once I press the power button, it lights itself and the fans spin up, but as soon as I lift my finger from it, the button light goes off, and the red LED on the logic board remains on until I keep the power button pressed and it shuts off.

At first we replaced the PRAM battery, and then it went alive. It was working sweetly for two weeks, handled very carefully since the CPU was not fully tightened because of the lack of these two screws.

Then we found the two remaining screw posts, and decided to shut the machine off and secure the CPU by putting the two posts. After we did this, the Quicksilver never got on again. Same failure. Press the button, it lights up, fans spin up, red Led goes on. Release the button, light goes off, red Led remains on until button is pressed on for a while and machine shuts off completely.

We thought it could be a bad PRAM battery, and so we replaced it by a new one. No changes. Pressed the PMU reset button, followed the procedure " with everything unplugged press the pmu on slow count to 5, then press the power button on slow count to 5, let sit overnight, reconnect and start", without any success.

I am very worried about this: "Do not press the PMU reset switch a second time because it could stop the PMU chip from responding.". What If I might have pressed the PMU reset button a second time, inadvertently? Is this leading to a permanent damage of the logic board? Can this be solved in any way? I have no way to perform any other kind of reset, I think, since I am not getting startup chime, nor USB keyboard/mouse sign of life.

I also tried swapping CPUs with a perfectly working GigaDesigns G4 1.66 upgrade I have working on another G4 (A Gigabit Ethernet) with the proper bus switch changed (G.E. is 100Mhz bus, qhile QS is 133Mhz bus), with no avail. Swapped RAM sticks for known working ones (pull from a working Flat-PAnel G4 iMac which uses 133Mhz Ram sticks too) and again, no success.

can... anyone... help me... please?

Quicksilver 2002 800Mhz, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Apr 3, 2007 2:15 PM

Close

Q: Quicksilver 2002 in constant sleeep?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Thomas Bryant,Helpful

    Thomas Bryant Thomas Bryant Apr 3, 2007 2:54 PM in response to jcdlc72
    Level 6 (13,865 points)
    Apr 3, 2007 2:54 PM in response to jcdlc72
    Hello! Try reading THIS article to see if this bad power switch affects you. Tom
  • by jcdlc72,

    jcdlc72 jcdlc72 Apr 4, 2007 4:49 AM in response to Thomas Bryant
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 4, 2007 4:49 AM in response to Thomas Bryant
    Greetings, and thanks for such a fast response!

    Before reading, a spoiler on the subject: It is SOLVED. Double-check the CPU screws, that´s it. Don´t believe me? Now for the explanation...

    Well, fortunately, seems like the article mentions PowerMacs built right when the Apple Pro Keyboard was just launched, so it makes me think it refers either to the post-Yikes, about Sawtooth/Gigabit Ethernet models era, and (hopefully) not the Quicksilver model. (And if that was the case, unplugging the front panel module and powering on from a power switch equipped usb keyboard (as mine is, coming from a B&W G3 Powermac) would do just fine.)


    I Kept investigating, since the failure seemed so strange, and found (with GREAT sucess!) the answer asking here and there. It ends up being that...


    ...If you follow the story, what we were trying to do was to tighten the CPU board which was attached to the motherboard initially by a single screw/post. It ends up being that, initially, the ONLY screw and post attached to the logic board/cpu board, was the one nearer the PRAM battery, this is, the farthest screw hole on the CPU board, the single one on the opposite extreme of the CPU connector.

    If you give a close watch to the point it attaches to on the logic board, it comes to attention the ring which holds the post for the screw, is slightly different from the other ones. In fact, it is metal-rimmed, and even has a couple transistors at the sides, WITH circuit tracks leading to the metal ringhole. On the other hand (or the other side, more precisely), on the CPU board there is a similar construction at this same point, by that meaning that once the metal post is installed between the Logic Board and the CPU board, the (metal) post itself serves as a conductor. There are 12v current passing through there, and the metal post acts as a conductor, as a cable so to speak, for passing 12v to the CPU board. Through that very ringhole.

    When we tried to reseat and adjust the CPU board, we swapped screw posts and had to resort something with a piece of plastic and a screw and a nut, so to fasten the cpu daughterboard, and inadvertently, when swapping, left that 12v circuit open, since no metal part was making contact between the logic board and the CPU board (We were so unaware of this, we made the spacer out of plastic, PRECISELY to avoid any damaging contact point!! hahahahaha!!! It turned out the lack of it was the one giving out nightmares!).

    The solution? Clean up very carefully the contact points on both the logic board and the CPU board, swap again the "fasteners" we made and the original screw posts (of which we only had two, that was the problem from scratch), and tighten the one at this contact point. Voilá!. The PowerMac started up, startup chime and all, and in within seconds the power button remained lit, QS working flawlessly. Not fried PMU, not fried anything. Just a screw post on vacation.

    So have this in mind. Very frequently we report failures and fail ourselves to detail small things as a single screw. It can make a BIG difference.

    Thanks a lot!