Q: Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) won't turn on.
I picked up a used Power Mac G5 2.3 Dual Core really cheap. I was told it was working but included no hard drive. It was in poor physical condition, however. Scuffs, scratches, dings and loads of caked-on dirt inside. Before I ever hit the power switch once, I knew I had to give it a good cleaning. I disassembled all parts and removed all the dirt with great care. I even had to treat some parts that were contaminated with rust (CD-ROM shield). It was obvious that the owner lived near a lot of moisture.
It only took a weekend, but I got it all back together and looking fairly decent. I connected a monitor and hit the power button. It came up! I then worked on getting a compatible SATA drive. I did not realize it at the time but a SATA rev 3 wouldn't work. I found a rev 2 and it was recognized. I installed Leopard and took care of all the updates. All seemed well for about a week.
Then one morning I was awaken by a loud clicking sound coming from the room with the G5. I confirmed it was the G5 and also observed that the power LED would flash while the clicking noise was going on. I tried to "wake up" the Mac thinking this could be some weird sleep problem but it didn't respond to mouse or keyboard input. I then pulled the plug and the noise ceased. I waited a little while and plugged it back in and both the noise and the LED flashing returned. No matter I tried, it would not power up, though.
I did some searching and came upon someone who suggested resetting the SMU as a possible solution to another's power problem. I did the reset and this seemed to stop the automatic clicking and flashing. When I tried hitting the power button, it still does not come up. I only see a momentary flash of the power LED and then a "clunk clunk" noise -- the same noise I was hearing repeatedly before.
So this is where I am. Is there anything else I can try or should I conclude that the power supply is dead? That would sure be a disappointment considering the stressed environment the machine had to put up with, now getting the proper attention it deserves only to then decide to die on me.
Posted on Jun 25, 2013 9:13 PM