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Dex13 · Mar 14, 2005, 10:00 PM

hello?

yukon · Mar 15, 2005, 12:01 AM

Hi. That's a lot of detail there.

Are the fans moving? If not, push the CUDA button (button on the motherboard, metalic, small). If they are, try another boot disk, try disconnecting the HD first (drive failure can halt booting in some machines AFAIK). If that doesn't work, you're looking at a more general hardware failure. Replace the PSU, if it's a spectacular PSU failure then you might have to replace everything electronically connected to it.

You want the CUDA button to save you. Play your bets and try replacing the PRAM battery as well. Don't worry tooo much, it's an older machine, and I've seen the CUDA revive a G4 when NOTHING turned on.

Stolfi1 · Mar 16, 2005, 12:33 AM

the cuda isnt saving me. I replaced the psu and it does the same thing start for a sec then shut right off. I reseated the ram the pci cards and I pulled the video out just to see if that was the problem but it was a no go. I guess its time to part her out

sine -''-..- · Mar 18, 2005, 11:31 PM

this has nothing to do with modification... moving.

reader50 · Mar 19, 2005, 02:17 AM

Replace the battery. All the Sawtooths are getting old enough to have the battery die. Mine did.

chris v · Mar 19, 2005, 10:36 AM

Originally posted by reader50:
Replace the battery. All the Sawtooths are getting old enough to have the battery die. Mine did.

Yup, went through that with a Cube that had sat idle for a few weeks just the other day.

VCO · Apr 6, 2005, 09:53 AM

I'm having the same problem with a G4/500. I press the power switch, the Mac comes on for a few seconds and shuts down. I've ruled out the CPU, PSU and I'm thinking that it's the Mobo.

Is there anything on the Mobo to look at? Replacement boards are still quite expensive.

BTW, replacing the battery and resetting the CUDA doesn't help.

chris v · Apr 6, 2005, 10:48 AM

Originally posted by VCO:
I'm having the same problem with a G4/500. I press the power switch, the Mac comes on for a few seconds and shuts down. I've ruled out the CPU, PSU and I'm thinking that it's the Mobo.

Is there anything on the Mobo to look at? Replacement boards are still quite expensive.

BTW, replacing the battery and resetting the CUDA doesn't help.

Bad RAM slot? I had that happen on my Sawtooth. Pull ram until you've tried booting will one or another slot empty.

Freeflyer · Apr 6, 2005, 09:13 PM

How many bongs do you get when you start up. My guess would be bad ram. Take it all out and see if it starts, then put each ram stick back one by one, trying the different ram slots with each stick. It could be a single bad stick, or a bad slot.

If I remember rightly, if you get 3 bongs it's bad ram.

J.

Big Mac · Apr 6, 2005, 11:19 PM

I did not know that a dead battery could render a machine unbootable like that. In the olden days batteries would die and the only major thing that would be affected would be the system time.

chris v · Apr 7, 2005, 08:17 AM

Originally posted by Big Mac:
I did not know that a dead battery could render a machine unbootable like that. In the olden days batteries would die and the only major thing that would be affected would be the system time.

When the battery died in my Cube, it cased it to boot into OF every time and I had to continue from there, but it would boot. A Cube is essentially a single 450 Sawtooth.

VCO · Apr 8, 2005, 01:24 PM

The RAM's been working in a G3. I pulled it and the Mac does the same thing. It never gets as far as the "bong" stage. It starts and immediately shuts off. 2-3 seconds. I'm 90% positive that the Mobo is the problem. Where can I get a guaranteed to work board? Even eBay is sparse and expensive for these. It's almost the same price to buy a working G4.