Hi my iMac G5 (ambient light sensor) display is black when i turn it on you can still hear startup chime and fans but no picture. Ive checked the inside and everything looks fine even the capacitors. plz help thx.
iMac, Mac OS 9.2.x
I do not think that the g5 run 9.x.
Here is how to find out what version of Mac OS you are running:
Click on the blue apple in the upper left hand of the screen.
click on this icon
Click on the first line, "About This Mac"
Most of these are numbers & that's what we want.
What version & Processor do you have?
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You may have a problem with the video chip.
Here is how to tell...
Shutdown your machine. Hold down the shift key. Poweron. Bootup will be longer.
Wait awhile while you harddrive is being checked.
An article on how to boot into safe mode.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455
Runs OK in safe mode...
Running in Safe mode leaves out some video drivers. Which results in your machine not using advanced video hardware. As luck would have it, you can run the safe mode video drivers in normal mode.
Here is how:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3263472?answerId=16057567022#16057567022
Look through the above thread. See the second page. You don't have to read through the first page. Just go to the part where I try a solution that works.
Summary of G5 problems. Includes instructions on a hardware fix for the brave at heart:
See -Rotten Apple- articles in both of these threads.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4023152?tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4043819?answerId=18700825022#18700825022
Robert
but when i do that i cant see anything because of the screen not working
i got the mac from a friend and when he gave it to me he said that the internal disk drive broke cause his kids put to much cd in at the same time. so do you think thats the problem?
Oh, forgot that little problem.
Query by serial number
Apple's warrenty database will identify the type of Mac you have. Your serial number is securely sent, but you get only the name of your machine.
https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
This site provides more information, but lacks security.
"A serial number is a unique, identifying number or group of numbers and letters assigned to an individual piece of hardware or software. It's used for various things depending on the product / brand but what is your Mac's serial number for and more importantly... what is it hiding and what can it do for you ?"
JG22345 wrote:
i got the mac from a friend and when he gave it to me he said that the internal disk drive broke cause his kids put to much cd in at the same time. so do you think thats the problem?
his kids put to much cd in at the same time
Not sure how to interpret this.
Filled up the harddrive with too much data? -- I think you would still get a picture. Might crash.
Put several cd in the cd reader at the same time? -- likely to break the cd drive.
Did this machine work over at his place?
In general, it should light up & not be black.
Try these things.
1) The startup manager will list all of your bootable partitions then give you a choice of which to boot.
Try holding down the option key then power on. This brings up the startup manager. Click on your hd. Click on right arrow key.
2) Shutdown your machine. Hold down the shift key. Poweron. Wait awhile Wait awhile while you harddrive
is being checked.
right the cd drive broke so he bought external one the gave that to us
yes,and it work for a while at my place too. then one day i went to turn it on and...boom just like that no display
When I was working in software support, we got a "laugh" at the expense of one customer. We had a multi-diskette install procedure. We got a call from customer, they could not fit anymore diskettes in the drive. Wonder what to do? An inquiry, we found they were not taking out the previous diskette when putting next one in drive.
We had left out taking out the previous diskette from drive in our installation instructions! 😟
Robert
im 12 years old and im trying to fix this computer as my top priority thanks for all your help and support....
Try hocking up a vga monitor to the G5. ( it's either a mini-vga or vga ). [ I'm guessing about the vga port. ]
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G5 has these hardware issues:
-- bad capacitors on logic board
-- bad capacitors in power supply
-- badly soldered video chip
-- "There were several Mac models with flat panel displays that had bad displays.
Most had serial numbers beginning with "W8"---the code for one specific factory.
This affected PowerBooks as well. If that's the case, the rest of the computer
is probably fine." by Allan Jones in
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4922592?answerId=21630224022#21630224022
Google: g5 capacitor replacement kit
More info on capacitor replacement kits
http://jimwarholic.com/2008/07/how-to-repair-apple-imac-g5.php
hey, i also have a problem with the usb...(i have a wireless mouse with a receiver and with every computer that it is plugged into when you turn on that computer no matter if its at startup or after startup, if you press a button under the receiver the lights on it blink but when i start up my computer and do that the lights don't blink) so I'm almost thinking its the logic board if the usb ports aren't working right?
When diagnosing hardware, simplify. Divide & conquer. Divide down the problem to isolate the problem.
i.e. ... use a wired usb mouse that works on another macine to see if the port is working. Try different mouses. Start up machine with any usb devices. Machine will boot.
Robert
My 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5 (3.0)
has recently started getting the "colored vertical line" syndrome. Of the 8 or 9 lines on the screen at start up, all but one seem to go away after a couple of minutes. One just sticks on the screen. Not obtrusive, but annoying. Thanks for the checking process - I'll see if it is the video chip.
Not related (?) I recently installed more RAM (this is now a "daily driver" machine for me), yet the hard drive is constantly spinning like it is using virtual memory. I have 2 GB total memory -- 800 MB free and another 800 MB inactive at the moment -- with 80 GB free on the hard drive.
I upgraded RAM from 512 to 2 GB to get rid of this spinning, but no luck (though processing is now MUCH FASTER). Even with very little CPU usage (Safari at 6% is the most right now) I still have the hard drive whine most all the time.
Is this normal and if not, what can I do to stop / fix it? I checked around on the user support but couldn't find a reference to this specific problem.
has recently started getting the "colored vertical line" syndrome. Of the 8 or 9 lines on the screen at start up, all but one seem to go away after a couple of minutes. One just sticks on the screen. Not obtrusive, but annoying. Thanks for the checking process - I'll see if it is the video chip.
I thought you could not get video on the machine? Did that go away? Are you running in safe mode?
Not related (?) I recently installed more RAM (this is now a "daily driver" machine for me), yet the hard drive is constantly spinning like it is using virtual memory. I have 2 GB total memory -- 800 MB free and another 800 MB inactive at the moment -- with 80 GB free on the hard drive.
Adding memory did help. I'm not sure ???
I upgraded RAM from 512 to 2 GB to get rid of this spinning, but no luck (though processing is now MUCH FASTER). Even with very little CPU usage (Safari at 6% is the most right now) I still have the hard drive whine most all the time.
Is this normal and if not, what can I do to stop / fix it? I checked around on the user support but couldn't find a reference to this specific problem.
I'd say no.
What apps is this occuring in? The beach ball means the app is waiting for something. Usually, it's not enough processing time. Could be bad reads from hd. You can set activity monitor to show how much processing time your machine is using.
beach ball
"This could indicate that the application was in an infinite loop, or just performing a lengthy operation and ignoring event"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_pinwheel
lots of things to look at.
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/sbbod.html
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Run disk utility. verify filesystem. repair permissions.
Might be worth a re-install.
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.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4720126?tstart=0
Robert
my iMac G5 (ambient light sensor) display is completely black when I start up the computer exept ou can hear hard drive and fans and chime. how do i fix it?
