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MacMan4000 · 07:54 PM

It's been a while since I've visited these forums, but I figured you guys would be the best help I could find.

Anyway, my iMac G5 (with built-in iSight, 1.9GHz) has been crashing a lot lately. I usually just put the display to sleep at night and let the computer keep running since I use it as a webserver for my own small projects. Well in the past 2 weeks, it has frozen (for lack of a better term) in the middle of the night 4 times now. And it takes several re-starts before it will recover.

Since I have almost nothing on this computer other than my minor website junk, I didn't think it would be a software issue. So I ran Apple Hardware Test from my install disk and found this:

"Mass Storage: Error detected

Error Code:
2STF/8/3: S-ATA Bus 0 - Master"

I got that same error on both the quick test and the extended test.

Now I am pretty sure this means my hard drive is dead/dying. Is that right? I just want to be 100% sure before I go out and buy a new drive. I know its only $45 at newegg for a similarly sized drive, but I'm a poor college student.

And if it indeed is the hard drive, can I just pop in the new drive and boot up from my install CD and re-install? or do I need to do some formatting wizardry first? The physical swapping of the drive I can handle, I just don't want to get it in there and then find out I need it back out again... Opening that thing up isn't easy, I've done it before.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

here is a photo of the error in case that's any help:

dimmer · Nov 27, 2008, 12:33 AM

The error message seems pretty clear: your HD is in castors-up mode. With a new HD you can reinstall from the CD or DVD that came with the unit, no problem.

P · Nov 27, 2008, 08:33 AM

I had that exact error when my iMac G5 was close to new. I thought the HD was dead for sure, but doing the PMU reset thing brought it back to the point that I could at least reformat and reinstall. That was 4 years ago now, and the iMac is still doing fine with the same HD. Might be worth a shot.

ghporter · Nov 27, 2008, 09:27 AM

Definitely do the non-destructive, no-cost actions before giving up on the hard drive. But do back up. NOW. Just in case...

MacMan4000 · 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by P

I had that exact error when my iMac G5 was close to new. I thought the HD was dead for sure, but doing the PMU reset thing brought it back to the point that I could at least reformat and reinstall. That was 4 years ago now, and the iMac is still doing fine with the same HD. Might be worth a shot.

I tried the PMU reset (which is actually SMU reset on my iMac, if I'm understanding my google results right. Correct me if I'm wrong). following these directions was easy enough, but they don't give you any way of knowing if it worked. I tried it 3 times, but I have no idea if the SMU was actually reset or not.

That had no effect. It's still doing the same thing as before. (Which is booting to a gray screen with a gray apple and turning the fans on full blast, then just sitting there.)

Originally Posted by ghporter

Definitely do the non-destructive, no-cost actions before giving up on the hard drive. But do back up. NOW. Just in case...

As for backing up, I tried what I usually do to back up a machine I'm about to re-install OS X on, Firewire Target Disk Mode. Well that was a total failure. It boots up with the Firewire logo, but when I plug it into my MBP it doesn't show up, not even in Disk Utility.

Just to be sure, I ran Apple Hardware Test again after all this and got the same error.

P · Nov 27, 2008, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by MacMan4000

I tried the PMU reset (which is actually SMU reset on my iMac, if I'm understanding my google results right. Correct me if I'm wrong). following these directions was easy enough, but they don't give you any way of knowing if it worked. I tried it 3 times, but I have no idea if the SMU was actually reset or not.

That had no effect. It's still doing the same thing as before. (Which is booting to a gray screen with a gray apple and turning the fans on full blast, then just sitting there.)

Yes, that's logical if the installation is trashed, but what does the hardware test say?

MacMan4000 · 12:45 AM

Originally Posted by P

Yes, that's logical if the installation is trashed, but what does the hardware test say?

Originally Posted by MacMan4000

Just to be sure, I ran Apple Hardware Test again after all this and got the same error.

I included the results of the hardware test in the first post. unless you know of a different hardware test I should be trying

Big Mac · Nov 28, 2008, 04:22 AM

The drive is dying. Backup (hopefully you've already done that) and replace ASAP.

