Please help me!! My Power Mac G5 is stuck at the grey apple logo screen and nothing is working!

Question

Please help me!! My Power Mac G5 is stuck at the grey apple logo screen and nothing is working!

My computer froze a few weeks ago and I got a grey screen that told me I needed to restart the computer. When I restarted, the computer froze on the grey screen with the apple logo. No pin wheel. Nothing. Eventually the fan begins running at warp speed. I've scoured this discussion board for a solution and I've read every possible thing I can find on the Internet regarding this issue. Nothing is helping. I've tried reseating memory, resetting PRAM, I replaced the PRAM battery, all the standard stuff on the message boards. I can't run a disk, i cant boot from a disk holding down c, but I can hold down the option key to open the hardware test, I've done the extended and short test and passed both.

When I hold the shift+command+v it tells me-

com.apple.driver.appleintelcpupowermanagement isn't a valid Mach-o (magic is cefaedfe)

Error mapping module file com.apple.driver.appleintelcpupowermanagement

Can't map com.apple.driver.appleintelcpupowermanagement in preparation for loading

Can't determine dependencies " "

Can't alloc class " " blah blah blah

I'm pretty sure this is some sort of kernel panic. This computer has been pretty much trouble free in the 8 years I've owned it. I had recently upgraded iLife to iLife 07 before the trouble happened.

I've also been able to get it to boot once or twice since then. I get a message that says" the computer was shut down blah blah do you want to send a report to apple?" I'm able to do some basic stuff like back up some pictures onto my external hard drive and then it will freeze again and the fan will come on. While I had access to the desktop I checked the disk repair permissions and they were all messed up. I tried repairing permissions but I don't think it worked. Also the time and date was messed up which made me think it was a battery thing. Lately I haven't been able to boot at all past the apple screen. I don't have much money but I have to get this fixed!

Some specs--

Power mac g5

CPU @1702037.8 ghz

Boot rom version 5.2.4f1

Memory 8 gb, 400mhz

Pmu/fcu versions:127/6.0.1 f0

Running OSX 10.5.6

Just to be clear this is the power pc from around early 2005, not the intel based g5, not the water cooled one, and not a Mac Pro!

Please help me!!

Power mac g5-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Mar 22, 2013 9:00 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

238,991 points

Mar 22, 2013 10:51 PM in response to Bigmacattack1

HI, have you blown the dust out lately?

Does it boot better/further if allowed to cool?

If you're sure the RAM is good, try the Hair Dryer trick...

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13240047#13240047

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3061091?answerId=15223603022#15223603022#15223603

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2620983?answerId=15499912022#15499912022#15499912

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3175959?answerId=15613068022#15613068022#15613068

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3270112

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3287993?answerId=16053892022#16053892022#16053892

No power light at all...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3692775?tstart=0

It can show on any G5, and even many other computers & electronic devices of the period.

http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/pmg5.html

http://lowendmac.com/ppc/power-macintosh-g5.html

And see this last one in particular...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3507385?answerId=16781690022#16781690022

Heat gun better...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3916312?tstart=0

If we don't get more help or answers here, feel free to join my site & ask...

http://x704.net/bbs

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Answer 2

Mar 22, 2013 11:07 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for the prompt response! I've tried the hair dryer trick once from a post I saw you answer, but I'm not sure i did it right. I'm going to try it again first thing in the morning. The inside of the computer is extremely dusty and dirty and I need to clean it, I'm just afraid of bumping something or disconnecting something important.

I haven't noticed a difference if the computer is cool or hot but if I let it sit for about a week or so without turning it on, I seem to get one decent boot out of it where I can access the desktop. I'm going to read all the links you posted and get back to you once I've tried what you've suggested. Thanks again! I've seen you help a lot of people on here so I've got hope you can help me figure this out!!

