[maxhedrum]

Greetings all -

Was given a 2004 PM G5 1.8 DP that doesn't display video. Trying to resurrect it to use with a film scanner that won't work with intel Macs, so hope there's someone out there that can give some guidance.

First thing I did was clean the crud out(power supply was nanoseconds away from catching fire). It had the power light indicator flashing to show bad RAM, Replaced that and now it stays steady, get the startup chime, and fans start out normal, but gradually ramp up in speed. HDD spins and the cap lock lamp flashes and the mouse laser lights. No video with known good monitor.

So far, here's what I've done:

Pulled everything from the case and cleaned. Re-greased both CPUs. Tried running each processor individually. Replaced RAM. Tried three different vid cards. Wiped HDD and reinstalled 10.4, Disc Utility showed it as good. Ran all reset procedures multiple times. Checked battery. Rechecked connections. Disconnected optical drive. My best guess now is it's the logic board. Previous owner said he tried upgrading the vid card(don't know with what), which he damaged during the install, and said it wouldn't boot after reinstalling the old card. He seemed a bit hamfisted, so who knows what he mucked up.

My question is this, if the AGP slot is toast, might it be possible to get video out of one of the PCI slots? There's a seller on ebay with flashed Radeon 7000 PCI cards that he guarantees to work in the G5.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

[reader50]

Yes, it's perfectly possible to use a PCI video card. Video will run a bit slower. Among other things, the R7000 wasn't a very strong card even at the time.

The motherboard indicator lights. What lights are lit? Also, how did you install 10.4? Note that there were separate 10.4 installs for PPC vs Intel. Though even with a bad OS install, you should still get a blinking folder icon.

[maxhedrum]

Hi -

Thanks for the reply, and thanks for helping with the dinosaur.

As it's going to be used just for running the scanner, not worried about vid speed. More concerned that whatever is causing the AGP to fail(or so it seems) will have an effect on video out of the PCI slots.

This unit only has the red LED on the logic board that lights when the clear deflector is removed, and it works as it should. I was referring to the white indicator on the front and after the new RAM it stays steady. Another odd bit is that sometimes when the power button is used to shut it down, it sometimes puts it to sleep, even when holding it in for awhile. It will then work as it should after the next restart.

I reformatted and reinstalled 10.4 by putting the drive in a Firewire drive dock and using a retail DVD disc. This was done through a G4 Cube.

[reader50]

With the unit unplugged, press and hold the reset button on the motherboard for a few seconds. It will be near the battery, and used to be called a CUDA button. Today, it's usually a PMU- or SMU-reset button.

After hardware changes, the system sometimes needs a reset to dig itself out of previous assumptions.

If that doesn't bring back video, then the previous owner probably didn't ground himself while changing the AGP card. A discharge into the AGP slot would explain things.

But try the reset first. And when booting up next, hold down command-option-p-r for good measure, until you hear an extra chime or two.

[Waragainstsleep]

The ancient blue & white PowerMac G3 'Smurf' had a PCI graphics card as standard equipment, in case that helps.

[maxhedrum]

Hi reader -

Have done several PMU resets, in between shifting hardware around. Have also done several PRAM resets. However, I now don't get the second chime during the PRAM reset. It did the first few times, but not lately.

Unfortunately I think you may be right, judging from it's general condition when I got it and the problems folks have had with these. Guess I'll try the PCI card and see how it goes. Wish I could find a reliable rework outfit for the board. Have run across posters who had success with reflows.

Thanks again

[maxhedrum]

PS -

I had run across several references to the Radeon X800 card bricking the logic board. Could be he tried one, but he's now out of the country and I have no further contact.

[maxhedrum]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

The ancient blue & white PowerMac G3 'Smurf' had a PCI graphics card as standard equipment, in case that helps.

Thanks, will check it out. My first new Mac was a Yosemite.