Power Mac shows corrosion

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Power Mac shows corrosion

Today I was given an old Power Mac from my place of work. I was told it worked until about a month ago but then stopped turning on. When opened up, a lot of corrosion was discovered in just one area at the bottom near the back (see pic). I don't know what date of Power Mac it is -- but the label on the inside says the serial number is G8*****QPS and it is a 2.5ghz with a 250 gig hard drive.

Any thoughts or suggestions on how I might get this thing going again? Also, I have another Power Mac, a 7,3. Would the memory from the broken Power Mac be compatible with that? How about the video card???

Posted on Sep 12, 2014 11:20 PM

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Answer 1

Jeff

Level 6

12,334 points

Sep 13, 2014 3:00 AM in response to kookooframe

Unfortunately, the processor's liquid cooling system has failed and leaked, causing the extensive corrosion that you see. It functions like the radiator in an automobile. The LCS is mounted on top of the processors and is located behind the heatsink cover/panel marked with "G5." This damage didn't happen overnight, so if the I.T. staff at your office had routinely checked the computer, it could have been stopped much sooner. Given how bad that is - and if you really want a G5, I'd be tempted to look for an empty G5 chassis with a power supply, and transfer the useful components from your G5 over to it. I emphasized a power supply, because it sits directly beneath that damage, on the floor of the chassis. It was undoubtedly subjected to the effects of the leaking solution and likely has internal corrosion. If you like performing the equivalent of body work on a car, you could remove the internal components from the chassis, and then cut/grind out the corrosion and repair the metal. I think a replacement case would be a better solution. Everymac.com has the specs for the G5 2.5 GHz model here.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,379 points

Sep 13, 2014 12:33 PM in response to kookooframe

Exactly what Jeff says.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/G5_coolant_leaks.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/G5_CoolantLeak_Repair/G5_CoolantLeak_Repair_p 1.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/G5_CoolantLeak_Repair/G5_CoolantLeak_Repair.h tml

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Answer 3

kookooframe Author

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Sep 13, 2014 7:17 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks Jeff & BD, I had suspected that was the problem. So I will just use it for spare parts. Can I just take the memory sticks out and try them in my Power Mac 7,3 or is that not a good thing to try? How can I find out if the sticks would be compatible? Likewise with the video card -- could I take out the card and load it in my Power Mac 7 ,3?

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Answer 4

BDAqua

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Sep 14, 2014 12:31 PM in response to kookooframe

The 7,3 G5s Support 400 MHz PC3200 DDR SDRAM & use AGP Video Cards.

The 11,2 G5s Support 533 MHz PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM. & use PCIe Video cards.

Scroll down...

http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_capability/mac-specs-by-machine-model-machine -id.html

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Answer 5

kookooframe Author

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Sep 17, 2014 3:31 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks, BD! That clears up a lot of questions, and will make it easier for me to buy RAM for the 7,3.

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Answer 6

BDAqua

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Sep 17, 2014 3:59 PM in response to kookooframe

Great, here's RAM for the 7,3s...

http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgrades.cfm?sort=pop&model=208&type=Memory

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Answer 7

kookooframe Author

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Sep 18, 2014 3:38 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for pinning it down, BD. I went to the link and ordered 2 gigs worth of RAM. I only have three gigs on the machine at the moment. If these two gigs work well, I might just buy another two gigs. I still do video editing (Final Cut 7) on the 7,3 and it may be a bit slow compared to newer machines, but it still gets the job done. I'm hoping the extra RAM will make rendering a bit faster, and a lot of other things a little bit faster.

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Answer 8

BDAqua

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Sep 18, 2014 5:19 PM in response to kookooframe

It should help greatly, I think most of your 3GB is used up by the OS & FC7 itself.

In the Memory tab of Activity Monitor, are there a lot of Pageouts?

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Answer 9

kookooframe Author

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Sep 19, 2014 9:16 PM in response to BDAqua

BD -- I checked the Activity Monitor as you suggested, while I had Final Cut running. To my surprise, there were 0 pageouts. Don't know if that means my machine is running better than I expected. Still, I will put in the extra 2 gigs memory when it arrives.

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Answer 10

BDAqua

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Sep 20, 2014 12:43 PM in response to kookooframe

Hmmm, that's peculiar, will be looking forward to hear the outcome with more RAM. 🙂

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Answer 11

kookooframe Author

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Sep 20, 2014 3:11 PM in response to BDAqua

So that's unexpected? Don't know if this means anything, but there were something like 4,000 page-ins, but 0 page-outs. I know when I run Repair Disc it tells me I need to repair the disc, so I'm thinking at some point I should put in my install disc and do it -- but I need to be sure I won't lose my programs or any data.

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Answer 12

BDAqua

Level 10

250,379 points

Sep 20, 2014 4:25 PM in response to kookooframe

I would think Final Cut would use more, I do not have it though.

I'd do it BEFORE you lose any programs or data, if it needs repair it'll only get worse, you shouldn't lose anything, but a backup or clone is always safest.

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Answer 13

kookooframe Author

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Sep 22, 2014 3:30 PM in response to BDAqua

BD--

Well, I tried to repair disc by putting in my OSX 10.4 installation disc, restarting while holding C, but no installer screen would come up. For about a year now a Seagate Registration screen has been coming up with startup, which I can only get rid of with Force Quit (as I do so I notice it says the installer is not responding.) So today even when I put in the startup disc and restarted I still just got the same old Seagate screen.

So I downloaded Cocktail and ran everything on that, repair disc permission, clear caches for everything. When I restarted, still got the Seagate screen. The only change is that now on my Internet, with either Safari or TenFourFox, I can't seem to get the Reply button when I log in to this forum. I can log in, but I when I click Reply nothing happens. In fact, in tenfourfox, I get logged out automatically if I go to a particular thread.

(I'm on a different computer at my house right now, so I could write this reply.

Any thoughts appreciated!

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Answer 14

BDAqua

Level 10

250,379 points

Sep 22, 2014 4:34 PM in response to kookooframe

The logout issue is crazy, I have a fix but don't want Apple to see it! 😉

The no Reply button after logging in is likely Caches issue, clear your browser's caches & reload the page.

I think we should eliminate/remove any Seagate drivers, try this to get past that dialog...

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.

(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive & clear caches.)

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Answer 15

kookooframe Author

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Sep 22, 2014 8:11 PM in response to BDAqua

Tried booting into safe model but the grey radion just kept spinning until the fans revved up, so I shut it down. Tried several times. Can boot normally but the Seagate screen still appears.

Is there something else I might try?

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