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

238,991 points

Mar 23, 2013 12:47 AM in response to Bigmacattack1

I certainly hope we can help here, from the sounds of it though, besides the dust must go for sure, it may be time to replace the thermal paste tween the CPU(s) & heatsinks... not all that easy for many.

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Answer 4

Mar 23, 2013 4:28 AM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua wrote:

I certainly hope we can help here, from the sounds of it though, besides the dust must go for sure, it may be time to replace the thermal paste tween the CPU(s) & heatsinks... not all that easy for many.

It may also be intermittent solder joints on an IC but I would try everything else before concluding that I have to play with either of these.

A powerful and simple thing to try is a Safe Boot.

Try a PMU reset.

Make sure that everything is backed up to an external disk.

Will it boot from an installer DVD - if so try reinstalling the OS.

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Answer 5

Mar 23, 2013 2:23 PM in response to Neville Hillyer

Hi Neville, thanks for your suggestions. I can't get the computer to boot in safe boot mode. I tried a pmu reset but no luck. The computer won't boot from disks or from the screen where you hold down option while its booting....

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Answer 6

Mar 23, 2013 2:24 PM in response to BDAqua

BD, I've read through the links you sent a couple times but not sure exactly how to do the hair dryer trick. I must've missed something. Am I pointing it close to the memory sticks for about four minutes? Will this damage anything getting that hot?

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Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

238,991 points

Mar 23, 2013 2:43 PM in response to Bigmacattack1

Hair dryers vary in the amout of heat, what usually works is heating it so the logic board gets 400-450°F.

Damage is always possible, but I haven't seen that yet.

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Answer 8

Mar 23, 2013 5:47 PM in response to BDAqua

Ok I tried cleaning it. I also took out all of the memory and ran a hair dryer directly on the ram slots for about five minutes. I don't know if it was hot enough. I put all the memory back in and restarted....nothing.

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Answer 9

BDAqua

Level 10

238,991 points

Mar 23, 2013 5:55 PM in response to Bigmacattack1

It's possibly something else then, but at a loss right now... we need more help in here.

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Answer 10

Mar 23, 2013 8:51 PM in response to Bigmacattack1

I ran another extended hardware test after this, it took about 3 hours but everything passed again. When restarted and attempted a safe boot, I got the pinwheel going in a circle for a bit but then it froze up again!

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Answer 11

BDAqua

Level 10

238,991 points

Mar 23, 2013 10:09 PM in response to Bigmacattack1

Well, AHT isnt veey good in my opinion. 😟

Pinwheel might be the same as this...

Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5: Computer shuts down during Safe Boot or fails...

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24054

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Answer 12

Mar 24, 2013 12:37 PM in response to BDAqua

Do you know of any tricks to get the computer to open the cd so I can run disk utility? Holding c at boot isn't working, and the option at boot screen just goes to the apple logo when I click enter....

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Answer 13

BDAqua

Level 10

238,991 points

Mar 24, 2013 1:15 PM in response to Bigmacattack1

Try holding the mouse bitton down when booting up to open the tray, you can hold alt key at the same time.

On a G5, you can also use a finger to slide the cover door downward, look for a tiny hole to push a straightened out Paper clip into to open the tray.

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Answer 14

Mar 24, 2013 2:00 PM in response to BDAqua

Ok. So I have been turning it on and off for about two hours trying to safe boot or open the startup manager and boot from there. It randomly let me onto the desktop and gave me a problem report for MacOSX kernel which I took a snapshot of. Terrified that it would lock up and shutdown again I didn't bother trying to check disk permissions (I'm sure they're messed up) instead I opened up my OSX disk and am in the process of an archive and install. I hope this is what I should do...I had to move fast because you never know when it will boot you off. If I give you the info from the problem report do you think it might help explain things?

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Answer 15

Mar 24, 2013 3:13 PM in response to Bigmacattack1

With a minute left of the install the computer froze And the fans went crazy. I had to shut it down and now I'm back to where I was, unable to log in...except possibly worse because I'm not sure there's even a desktop available to log into now?

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