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G4 Sawtooth monitor problems
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Last month I purchased a Sawtooth (AGP Graphics) G4 off of eBay in hopes of upgrading it.
When I got it, the monitor would stay black until the PowerMac got to the login screen, in which it would display. I didn't think anything of it.
Then I got a 1.8 GHz Giga Designs processor upgrade and put that in. The upgrade worked perfectly.
A few weeks later, the monitor would never get to the login screen; it would stay black forever, basically, until I shut off the Mac. (I actually left it on for three hours just to check if it was being slow or something, and no luck.) I thought it was a monitor issue, so I tried swapping the monitor with another one I had in the house.
It was perfect! The monitor actually started up and I saw the bootup process for the first time on that Mac. Then, after one or two times of seeing that again it went back to the same way, in which it would not display until the login screen came up. Then, after about two weeks of that happening, the monitor would not work again. (Might I add that both monitors worked perfectly - before and after I tried them on my Mac - on the various peecees my family members have, so it can't possibly be a monitor problem.)
I replaced (and upgraded) the video card to a Radeon 9550 in hopes of it being a video card problem, but that didn't change a thing.
I tried many different things. Putting back the old processor with the new video card, the old processor with the old video card, the new processor with the old video card and the new processor with the new video card. And all of these on different monitors and nothing works.
If any of you are able to help that would be great.
(Last edited by luke; Oct 1, 2005 at 05:38 PM.
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Moderator  Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
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I would guess it's the power supply. If you are not afraid of tinkering (read: not easy), you can use a regular ATX power supply.
Maybe it's too late to tell you, but you shouldn't put that kind of money in a machine that doesn't work from the start.
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Well, actually, I didn't really think anything of it. I probably should have.
I did read online though that getting a power supply replaced by an Apple Genius would be somewhat cheap, but I didn't read an exact amount.
Does anyone know how much that would be and how long it would take an Apple Genius to do the repair?
If it's way too expensive then I could just get another PowerMac on eBay and then just swap out the hardware.
Any help would be awesome. Thanks.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: BFE
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Hmmm.... I'd also suspect a blown PS.
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I'm a bird. I am the 1% (of pets).
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Moderator Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
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Just another note. All your additional components might have killed the power supply. As they age, their peak output drops. Your additional components, in particular the CPU upgrade, draws a lot more power than the original psu. This might have pushed it over the edge 
Anyway, if you get a new psu, make sure to get a stronger one than the original, 350+ W. That's why I tend to have a more cautious attitude towards upgrading such an old machine.
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
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