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PowerMac G5 boot problems?

I have PM G5 DP 2.0Ghz computer which has difficulties booting up. However, when it does it works without problems.

I have tested it with Apple's hardware test which says everything is okay, I have stressed the system with XBench and Geekbench which both complete without problems. Going to sleep and waking from it also work.

The computer always powers up, makes the chime and in most cases it does show the Apple logo but hang there. It seems that if I leave the machine with power cord unplugged it will usually start if not with the first try then the second and again working without problems.

The machine had 6 gigabytes of ram but when I discovered the problem I removed some and now there is only 1gb. Original graphics card has been changed to ATI 9800XT.

Ideas?

PowerMac G5 DP 2.0Ghz (June 2004), Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jan 30, 2010 2:51 PM

Reply
32 replies

Jan 31, 2010 12:06 AM in response to DaddyPaycheck

No, I'm using Airport. I just started the machine and again same thing happened. Power cable was unplugged for couple hours, at first try booting failed but the second was succesful and I'm now typing by using the machine.

Could it be that the PRAM-battery has depleted? I am also considering buying a cheap PC card, probably GeForce 5200, and flashing it to Mac to test if it is something to do with this ATI-card. Altough there has not been any graphic problems.

And sorry about my english if there is errors, not my native language 🙂

Jan 31, 2010 9:01 AM in response to The hatter

This machine uses LS12450 type batteries (mine is manufactured by Saft), not those more common ones in PC motherboards. Too bad since I have plenty of those CR2032 type lying around.

I'mo not sure about the age of the drive, I cannot check the date (if it is printed on the drive) right now but I will check later. However there has not been any signs of a bad drive.

I dont use disk warrior or superduper.

I have booted to Open Firmware, when I give commands "reset-nvram" and "set-defaults" both of them work but "reset-all" causes the OF to hang, can't type anything after that. Also CMD + OPT + P + R seems not to do anything.

Jan 31, 2010 9:28 AM in response to thewk

If you want a working system, then don't rely just on Apple First Aid. Disk Warrior finds and fixes errors DU doesn't see or look for or repair.

And can't say enough good about it, as will others (it is next to impossible to find anyone in 10 yrs using it that doesn't find it solved problems and worth its weight in gold).

Same for cloning and using CCC or SuperDuper.

Based on cold boot and zap PRAM not working, and hang in OF, yes, something is very much wrong.... I start any hardware troubleshooting with that.

Feb 1, 2010 1:11 AM in response to BDAqua

In this case I don't however suspesct that hard drive would be the reason. Yesterday the computer crashes after working succesfully about couple hours and then it begin frozing while still booting into OS X. After that it didn't boot at all so I again left it with power cord unplugged for night. Now I just started the machine and second try got me to OS X.

I'm starting to believe that this is about overheating or perhaps combined problems with the PRAM and overheating. The G5 processors in this machine run at 40C most of the time and that shoudn't be too much. The memory controller runs around 70C which I think it's hot for a chip like that, but apparently normali with these machines from what I have Googled.

I probably should wait for my new battery to arrive and see if it helps, but I'm starting to believe that it is something to do with overheating, it would be good thing to check power supply, probably it is overheating and when it does it does the right thing, refuses to run. I have newer disassembled PowerMac so I dont know if I can reapply thermal paste or probably attempt to improve cooling in any way, I do have lots of PC parts, coolers and stuff, around so I could try make something.

Message was edited by: thewk

Feb 1, 2010 1:41 AM in response to thewk

Mac just crashed with kernel panic. If CPU A is CPU1 then it is weird if it is failing since it is the one that runs cooler. Machine started with first try after I had to power it down after KP.

Here is the logfile:

Mon Feb 1 11:34:11 2010


Unresolved kernel trap(cpu 1): 0x600 - Alignment DAR=0x000000000000B97F PC=0x00000000000A3D00
Latest crash info for cpu 1:
Exception state (sv=0x5C529500)
PC=0x000A3D00; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0x0000B97F; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x000A4538; R1=0x44313C70; XCP=0x00000018 (0x600 - Alignment)
Backtrace:
0x013E63E8 0x0001F868 0x0001BC80 0x0001C62C 0x00022674 0x0002391C
0x000ABEAC 0x04FB4D00
backtrace terminated - frame not mapped or invalid: 0xBFFFE9E0

Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x5C529500)
previously dumped as "Latest" state. skipping...
Exception state (sv=0x5CBC3280)
PC=0x9000AF48; MSR=0x0200F030; DAR=0x1B80A020; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x9000AE9C; R1=0xBFFFE9E0; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.0: Wed Oct 10 18:26:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.24.17~1/RELEASE_PPC
panic(cpu 1 caller 0xFFFF0006): 0x600 - Alignment
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 1:
Backtrace:
0x000954F8 0x00095A10 0x00026898 0x000A8204 0x000ABB80
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x5C529500)
PC=0x000A3D00; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0x0000B97F; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x000A4538; R1=0x44313C70; XCP=0x00000018 (0x600 - Alignment)
Backtrace:
0x013E63E8 0x0001F868 0x0001BC80 0x0001C62C 0x00022674 0x0002391C
0x000ABEAC 0x04FB4D00
backtrace terminated - frame not mapped or invalid: 0xBFFFE9E0

Exception state (sv=0x5CBC3280)
PC=0x9000AF48; MSR=0x0200F030; DAR=0x1B80A020; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x9000AE9C; R1=0xBFFFE9E0; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.0: Wed Oct 10 18:26:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.24.17~1/RELEASE_PPC

Message was edited by: thewk

Feb 1, 2010 2:37 AM in response to DaddyPaycheck

I'm not the first owner of this machine and apparently the battery has newer been changed, on the battery it reads "04.183" and if that 04 is manufacturing year it is quite old.

I haven't tried Disk Warrior, the machine seems to crash also when attempting to install Leopard. The machine seems to have problems starting up again so I left it to cool down, but with power cord plugged this time.

Feb 1, 2010 2:41 AM in response to thewk

In order to troubleshoot properly you kinda need to narrow things down and try to eliminate the obvious. If something like an old battery is staring at you it is best to get that possibility out of the way.

The next thing down the list is to use Disk Warrior to check your drive(s). If you don't want to buy DW, buy a new hard drive and put it in and see what that does for you.

PowerMac G5 boot problems?

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