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kallisti

Q: Quad G5 Liquid Cooling Pump Chugging, nasty thermal disparity between cpu's

QuadG5 8.5gig ram Leopard 10.5.6: fully updated

Audible occasional chugging from liquid cooling pumps

current temperatures with 2 browsers open:

cpu A core 1: 47c
cpu A core 2: 46c
cpu B core 1: 74c
cpu B core 2: 72c

• Is regularly cleaned with compressed air
• Removed pump cowling to look for leaks - no visible leaks or evidence thereof
• Metal liquid cooling lines of bottom liquid pump are almost too hot to touch
• Metal liquid cooling lines of top liquid pump are almost cool to the touch
• cpu B remains at least 20 degrees hotter than cpu A at all times....cpu B has been hotter since purchased new.
• Internal fan noise is high when only running a single web-browser
• liquid pumps remain pinned at 3600rpm until all cpu-intensive applications are quit
• Exhaustive Hardware Test returns no faults after 3 loops
• drive diagnostics are clean
• booting from alternate OS's yeilds no difference for symptoms
• reset nvram, pram etc, set defaults via Open Firmware commands
• depressed the SMU Reset button once
• pulled the power cable for 10 seconds
• increased pump and fan noise is clearly a reaction to cpu load/temperature

Is there a repair extension on this?

if I have to buy a new liquid cooling unit, where can I buy one from?
How much do they cost?

Quad G5, Mac OS X (10.5.2), 8.5gig, 2.2 TB incl raptor raid-zero boot volume

Posted on Mar 14, 2009 1:11 PM

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Q: Quad G5 Liquid Cooling Pump Chugging, nasty thermal disparity between cpu's

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  • by Nadav,

    Nadav Nadav Apr 14, 2009 5:27 PM in response to kallisti
    Level 3 (565 points)
    Apr 14, 2009 5:27 PM in response to kallisti
    Hi. Thank you for that link. However, I did read somewhere that the G5 macs in late 2005, and mine is included in that category since its a Quad G5, have a much significantly improved coolant system. As I said, I plan to use the machine then in a month trade it up for the mac pro.
  • by Nadav,

    Nadav Nadav Apr 14, 2009 11:05 PM in response to Thomas Bryant
    Level 3 (565 points)
    Apr 14, 2009 11:05 PM in response to Thomas Bryant
    Thomas,

    Can you do me a favor. Can you look at your G5 Quads cooling system and tell me if its a panasonic one or delphi one? According to everymac.com, the G5 Quads have the improved and better liquid cooling system, where as the earlier models of the G5 PCI-X models did not.

    Thanks.
    Nadav
  • by Nadav,

    Nadav Nadav Apr 14, 2009 11:08 PM in response to Mechanic man
    Level 3 (565 points)
    Apr 14, 2009 11:08 PM in response to Mechanic man
    Hi, I don't mean to interrupt, but according to everymac.com, the G5 Quads use a more significant better LCS which is not present on the dual 2.7 PCI-X model and the other liquid cooling G5 2.5 Dual PCI-X model.

    It seems that the panasonic one is in place on the late 2005 G5s. I might be wrong though.
  • by Nadav,

    Nadav Nadav Apr 14, 2009 11:12 PM in response to kallisti
    Level 3 (565 points)
    Apr 14, 2009 11:12 PM in response to kallisti
    I don't think you have delphi.. According to everymac.com, the G5 Quads use a much better LCS. The problems of leakage were on the dual 2.7 PCI-X model, and the dual 2.5 PCI-X model which is the earlier 2005.

    The Quad core G5s used a much better system. Again, I might be wrong. I am not sure.
  • by kallisti,

    kallisti kallisti Apr 15, 2009 8:37 AM in response to Nadav
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 15, 2009 8:37 AM in response to Nadav
    could you please post something relevant and coherent to the thread

    thanks
  • by Macdaddi76,

    Macdaddi76 Macdaddi76 Apr 23, 2009 5:42 PM in response to andymac
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 23, 2009 5:42 PM in response to andymac
    Hi, How did you power the pump when testing?
  • by andymac,

    andymac andymac Apr 27, 2009 1:38 AM in response to Macdaddi76
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Apr 27, 2009 1:38 AM in response to Macdaddi76
    Hi Macdaddi,

    Sorry for the delay in replying - been away for a bit. I tested the pump/cooling system using an old PC with a spare molex connection off it's PSU. This worked fine, and the coolant was circulating ok through the Mac's radiator & CPU blocks. In order to get the pump working in the PowerMac itself I was going to remove the molex & replace it with the connector from the original Mac pump. However this is the point where I found that the Mac's PSU wasn't working.

    All in all a bit disappointing. I don't have any more time to work on this, so have simply broken the Mac for spares.

