Also cannot get G5 Tower to boot anymore (even DVD).

Thank you, but changing the battery didn´t help… crazy: I worked with that battery from 2006 on and there were no problems until now.

Meanwhile I changed it and reseted the PRAM and the effect is that now I have a black screen instead a white screen at the same moment.

Graphic card should be ok because in the beginning I can see the apple sign. I also checked if it is the RAM, but all 12GB seem to work properly. Disassembling all other PCIe cards and HDs had also no effect.

Its a G5 Quadcore from late 2005, 2,66GHz. The problem is I have some hardware PCIe cards in it which don´t fit into my laptop and apple is not selling towers (the old) in Europe anymore. I can´t imagine that they want me to buy a PC, but I need a tower for work and I loved the machine. Furthermore some useful sound software still runs on it which is not running on my laptop under 10.8 anymore…

Booting with alt-key shows the OS-HDs, but not the DVD. I tried an OS 10.6 DVD and an OS 10.5 DVD, both security backups, maybe from my laptop, I don´t remember. Had so many Macs within the years. But booting from DVD was a problem on that machine for a long time I remember.

I was in the store today and they said that Apple still sells Snow Leopard DVDs in the online shop. I ordered one and will try this next.

If you have any futher suggestions I´ll be very pleased.

Thank you, I was too fast and just ordered it… And I also found a 10.6 DVD which is recognized as bootable system at booting with alt key. But the same thing happens.

I read that only 10.5 will work but 10.6 was recognized and its not possible to get an OS 10.5 anywhere. Do you know what is exactly the problem with 10.6 on that machine?

Meanwhile I suppose there may be some hardware problems because with the two internal OS HDs it was the same, with the DVD it is the same. And all from the same moment on…

I read something about overheated CPUs because of dust inside. The G5 was not so dirty and I cleaned it sometimes but there are some components which I don´t want to remove. I also think that it is a G5 with water cooling and every resource in the web said not to touch this. Maybe something wrong with that?

Earlier I learned that there are two production series, one desktop and one workstation version which is a bit faster although it has the same processor. I had the workstation and needed another kind of special RAM which was a bit more expensive and has lamellas on it. The guy in the store today said that there is no replacement equipment for this machine available exept RAM and the graphic card.

I really don´t know what to do now, can´t work anymore and there seems to be no solution… Maybe I take the machine to the store at monday and let them try to find out what exactly is the problem.

Thank you all for your great help! I learned some very useful stuff I really didn´t know!

Restore Tiger 10.4 & Leopard 10.5 DVDs are available from Apple by calling 800-767-2775 as of January 20, 2013. Have your serial number ready. Have your credit card ready too. There is a small fee.

This is great to know, maybe I have to try that or buy a retail version on ebay like BDAqua suggests if the apple support is cancelled meanwhile.

But look, what the machine says when starting in safe mode with display on. There are some messages in the list that look strange to me although I don´t know exactly what they mean:

AppleACPICPU: Processor Id=4 (to) 7 LocalAplcId=0 Disabled

AppleIntelCPU Power Managment Client ready

jnl: unknown device: replay_journal: from: 21560032 to 2634248

jnl: unknown device: journal replay done

Bug: launchctl.c:3557 (23938):17: ioctl(s6, SIOCAIFADDR_IN6, &ifra6) != -1

hfs: removed 4 orphaned / unlinked files and 1 directories

launchctl: please convert the following to launchd: /etc/mach_init.d/dashboardadvisoryd.plist

systemShutdown false

m168efe17 (=last lines)

Everything else seems to be ok in the list. The 1st row looks to me like the 2nd processor is down… ?!

The same thing with processor ID 4 to 7 appears at booting in single mode. And there are two other rows which might be strange, too:

Singleuser boot ––fsck not done

Root device is mounted read-only

Unfortunately I don´t know how to start hardware diagnostics in safe mode… Starting up with holding down "D" does not work. But if the black screen appears and I go on holding down a key, I can hear the feedback alert sound as if I would type something. Only sometimes there is the coloured small wheel mouse.

Martin

You might be able to get your old software working on new hardware. Here is what people are doing.

This is also great to know, maybe for the future…

Oh, BDAqua I forgot:

The machine is an Intel machine, early one (late 2005). I had 10.6.8 running on it. It´s a Quadcore 2,66GHz.

Yes, you are right. I wrote some nonesense before, I´m sorry. I read to much confusing stuff in other resources. Maybe not the CPU is overheated but my mind… : )

The serial site is helpful, I didn´t know that. It´s that machine: (Mac Pro, my machine built 2007)

Processor speed: 2 x 2.66 GHz

Processor Type: Intel Xeon (Woodcrest)

Number of Cores: 2

Bus Speed: 2 x 1.33 GHz

Cache: - -

64-bit Support: Yes

Turbo Boost: No

Installed RAM: CTO

Max. Amount: 32 GB (confirmed)

Amount of Slots: 8

RAM Speed: 667 MHz

RAM Type: PC2-5300, DDR2, FB-DIMM

I already did a parameter RAM reset, built in a new battery and started up in safe mode and single user mode. I also tested the FB-DIMMs, used only 2 of them, then two others…(it made no difference, so I put in all 12GB again) I cleaned the whole machine, disassemled the two UAD PCIe Cards and the additional three internal HDs. In target mode on my laptop there are no problems for disc utility.

Tonight I want to try Happy1s suggestion to take the battery and the power supply out over night and do another PRAM reset after. Thanks for that! (But I don´t know how to reset the graphic card)

Meanwhile I´ve also compared the screen from booting in safe mode with a friend of mine and everything is more or less the same. CPU 4-7 disabled seems to be normal at startup. Booting stops really shortly before it is finished, namely after

"DSMOS has arrived"

Then the strange line "m168efe17" appears, after that the line "Universal Audio Apollo…" and something about an ethernet adress. And again and again the "m168efe17". Then it stops.

Maybe the problem has something to do with the Universal Audio PCIe cards even if they are not built in at this moment, some driver thing…

That raises hope! But I don´t use the machine in any ether- or internet, it´s my offline working beast. With the two UAD cards the CPU is most of the time quite relaxed, doing only sequencing.

Lol : )