TRENDMASTER
Level 1 (4 points)
Mac OS X

Q: G5 Quad cannot install OS X - Red LED

I have a Power Mac G5 Quad.  It's the last model they made.

 

It has 9GB of ram.  4x2gb and 2x512mb.

 

Upon turning on the computer a red LED is on and then turns off.  A few seconds later it's back on and stays on.

 

Looking into this, it's a ram problem.  The led is labelled 'LED806.'  It's below the top 4 DIMM slots.

 

The computer will turn on, chime, and the screen is black for around 8 seconds before it goes to the gray screen.

 

-  If I just leave it, it will go to a 'happy mac' folder and stay there.  It's a clean hard drive so it wouldn't boot anyway.

 

-  If I boot the computer hold C with the Leopard disk in, it will go to the gray screen and stay there for sometime until it goes to kernal panic and says 'invalid memory access' etc.

 

-  If I boot holding option, it will go startup manager but stay there for a long time frozen.  Sometimes I can hit refresh and I see the Leopard disk.  I try to move forward but it freezes again.  Eventually it goes to kernal panic.

 

What puzzles me is this ram has always been used with the G5.  The 2gb sticks are the same model and so are the 512.  The G5 was running strong a few years ago with all this ram.

 

So is the ram dead or not?  Could it be something else?

 

I tried testing the ram.  1 stick at a time and got 2 beeps and the fans went LOUD.

 

I tried 2 at the same time in the the same slots 1-1 and it the computer would just do the stuff listed above.

 

Thanks

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8), G5 Quadcore, 16gb ram, Custom GPU.

Posted on Jul 10, 2013 8:40 PM

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TRENDMASTER

Q: G5 Quad cannot install OS X - Red LED

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  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 11, 2013 7:45 PM in response to TRENDMASTER
    Level 10 (123,860 points)
    Aug 11, 2013 7:45 PM in response to TRENDMASTER

    ASD  is certainly worth a shot, it's the big brother to AHT, & I've actually seen a couple of times that just running it msgically cured a G5, with no indication that anything was wrong or fixed!???

  • by TRENDMASTER,

    TRENDMASTER TRENDMASTER Aug 11, 2013 8:15 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 11, 2013 8:15 PM in response to BDAqua

    I know there are a lot of versions of it.


    Is there a place I can get the right version for my G5?

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 11, 2013 9:26 PM in response to TRENDMASTER
    Level 10 (123,860 points)
    Aug 11, 2013 9:26 PM in response to TRENDMASTER

    I see that both yours & my eMail aren'viusioble in oiur profiles.

     

    No idea if I or anybody else can help with that, since ASD is.was normally only available to techs, but if yoiu wish to contct me...

     

    My Site...

     

    http://x704.net/bbs/

    Once you join you can post a query, or contact me via PM or eMail.

  • by TRENDMASTER,

    TRENDMASTER TRENDMASTER Aug 15, 2013 10:59 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 15, 2013 10:59 AM in response to BDAqua

    Held down D, get to the gray screen, fans start to ramp up - Apple Diagnostic appears and says 'Loading' and it sits there...  Left it for 3 minutes never loaded.

     

    Out of about 10 tries I made it once to the diagnostic screen but the mouse was frozen so I couldn't click on anything.  All I remember reading was 'Idle.'

     

    I tried booting via startup and there were two Apple Diagnostic choices - one with some little computer icon and the other said OS which I assume means doing it through the OS but I have no OS installed.  I tried that option anyway and it took me to the gray Apple logo which sat there for about 2 minutes before the fans ramped up.

     

    I also noticed somewhere a long the lines LED #2 turned on solid red.  Both #2 and #7 stayed on. 

     

    I also managed to reset nvram.  First time I didn't make it because it froze and fans ramped up.  Second time I made it and it auto restarted.  It didn't seem to fix anything though.