    Cheers,
    Andy
  • by Paco Maeder,

    Paco Maeder Paco Maeder May 8, 2009 3:25 AM in response to andymac
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2009 3:25 AM in response to andymac
    Maybe there are still people having doubts concerning the connectors of both Laing and Swiftech pumps?
    I just got a personal mail from Mr. Laing.
    The pins of the 4 wire pump are connected as follows:
    1. +12V (V control)
    2. Tach output
    4. V mot (variable)
    6. ground
    That are exactly the pins of the Apple connector.
    I just changed the Delphi/Laing Pump for a swiftech MCP350 (which is produced by Laing and so is identical). The swiftech pump originally comes with 3 wires, black (ground), yellow (+12V) and blue (tach output). When you open the motor housing you'll find a wire bridge between two pins, Take it away and connect the wire from pin 1 instead. Looking on the motor PCB the pins are 6-4-2-1 reading from left to right. Take in mind, that you have to connect both pins 4 and 1 to 12V when testing with an external power supply (or when filling the system).
    Not garanteed 100%, my G5 is not tested yet
  • by kallisti,

    kallisti kallisti May 8, 2009 8:52 AM in response to Paco Maeder
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2009 8:52 AM in response to Paco Maeder
    sweet!

    let us know when you test it
  • by Macdaddi76,

    Macdaddi76 Macdaddi76 May 8, 2009 9:33 AM in response to Paco Maeder
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2009 9:33 AM in response to Paco Maeder
    Paco, any update on your rig? Keep up the great documentation of your workflow. I'm sure fixing this problem is very important to a lot of us G5 users who don't want to spend the money on getting a whole new computer.
    As the years add on, It's seems more likely that you will have to burn down your house to show apple that you had a coolant leak before they will replace it.
  • by Remoteneeded,

    Remoteneeded Remoteneeded May 30, 2009 4:45 AM in response to kallisti
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 30, 2009 4:45 AM in response to kallisti
    I worked out some time ago that the pump on my G5 had failed, but I couldn't find a replacement. Fortunately I stumbled across this thread, bought a new pump, some bright pink liquid, tubing and some thermal grease, and a couple of hours work later I now have a happy G5! Later today I'll sort out some pictures and give a run-down of the issues I had when repairing it, (like cracking the radiator...).

    Thanks to all that have posted before I now have a properly working Mac again.
  • by Jim Newhouser1,

    Jim Newhouser1 Jim Newhouser1 May 30, 2009 2:22 PM in response to kallisti
    Level 1 (11 points)
    May 30, 2009 2:22 PM in response to kallisti
    Nice thread. Sorry to interrupt...
    I have a G5 2.5 dual that has CPU A 20C above normal at idle (70C) and gets as hot as 105C when running. Is it reasonable to say this is a good indication of a cooling system problem as opposed to a failing CPU or power supply?

    This leads to... I should be taking apart and inspecting the cooling system. Is there anything else simple to test and rule out before going there?

    Thanks for all the info here.

    Message was edited by: Jim Newhouser1
  • by Remoteneeded,

    Remoteneeded Remoteneeded May 31, 2009 3:17 AM in response to Jim Newhouser1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 31, 2009 3:17 AM in response to Jim Newhouser1
    Jim
    You've described exactly what I was seeing on my dual 2.5. Another problem I had was that the G5 wouldn't boot unless I removed the plastic air-guide. It turned out that the G5 was detecting that the pump was not turning, and so wouldn't boot to prevent damage.

    One way for you to tell what's going on is to open it all up, remove the 'G5' cover and feel the various pipes in the cooler unit. They should all be pretty much the same temperature, if not then you've got a pump problem, low coolant through a leak, or a blockage.
  • by Samsara,

    Samsara Samsara May 31, 2009 7:43 AM in response to kallisti
    Level 4 (1,320 points)
    May 31, 2009 7:43 AM in response to kallisti
    Hi Kallisti,

    Sorry for the late reply to this thread. For everyone having problems here, this has been a fruitful number to know, Apple Customer Relations at 1-800-767-2775. Explain your problems to them in a nice and respectful way, be persistent, and Apple may come through for you.

    Also, while there is no repair extension on the cooling system, there is one for certain Power Supplies.
    http://www.apple.com/support/powermac/powersupply/repairextension/

    My thought is that if one has a Power Supply within the numbers listed and brought their Mac in to have it replaced, that the Apple Techs wouldn't let it leave with the other problems in place. Of course they'd probably alert you to the other problems and want a lot of cash to fix it, but that's where the number above comes in.

    Regardless, that number is the key... Apple is aware of the problems with the G5s on a range of issues, but they are not going to open a Pandoras Box. They will however, if you're fortunate, deal with people and their problems on an individual basis.

    I just moved to a Mac Pro recently but prior to that my Quad was the best Mac I ever had (still have). I wish you guys the best of luck.
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