Dual G5 with erroneous date at start up _new Pram battery , any idea?

Question

Dual G5 with erroneous date at start up _new Pram battery , any idea?

This a G5 2.5 DP mid 2004 , identified as M9457LL/A or PowerMac 7,3.

This is a G5 Dual 2.5 ghz mid 2004 (M9457LL/A , PowerMac 7,3)

running OS 10.4.11 with 7 Gig RAM , I get this message at start up , 9 times

out of 10:

" your computer's clock is set to a date before march 24th 2001 this may

cause some applications to behave erratically."

then the fans go full blast for a while . once in a while it won't start up at all,

just gray screen , then if I leave it off the power strip for a while , it'll start up again

with the same behavior.

I have replaced the PRAM battery , reset said Pram , reset PSU ...tested RAM..

with no results,

any ideas if this is a hardware issue?

besides the date issue at start up and the fans acting up it still runs well and is a good addition

to my Mac pro to recall old projects and use some plug ins , but I'm afraid this might

be symptomatic of something failing somewhere , any suggestions would be great.

Thanks.

JB

Power Mac G5 (June 2004), Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 11, 2012 4:08 PM

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Answer 1

Jacumba

Level 4

2,349 points

Dec 11, 2012 6:07 PM in response to Jean-Baptiste Bocle

If the computer clock reverts back in time that should indicate a pram battery. Or that could happen with a good pram battery, if the firmware/bios were updated in a old computer, which then might be not able to be reversed. And should have never been updated anyway unless the computer was new and a update was needed then.

It's unlikely that a 2004 G4, or most computer's from that era, would support 7 Ghz of ram.

You could take a look at the fans for a severe dust build up, but maybe a hardware failure. Or try putting the original ram back in the computer. If the ram was changed, and it has with this G4, then the firmware memory may not be reading hardware at startup.

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Answer 2

Dec 11, 2012 7:37 PM in response to Jacumba

Thanks , I will look at all this.... btw it's a G5 (not a G4 as you say in your answer) and

the specs clearly say it supports 8 Gig of RAM , (I did a RAM test also) ,

but I will try what you suggested with running it with the original RAM only ,

This machine ran flawlessly for years with the same RAM installed in it now .

I checked for dust bild up as well , all fine there...the firmware updates , if any , as far I remember where

the ones strictly recommended by Apple for this particular Power Mac model.

thanks again.

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Answer 3

Jacumba

Level 4

2,349 points

Dec 11, 2012 8:16 PM in response to Jean-Baptiste Bocle

Sorry you are correct I would have never suspected a computer of that era would take 8 Ghz of ram so didn't even bother to consider it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2248

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Answer 4

Dec 16, 2012 3:17 PM in response to Jacumba

I tried with only the factory RAM installed , it would not start , chime would ring but then black screen and

nothing happening , it restarted yesterday after the power cord being unplugged over night , I then reset the

NVRAM booting up in safe mode (zapping the PRAM would not work) , started up after that and it booted up

fine without the erroneous date message , I repaired disk permissions and tried a restart and then again nothing happened and it would not start anymore until today after another night with the power cord unplugged ,at this point I don't know what to make of this , when it starts , no more wrong date message but the fans go

kind of loud when I open an application or do something on the computer...

At this point I don't know what to make of all this.. any suggestions?

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Answer 5

Dec 16, 2012 3:28 PM in response to Jean-Baptiste Bocle

Jean-Baptiste, have you tried starting your system in Safe mode? This disables all startup items and loading of non-esssential kernel extensions. (Wondering if you have a corrupt kernel extension that's messing up the boot process.) For Safe mode: (1) Shut down then power up the computer (don't reboot), (2) after the startup tone, hold down Shift key, then (3) release Shift when the gray Apple logo and spinning wheel appear.

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Answer 6

Dec 17, 2012 10:08 AM in response to Brewster Magneto

Thanks Brewster ,

I was able to start in safe mode this morning but only once , (the first time after I plugged in the power cord

after the overnight " plugged off "..looks like I only get one start per day...) , after shutting down I started again and get the same old " chime then nothing.." , it does not even respond to keyboard commands... tried several times to no avail..

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Answer 7

Jacumba

Level 4

2,349 points

Dec 18, 2012 2:06 PM in response to Jean-Baptiste Bocle

I'm not sure what to make of it either exactly but will offer some suggestions.

Where the computer is starting but getting only a black screen I first thought pulling the ram. That it may be corrupted, the wrong ram, or a bad slot. Pulling the ram in that situation has and does work, in your case it didn't.

When a cpu fan doesn't run at all, it's a clear indication the fan itself, or power supply. But fans running to fast can also indicate a bad fan.

I don't believe it's a power supply, bad fan, hard drive, or battery. I seem to think a aging G5 computer having logic board failure? There appears to be alot of these same post with the same issues with these old G5's.

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Answer 8

Jacumba

Level 4

2,349 points

Dec 18, 2012 2:38 PM in response to Jacumba

Also don't give up on this computer too soon. Try using the cuda button and using the ram in different slots without not having all of them in place with start ups.

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Answer 9

Dec 19, 2012 6:50 AM in response to Jacumba

Also remember to keep the RAM in matched pairs. I seem to recall that the G5s were really picky on this matter.

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