[fowler279]

My G4 AGP has no video and the keyboard and mouse are not working either. I checked the RAM and Video card last night and i was able to get it to work for a little while after removing the battery on the motherboard and reinserting it. But anytime i shut it off it wont come back on untill i do that again. Could it be a problem with that battery? Should i change it? Or is it something else? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

[chefpastry]

Yes, it definitely sounds like the internal battery is dead. Get it replaced.

[fowler279]

OK great. I just went to the local walmart and radio shack and no batteries like this one. Anyone know a local shop that might have one or am i going to have to order this thing?

[chefpastry]

I don't know of any local places that stock that battery, but you can try Other World Computing. I'm pretty sure they have it. In the meantime, you can still use your Mac without the battery, you'll just lose some settings such as time.

[fowler279]

Thats the problem is the computer will not boot now. It turns on but no video, mouse or keyboard. All it does is turn on. Now last night when i removed and replaced the same battery it worked. But when i did it tonight it did not work. So im not sure if its the battery or not. But i guess its the cheapest solution at this moment unless anyone else has any advice.

[reader50]

Get it off the shelf at Radio Shack. It may be a different brand inside the bubble pack, but it's the right battery. The sales staff may think a Mac is a type of truck, so don't trust what they say.

Catalog #23-026

[fowler279]

Thanks ill take that in and see if they have it tomorrow. Thanks for your help.

[fowler279]

OK replaced the battery and that wasnt the problem. Made sure it was in right. The only time i can get it to boot is by pressing the little button above where the battery sits. Not sure what it is but it works everytime i do that. Granted my settings are back to default but it does work. So any other suggestions?

[Captain Curt]

This happened to me. I think you have a corrupted operating system. The symptoms gradually got worse and worse for me. No matter what I tried, my normally rock solid Mac just got sicker and sicker. I think you will need to reinstall your operating system. Back up right now. When this happened to me, I decided to replace my hard drive at the same time I reinstalled Tiger. If you have wanted to upgrade your hard disk, this would be the time.


All of my problems started in a small way just after I used the Erase Free Space option in disk utility. I suspect this is what corrupted my operating system, however I have to say it's also possible a sector failed on my original hard disk.

[fowler279]

I have tried to reinstall tiger but it wont allow me to reboot after sticking the disk in since if i reboot it wont boot up again. Also if it was the hard drive then why when i press that button on the mainboard would it work again. I was going to remove the current HDD and replace it with 2 bigger ones anyhow so i guess its worth a shot. I think it has more to do with the mainboard but im not sure.

[bstone]

If the fellow has to hit the CUDA (hardware reset) switch in order to boot then his problem is a bit deeper than a corrupted OS. Try swapping RAM, removing the HD and seeing if it boots, etc. Try to narrow down something other than the motherboard.

[fowler279]

Found the culprit. It was a bad ram chip. Took a few tried but i got it. Thanks for all your help.

[bstone]

Originally Posted by fowler279

Found the culprit. It was a bad ram chip. Took a few tried but i got it. Thanks for all your help.

Congrats. Bad RAM is almost always the problem. Be thankful it wasn't anything more. I also have an AGP G4 (Sawtooth) which I have modified the hell out of. It's an amazing machien with many more years of life.

good job.