[oldtimer]

I have experienced the sleep of death for some time now. I learned NOT to put the thing to sleep. I do however shut down at times.

Sometimes when I start her up, she starts up - as in the sleep of death. The drives are spinning the light is on, and not pulsing on the CPU. The light on the Foamac monitor is pulsing and the screen is black.

This appears to be related to the "SLEEP OF DEATH"

System:
G4 Quicksilver 867 maxed with ram
10.2.6
I zapped the pram, pulled the battery
reinstalled system
ran utilities
changes keyboard, mouse
no hub

I am using digidesign PCI cards which I know do not suppose sleep but as far as turning the system on it should be fine.

I've had this setup with many G4's and never had this problem.

Anyone care to speculate on what may be wrong or what else I might try?

Thanks!

[KidRed]

Well, for starters have you pulled the PCI card and see if shutting down is still an issue?

[chris v]

I had this problem with a machine a while back. It'd chime, the fans and drives would spin up, then nothing. It turned out to be a bad RAM slot on the mother board. I isolated it by removing the RAM chips one at a time until it eventually booted. Fortunately, it was still under warranty, and Apple replaced the mobo.

CV

[oldtimer]

Everything is fine with the cards removed from this machine, not in the previous G4'sI've had with the same cards in it.

Seems o be some sort of conflict with the PCI cards and this motherboard or somethin.

Any more ideas here?

[seventn]

My Dp1000Mhz has the same problem. It's been at the shop for 46days now and they still haven't found the problem. THey changed the Logic board, HD and video card and still not it...

Monday I'm calling customer service (apple) and demanding that this nonsense stops and that they give me a new one.

we'll see... Too bad. This was my 12th Mac in 6 years and never had ANY problems.

john

[oldtimer]

seventn, did you ever fix your problem? Mine is still ongoing. Anyone.

[seventn]

Yes they finally fixed the problem after 62 days and 4 parts... Turns out that it was the video card (that's what I told them from day 1).

Not sure what is was but they changed the HD, MOBO and 2 video cards!

Sold the unit the minute I got it back. I'm sure it would have been fine (eveything was new in it) but it was full of bad memories...

Got a DP 2 GHz and got a whole bunch of NEW problems. Everything is ok now. I exchanged it for a DP 1.8 and I'm very happy with it. It's my favorite mac of all time (I've had 15)

good luck

[seventn]

cheeech

[oldtimer]

Humma humma humma humma.... Unbelievable!

I am now wondering if it's my vidio card too! I thought of selling my G4 too but can not till it's fixed.

Can this also be my video card? I have the NVDA,GeForce4MX?

Are they inexpensive enough to buy a new one? I have no intentions on bringing the tower to a service center even though it's fairly new.

[Matthew Attoe]

Don't know if this is relevant to your problem, but seems similar...

I've noticed on the g4/450's we have at work that if we shut the machines down and turn the monitors off, we MUST turn the monitors back on before firing the mac up, otherwise the mac bongs, spins up then does nothing.

The only way we can cure this is to pull the power cord out of the mac for a long time (30 mins or so) and then make sure the screen is turned on before we power the g4 back up again.

Seems very odd, and if i hadn't experienced several times before, i wouldn't believe it...

Matthew

[oldtimer]

This actually makes some sense!

I had tried the same thing way back after trying everything imaginable > turned the monitor on after startup, and had the same problem (blank screen). I also pulled the power chord and corrected it. I though Iit was a coincidence at the time.

Then after some time , forgot and would at times turn the monitor on afterward startup , same problem but I forgot to pull out the power chord. to correct it.

CAN THIS INSANE WORKAROUND REALLY BE POSSIBLE?

WHY DOES THE PULLING OF THE POWER CHORD AMOUNT TO ANYTHING?

[buffalolee]

Originally posted by oldtimer:
This actually makes some sense!

I had tried the same thing way back after trying everything imaginable > turned the monitor on after startup, and had the same problem (blank screen). I also pulled the power chord and corrected it. I though Iit was a coincidence at the time.

Then after some time , forgot and would at times turn the monitor on afterward startup , same problem but I forgot to pull out the power chord. to correct it.

CAN THIS INSANE WORKAROUND REALLY BE POSSIBLE?

WHY DOES THE PULLING OF THE POWER CHORD AMOUNT TO ANYTHING?

Try replacing the battery on the motherboard. $10 part @ radio shack.

[oldtimer]

just replaced the batery this past weekend. problem still exists. i'm thinking it's the NVDA,GeForce4MX card.

I guess the only way to know is replacing it, but at what cost? maybe with something else...suggestions?

[macman247]

Does you computer boing at startup? Try the following:
(re)moving your PCI card
swapping RAM and slots
reseating you video card
disconnecting your drives

Take a look at these articles:

screen is black, startup tone, drive operates, fan running, LED lit:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=95043

screen is black, no startup tone, drive does not operate:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=95054

Have you looked for firmware updates for your PCI card and/or video card? If you think it's the video card, make sure it's flashed with the latest firmware (this particular update addresses an issue with using the Cinema HD display, and may contain additional enhancements):
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120168

[oldtimer]

MacMan,

Thanks for taking the time to help out. I did try a few of your listed suggestions but now I will try them all.

I sure hope something works...