Doc HM · Nov 28, 2008, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

The drive is dying. Backup (hopefully you've already done that) and replace ASAP.

No, I think the problem is that his drive is dead. Pretty hard to back up from a drive that won't mount and doesn't show up in disk utility.

I would call it in and replace it. As you have said you are OK with the actual drive install, which should be easy enough. The G5 iMacs are easier than the intel ones by a considerable margin to replace the drive.

Once you have replaced the drive you will need to format it to install the new OS. This will require either booting the iMac from the original instal DVD and using disk utility to format the drive or booting the imac into firewire mode and using disk utility on another mac to format the drive.

Once the drive has been formatted you can install OS X back onto it and you should be good to go.

Then you can restore your data from whatever backup you have (you do have something right). If not then your best bet is to hand the drive over to a specialist recovery company. If you are feeling brave you could put the drive into an external enclosure and use an app such as disk warrior to try to scrape some data back of the drive, this normally works to some extent unless the drive has undergone catastrophic mechanical failure, in which case all bets are off on recovery.

MacMan4000 · Nov 28, 2008, 03:04 PM

Thanks for all the input guys. I just ordered a new drive from newegg. Looks like I'll finally get to put that Time Machine backup to good use!

wowok1234 · Nov 28, 2008, 08:29 PM

The iMac G5s with iSights are significantly more difficult to do a HD replacement on than the first two generations of iMac G5s. With the iSight gen, you have to remove the bezeland the LCD screen before you get to the hard drive, whereas on the other two you just pop the back open.

MacMan4000 · Dec 13, 2008, 05:20 PM

OK. I bought this Seagate HDD to replace the old one. I just finished installing it. Now I figured I could just boot from my original restore disk and format and install. Well apparently either I did something wrong, or that just doesn't work.

It's acting like there is no drive in there at all. When I boot from the install disk it can't find anything to install on, so I open Disk Utility. It can't find anything other than the install disk. I even tried Firewire Target Disk mode again. No dice.

I know I connected all the cables. The only thing I was unsure about was the little jumper thingys. I know my Windows-lover friend has had to move those little things around on the end of the HDD before, but I never really understood why. According to the label on my new Seagate, if I leave the jumper where it is, then the drive will be 1.5Gb/s... but if i remove the jumper completely, then it will be 3.0Gb/s. Now at first I thought, faster=better. But I decided to look at the old drive and found out that the Maxtor that was in there only operates at 1.5Gb/s, so I just left the new one as 1.5 as well.

Should I have changed it to 3.0? Is this even relevant? Did I make a stupid mistake that you all will point and laugh at?

MacMan4000 · Dec 13, 2008, 08:01 PM

Well you guys were taking too long to respond

so I went back and replugged everything again. And now the drive seems to appear in Disk Utility about every other time I restart. But when it does show up, it fails disk verification and also fails at disk repair. When I try to erase (reformat) it freezes up again.

So I tried the Apple Hardware test again. This got me a new hard drive error.

"Error Code:
2STF/1/4: S-ATA Bus 0 - Master"

Which is only slightly different from the previous code. The only relevant info I can find online is this forum post from MacRumors.com that says its a dead logic board and costs over $800 to fix!

Please tell me thats wrong...

AKcrab · Dec 13, 2008, 09:31 PM

There is a slim chance it's your SATA cable.

MacMan4000 · 01:21 AM

Well I "acquired" an Apple Service Diagnostics disk to run some more specific tests...
here are the results:

This thing (seen above) gave me a tiny-ass window to view my test results, and me being the bored, unemployed, loser that I am, took about 25 pictures of the screen and pieced them together to create one big test result image that can be seen here. (and looks like crap)

my questions:
1.) Does the "MLB" it tested at the top stand for "main logic board?"
2.) Is this brand new drive dead?
3.)

4.) What do I do now?

EDIT: if that big test result image is too difficult to read I have a larger version here. I didn't post this big one originally because it's a whopping 1.5mb