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PB2K · Mar 8, 2006, 04:49 AM

I found an abandoned powermac g4 533 which seems to have issues with the motherboard.

it was all empty when i found it, so i added 3x64mb kingston memory, a new battery, a new harddisk, a new dvd rewriter and a new videocard from ATI (i think a 32mb radeon DVI/VGA, it doesnt say anywhere except "ATI" I do know its mac compatible).

curiousities :
I tried to boot it up but only the fan starts turning. no startup chime, the powerbutton only gives light when i press it.
of course this is odd, so when i press the resetbutton, the harddisk/rewriter start up

i connected a 15" TFT 1024x768 to the VGa of the AGP ATI card, it says "out of sync"
so i assume the videocard is set to a really high resolution

how bad is this? do you guys think i can cure this sick mac?

bowwowman · Mar 8, 2006, 04:53 AM

Did you install an OS onto that new HDD, or try to boot from an installer disk?

BigBadBiologist · Mar 8, 2006, 09:01 AM

sounds to me like a bad power supply. But I guess it could also be the motherboard. Is the heatsink still on the CPU? (I got a couple dumpster dove Sawtooths and the heatsinks were missing. I don't know what would have happened if I had just tried to power them up)

chris v · Mar 8, 2006, 09:09 AM

Originally Posted by PB2K

I tried to boot it up but only the fan starts turning. no startup chime, the powerbutton only gives light when i press it.
of course this is odd, so when i press the resetbutton, the harddisk/rewriter start up

?

Try leaving different RAM slots empty. I had a slot on the MB of my Sawtooth go bad, and those were the exact symptoms. It ran so long as the slot was empty. Longshot, but may be woth trying.

spork · Mar 8, 2006, 09:22 AM

Similar situation with my GigE and it turned out to be the power supply after initial incorrect diagnosis of logic board, so I agree with BigBadBiologist, providing it is a hardware based problem. Test the power supply and then work through other possiblites such as bad motherboard. My GigE did crazy stuff without the heat sink installed, so that was more good advice. Good luck. contact me for an apple PDF about troubleshooting early G4 towers.

PB2K · Mar 8, 2006, 12:02 PM

Thanks guys. It sounds very plausible that it might be the powersupply : sometimes the ATAdrives don't get enough power so they just shut off.

I bought a powerlogix 1,33 ghz dual upgrade for this computer and want to expand this system to the max. It would be nice if everything worked

I'll try a new supply

dave49er · Mar 8, 2006, 07:05 PM

I had a similar problem with a GigE that I got for $25 knowing there was a problem with the CPU, logic board, or power supply. It was the logic board.

Macola · Mar 8, 2006, 10:38 PM

Had a GigE with the same problem, bad logic board. Fixed that, then the power supply died. It's now happily running a dual 1.4 G4 (although it gets a bit toasty in the summer).

BigBadBiologist · Mar 8, 2006, 11:54 PM

Originally Posted by spork

.. My GigE did crazy stuff without the heat sink installed,...

Did you really try to run your system without the heatsink installed???

PB2K · Mar 9, 2006, 04:40 AM

i have 2 fans that connect on top of the heavy heatsink (dual 1,33 ghz), only with the hood open it gets enough cold air to operate without the fans, i was advised to drill extra holes in the powersupply for extra venting
i also want to insert 4 x 250 gb ata harddisks with a sonnet AtA RAID controller

i need a heavier power supply dont I ?

jacqkeen · Mar 9, 2006, 11:19 AM

just out of curiosity, when you said reset button in your original post did you mean the PMU reset? i recently had an issue with my DA dual 533 that required a PMU reset and the power button was doing the same thing you described. Once i reset the PMU all was right with the world. Good luck!

spork · Mar 9, 2006, 11:36 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by spork
.. My GigE did crazy stuff without the heat sink installed,...
Did you really try to run your system without the heatsink installed???

I booted without the heat sink while testing 2 separate logic boards and OSX came up, but all goofy. Shut it right off, installed the heat sink and no problems. How was I to know. Shows how tough this equipment is.

PB2K · Mar 15, 2006, 11:59 AM

it was difficult to find a power supply for the g4 533, so i bought a cheap g4 466, which also supports my dual processor upgrade. for the first time in 3 years, I installed OS9 on a mac again

Still, I am curious what kind of powersupply I need for that 533. Would a cheap g4 graphite powersupply be sufficient? The 533 is still worth saving, though i used my DUAL 1.33 already

BigBadBiologist · 05:50 PM

The 466 and 533 should both be Digital Audios so the power supplies/motherboards should be identical.

/edit: or you could maybe put a PC power supply in there:
http://www.outofspec.com/frankenmac/wire.shtml

mountainash · Mar 24, 2006, 11:44 AM

the gigE and DA have the same PSU.

Also, make sure you reset the PMU (you are meant to do this when you replace the battery).

The 'out of sync' message is normal when there isn't a signal, or a bad signal. You could try a PCI video card.

Oh, and please don't install the 1.33 CPU upgrade until you get the machine working. You don't want to kill the dual 1.33 aswell