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 15, 2013 11:25 AM in response to TRENDMASTER
    Level 10 (123,860 points)
    Aug 15, 2013 11:25 AM in response to TRENDMASTER

    Well, #2 is overtemp, so coolant or CPU thermal paste needs replacing, don't know if we discussed that yet.

  • by TRENDMASTER,

    TRENDMASTER TRENDMASTER Aug 15, 2013 11:28 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 15, 2013 11:28 AM in response to BDAqua

    I cleaned of all the old thermal paste and put brand new arctic 5 silver on there when I removed the CPUs.

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 15, 2013 11:51 AM in response to TRENDMASTER
    Level 10 (123,860 points)
    Aug 15, 2013 11:51 AM in response to TRENDMASTER

    Hmmm, & the heatsinks are seated properly I assume?

     

    If so, I'd guess the CPU or Sensor is bad.

     

    Oh, & the OS version of ASD doesn't work, only the firmware version.

  • by TRENDMASTER,

    TRENDMASTER TRENDMASTER Aug 15, 2013 12:03 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 15, 2013 12:03 PM in response to BDAqua

    I think it's LED #2, maybe it's LED #1.  Both say contact Apple Support.  What is #1?

     

    Everything should be seated properly.  The computer got a good cleaning and new thermal paste.

     

    The fans just ramp at the worst time.  Whenever they ramp up, everything freezes so I have to restart.

     

    Like I said, I made it to the Diagnostic second screen once...

  • by TRENDMASTER,

    TRENDMASTER TRENDMASTER Aug 15, 2013 12:59 PM in response to TRENDMASTER
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 15, 2013 12:59 PM in response to TRENDMASTER

    Take off the air deflector while computer is on - back fans are still loud, front fans slow down?

     

    3 LED's light up all related to the air deflector.

     

    Reseat the deflector and the all the lights go away (except #7) and the front fans start to ramp up.

     

    Could this mean anything?

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 15, 2013 5:36 PM in response to TRENDMASTER
    Level 10 (123,860 points)
    Aug 15, 2013 5:36 PM in response to TRENDMASTER

    As I recall #1 is CPU#0 sensor,, might swap them & turn off CPU#1 if you can...

     

    The cpus boot argument can range from 1 up to the total number of processor cores on your system.

     

    http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/qa/qa2001/qa1141.html

     

    You might try this also, thanks to old comm guy...

     

    This can be done in open firmware,(boot with cmd+option+O+F held down).

     

    setenv boot-args cpus=1

    reset-all

  • by TRENDMASTER,

    TRENDMASTER TRENDMASTER Aug 15, 2013 7:15 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 15, 2013 7:15 PM in response to BDAqua

    Well I don't have the tools right now to take apart the CPU again.  I will have to borrow them.

     

    I tried setenv boot-args cpus=1

     

    It restarted the computer but didn't fix anything.

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 16, 2013 10:57 AM in response to TRENDMASTER
    Level 10 (123,860 points)
    Aug 16, 2013 10:57 AM in response to TRENDMASTER

    If the 1st CPU is bad it'll make no difference, if the bad CPU is #2 it may help, but of course swapping CPUs requires you caibrate them with ASD again, assuming it'll boot.

  • by TRENDMASTER,

    TRENDMASTER TRENDMASTER Aug 16, 2013 1:32 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 16, 2013 1:32 PM in response to BDAqua

    Well I can't even get the calibration running right now because it freezes.

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 16, 2013 3:25 PM in response to TRENDMASTER
    Level 10 (123,860 points)
    Aug 16, 2013 3:25 PM in response to TRENDMASTER

    I know, but this was assuming CPU0 is bad, CPU1 is good, & after swapping you can get it to boot to open firmware & disable the bad one.

  • by TRENDMASTER,

    TRENDMASTER TRENDMASTER Aug 17, 2013 8:12 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 17, 2013 8:12 PM in response to BDAqua

    Ok I see what you mean.  I guess it's worth a shot.

     

    That other LED never came on again though, the one to do with the sensor or whatever.

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