I want to run hardware test on my Power Mac G5 but it isn't working.

What I tried:

I have the original install disc 1 which came with the machine in the optical drive (which is the usual one). I printed the hardware test guide which is on the disc, disconnected everything but mouse, keyboard and monitor. I tried to boot, pressing the Alt/Option key, but the "system picker" or boot menu won't show up. What happens is what somebody described as for "old world" macs: my system boots with no finder window open and without the white screen and apple logo (which usually shows up during startup).

I also tried something I found in a user manual pdf for Power Mac G5 on the apple archives: Booting and press-holding C (btw it's strange that this manual says something different than the manual on the original disc). What happens here is that my machine is booting from the original disc but it boots in Installation mode. I looked at every drop-down-menu I could find there for several times but there is definitely no hardware test, since this is thought to install Mac OS 10.4.

I also tried the Intel-way and holding D during boot, but no surprise, it only booted the first drive (like it should on a pre-Intel).

But something about this all is very strange. Yesterday night I tried all these steps above and when I was close to fall asleep in front of my monitor it suddenly worked and I made it finally into the hardware test. If I remember correctly, I was holding down the C key, but as I said a was pretty dizzy and can be mistaken. I ran hardware test once enhanced and it stopped during ram, giving me an error code I wrote down. But since I made it into the test and was so tired, I thought "lets continue tomorrow" which was my epic fail for this year, I guess. Today I repeated every step, every way I tried but it just doesn't work; and I read sooo many forums and Q&A's.

By the way here is my error code which appeared after 49 minutes (to proof I didn't dream this):

"2MEM/1/4: DIMM3/J14"

Why do I want to do this?

Around the 1st of September this year my Power Mac G5 didn't boot anymore (the fan speeding issue). After reading a little online I came to the point that its either my Ram memory or its my graphics card or its Pram or NVram. I resetted Pram and NVram, I also replaced battery and then it booted again for one day but on the following day it didn't. I repeated every step but the battery replacement since it was a brand new one. It can only be Ram memory or my Graphics card (which is the standard one for this machine).

Since then my Power Mac was rarely in use, only two or three times in Firewire Target Mode to access some of the data. Yesterday I wanted to do this again; booting it in FT mode but I must have connected my keyboard too late during booting and my machine surprisingly booted just fine! I was so stoked about this! Then I wanted to find out why it didn't work for a while and started several steps. Ran maintanance scripts, repaired the system volume, checked for enough free space, checked my Ram and then I stumbled on the interwebs over the hardware test which is delivered on the original install disc 1 and I never heard about this before (strange enough). What followed is written above.

What do I have?

I have this:

Sorry for the German but I think you still get it. The PPC was delivered with 10.4 and I bought it used from a friend with his original Update disc to 10.5 and I updated to the max, 10.5.8. I have 2x 1TB drive (similar ones) together as a Raid0 and three partitions on it. (I know now that it doesnt make that much of a sense).

Yeah so I really want to find out why my machine didn't work for three months but since it is so old and I'm a student, it doesn't make any sense to me to go to an Apple store or similar to have it expensively serviced since there is no guarantee that these guys really help you (heard some stories about the local stores here).

Is there a way to re-access the hardware test and run it to the end?

As you might have noticed, I'm pretty desperate. I would soooooooo appreciate it!!

Best,

Erik