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Little help?!

I have just got an old 2004 G5 and thrown a brand new hard drive in it. When i tried to install leopard (which i'm told would be the best operating system to use) it comes up with a blank blue screen! Help?!

Posted on May 29, 2012 4:17 AM

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15 replies

May 29, 2012 5:43 AM in response to Jwatson123

If you gave Apple the serial # of the computer, they would have sent the install DVD (or CD) for whatever OS the Mac originally shipped with in 2004. Probably Panther 10.3. But it should be the right disc.


Why do you think it's Leopard? Leopard wasn't around in 2004. Did you order Leopard from them? If you did -- and I'm not sure it's even available from Apple Phone Sales any longer -- it wouldn't have been the grey, machine specific disc.


You may need to go back and check the connections to the drive. Or it might be a failed SATA controller to the drive. It might not have been working when they disposed of it. Any way to find out?

May 29, 2012 11:17 AM in response to Jwatson123

Try holding down the option key then power on. This brings up the startup manager. Click on your dvd. Click on right arrow key.


At least, this will give an indication that you machine is alive.



For more information

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106178


Sometimes if volume doesn't boot in Startup Manager (what you get when you hold down the Option key at startup), you need to reset the Mac's PRAM, NVRAM, and Open Firmware. Shut down the Mac, then power it up, and before the screen lights up, quickly hold down the Command, Option, P, and R keys, until the Mac has chimed twice more after the powerup chime. Then, before the screen lights up, hold down Command-Option-O-F until the Open Firmware screen appears. Then enter these lines, pressing Return after each one:


reset-nvram

set-defaults

reset-all


"The reset-all command should restart your Mac. If so, you have successfully reset the Open Firmware settings."

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1812?viewlocale=en_US

May 30, 2012 12:37 AM in response to Jwatson123

It should turn off if you hold the power button pressed for couple seconds. It works that way on most computer devices regardless if there is software installed or not.


Folks here did already mention resetting the PRAM but you could try to reset power management, to do that power off the machine and then press power button to turn on the machine but don't let go, keep the button pressed until the sleep led blink and you hear loud beep.


If you really have first generation iMac G5 (made in 2004) these machines are notorius of their capacitors going bad so whenever there is stange problem you should check the caps. Bad capacitors can cause all kinds of issues ranging from slight instability to completedly dead machine.


You could also try different memory stick combinations if possible.

Little help?!

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