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My Power Mac G5 is freezing up. A few days ago my G5 started freezing up, the cursor is unresponsive and none of the keys have any use. I have to press the power button to shut down and then restart. Sometimes on the restart, instead of the Apple logo I g

A few days ago my G5 started to freeze up while in use. It doesn't matter if in Safari, iTunes, Pages, etc. The cursor will not respond nor does any keystroke, force quit, escape, etc. I have to hold the power button down to shut the computer down. Then, try to restart. Sometimes restart will work and the computer will work for a while and then freeze again. Other times on restart, instead of the Apple logo at start up, I get a Zero with a line thru it, have to power off and restart again. When it does restart, the "spinning gear" takes a lot longer than normal to spin up and take me to the login screen. Have been told it may be my hard drive getting ready to fail. Have looked at disk utilities, S.M.A.R.T looks fine, "verified" and have verified disk, and repaired permissions. In case it is the hard drive, I bought external hard drive and hooked it up to Time Machine. The backing up to a long time, overnight, about 10 hours because it kept freexing up and I would have to shut down and try restarting again. Finally got everything backed up.

Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated!!! Could it be my hard drive is dying? Is the the normal chain of events or is it something else???

Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 Ghz, 8GB SDRAM, ATI Radeon X850 XT, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Apple 23" HD Cinema Display

Posted on May 18, 2011 4:58 AM

35 replies

May 30, 2011 11:50 AM in response to old comm guy

Reseat module?? Way above my pay grade. Not sure I could pull that one off. Sounds complicated, all have ever done is swap graphics card and hard drives.

Jun 8, 2011 7:38 PM in response to BDAqua

Took the machine to an Apple Service Repair center. They kept it for a week. They said CPU is gone. Could replace for $1200+, so suggest buying a new machine. Hardware Test, from Marcel Bresink, does not even show CPU B, CPU A has temp of -35C, so should have ice cubes when I open up.

Brought home, has froze once using Safari, have to force quit Mail, power button to shut off, won't sleep. Funny thing, when I restart, it doesn't ask for "password".. just comes up to the Desktop.

Can still use Pages, listen to iTunes, and play DVD's for 45+ minutes... never freezes. Don't understand that.

So, is my CPU really gone?? Old Comma guy suggested reseating CPU (not sure I can pull that off)

Looking at the new iMacs. Great machine, new and everything. BUT,,, 1) Hate to pay the price- right now 2) hate to give up on my G5... great machine. But, need a computer that works!

Any suggestions????

BDAqua

Level 10

239,339 points

Jun 8, 2011 11:25 PM in response to skyflynbeachbum

Sadly it would require a lot of work on your part that may not work in the end, I'm feeling the lackluster economy here myself, still in the end, after spend many grand on reparing/updating G3s & G4s, a new Mini or iMac even, seems like a better investment

Jun 9, 2011 2:48 PM in response to BDAqua

THANKS for ALL your help!!! The G5 is 5 years old and I guess it can't last forever!! Will have to start looking in to getting a new Mac. I do appreciate all the help and I have learned a lot in the process!! At least I know it's not my hard drive, so, hopefully, can just switch everything over to a new machine!!

On the bright side.... I'll be getting a new MAC!!

THANKS AGAIN!!!!!!!

BDAqua

Level 10

239,339 points

Jun 9, 2011 3:35 PM in response to skyflynbeachbum

You're welcome, & good lock! 🙂

The Hard Drives should be usable either in a Mac Pro, or in an external case for any other Mac.

My Power Mac G5 is freezing up. A few days ago my G5 started freezing up, the cursor is unresponsive and none of the keys have any use. I have to press the power button to shut down and then restart. Sometimes on the restart, instead of the Apple logo I g