G4 PPC won't display
My G4 makes a happy bong when I turn it on but it refuses to display the screen. Tried two different functional screens but no joy.
Which G4 is it, with what operating system?
9 replies
It's hard to be exact since I don't have any way to interrogate - but there are two HDs on board each with its own MacOS - one is older than the other but I think from best recollection it's 10.3.8 and it's the silver mirrored drive drawers model. The graphics card says Nvidia 11071.
This isn't the only possibility but there is a good chance the PRAM is corrupt. This is often caused by a weak PRAM battery which can cause settings such as display information to be lost. Batteries last 2-5 years depending upon whether or not you keep your machine plugged into active power.
A new PRAM battery will depend upon your G4 model which it helps to include in your original post about hardware issues.
You can try resetting PRAM but if the battery is bad it may just corrupt it again.
Texas Mac Man's PRAM, battery, PMU tutorial - https://sites.google.com/site/macpram/mac-pram-nvram-cuda-pmu-battery-tutorial
Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
When to reset NVRAM or PRAM - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1895
I'm actually hoping it's the battery... and I've ordered a replacement - but the original battery is showing as holding its charge when tested - so not terribly optimistic
Are you testing the battery correctly, under load?
Did you read the first link I provided as it outlines several possibilities?
I didn't personally test it. It will be interesting to swop the batteries out and see.
Yes I've been following all the threads.
Swopped out Battery no joy. Swopped out Graphics card - no joy. Guess next thing is to take HD from G4 and slot it into my G5 and see if I can recover it that way
Unless you had a SATA card in the G4 the drive would be IDE/PATA, G5s use SATA drives.
There are adapters & USB devices though...
Good point... Here we go again :/
G4 PPC won't display