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Wes · Nov 18, 2003, 11:42 AM

I have a dual G5 here that dosen't seem to want to start up. It makes a clicking sound, and as long as I hold down the power button the light will stay on. Yet it seems as though the machine never wants to "turn over". I installed the bluetooth update last night then shut it off. I also added an extra gig of RAM from crucial, but that has been in there for some time with not problems. Any ideas?

Landos Mustache · Nov 18, 2003, 12:01 PM

Originally posted by Wes:
I also added an extra gig of RAM from crucial

There's your problem. Seems that everyone that is having G5 problems is because of the crucial RAM. Take it out and things should be fine.

Then return the junk RAM.

Wes · Nov 18, 2003, 02:38 PM

I tried taking the RAM out and booting, but it still won't. I mean, it won't boot *at all*. I get absolutly nothing, no start up chime, no flashing lights, nothing even spins up. It just sits there.

voyageur · Nov 18, 2003, 05:53 PM

Have you tried resetting the PMU and the PRAM? The PMU is located below the RAM slots.

jakephish · Nov 18, 2003, 06:07 PM

I just had the exact same problem, no boot. No power, nothing. I looked all through these forums, but everyone seemed to have booting problems that occurred after the macine actually turned on and begun its booting sequence......So after trying different power cords, plugs, unplugging everything and everything else i could think of, I took it to the apple store and they serviced it.......first they thought it was the power supply so they replaced it, but when that didnt work they replaced the power button on the front of the machine. . . . .fixed the problem....but the question is, why did it fail in the first place? how can we prevent this from happening in the future? Can we fix it ourselves or do we need to take it to the apple store/authorized repair center every time?

The tech told me that these kind of things just happen, and that i hadnt experienced anything that had been common among G5 owners, and that things just fail sometimes....... Luckily it was still under apple's warranty and it didnt cost me anything, other than two trips to the mall and a week of use. . . .

But..... I think we're going to see a lot more of these type of problems in the next few months....before anyone goes nuts, just listen to my theory.....The g5 case is entirely made of metal. The power button is metal as well. During the peroid immediately before I shut of My G5 and its subsuquent failure to power-on, i shocked (static shock) myself on the front of the G5 chasis, just reaching for a pen.....i think this may have blown the power button....mabye its crazy, but as the winter months come, and static electricity becomes a factor, especially for those who have carpeting around their G5, I think we may see a lot more of these types of failures......mabye not, i'm not a electrical engineer or anything, so it might not even be a real issue.....but....what a disaster if it was.....

Wes · Nov 18, 2003, 06:18 PM

I have the Apple 20" moniter with its own power button however. Shouldn't the power button on the front of that work even if the one on the machine itself is fried?

Just out of curiousity, how long did it take Apple to replace your power button?

jakephish · Nov 18, 2003, 07:23 PM

I really am not completely sure if the power control by the apple monitors is independant of the switch on the front of the device. But...to my knowledge, which may be incorrect, the button on the monitors is somewhat similar to the button located on the old style keyboards, when they still had the power/sleep controls on them....I tried this method (old keybord) to boot the machine but to no sucess, however the G5 may not be capable of power control by this method....I wouldnt be suprised if, in the interest of simplicity, there's some kind of mechanism where the signals from the monitor control . I'd be interested to see if your problem turns out to be the switch, which would indicate that the power control is dependant on its function....
Apple ended up taking 8 days to fix it. ... . but its not as simple as that....The day I brought it in, they ordered a replacement power supply, which took two days to get there and another to install. Once that didnt work, they had to order the power button and then wait for it, and install it. Considering the fact that they had to wait on the mail twice, I was pretty pleased with their turnover time, though it would have been cool if they were able to troubleshoot the computer more thouroughly the first shot. I would have been pretty pissed if I had to pay for a replacement power supply that I didnt really need.

Wes · Nov 18, 2003, 08:33 PM

How do I reset the PMU/PRAM on a G5? Appearently the PRAM is reset by holding command-option-P-R at startup, but my computer won't start up at all so as far as I can tell that is a bust. However I would like to try reseting the PMU if someone can tell me how to. I can't find any Apple docs on it, only for the G4.

voyageur · Nov 18, 2003, 09:21 PM

Originally posted by Wes:
How do I reset the PMU/PRAM on a G5?

The PMU button is located on the motherboard, below the lower RAM slots. Turn off the Mac, and detach the power cord from the back. Remove the air deflector, then the fan unit, just like you did when you installed your RAM. Then look for the little black button about 1/4" in size. Hold it in with pencil or some other object for about 10 seconds.
Reassemble your Mac and try booting.

As an aside, right now I'm dealing with a different boot-up problem with a dual G5 at work. It boots, but the screen is black. Nothing I've tried (PRAM, PMU resets, reseating video card, removing 3rd party RAM) will fix it, so it's due to be repaired by Apple.

DPUser · Nov 19, 2003, 10:43 PM

Originally posted by Wes:
I have a dual G5 here that dosen't seem to want to start up.

Just to add to the record, we bought two Dual Processor G5's with 2 gigs of Apple RAM. Both have failed in a way similar to that described. Our machines failed within the first week in service and Apple is replacing them. The Apple tech assured me that this is "not a known issue".

ebuddy · Nov 20, 2003, 07:32 AM

Lando's mustache mistakenly wrote;
There's your problem. Seems that everyone that is having G5 problems is because of the crucial RAM. Take it out and things should be fine.

Then return the junk RAM.

Conversely, like 99.99% of the people with RAM trouble switched to Crucial and it solved their problem. There are greatly detailed lengthy threads that refute the above right here on MacNN. G5 users swear by Crucial RAM. And Crucial swears by it too BTW and are the only ones that do for the G5. While I agree that you should return junk RAM, it'll likely not be Crucial RAM you're returning.