[smoran06]

Hey All,

First post, first mac, but not a technology lightweight, so hopefully you guys can help me out.

Here's the situation: Ordered my first mac ever off of E-Bay. Power Mac G5 late 2005 with dual core 2.3ghz, etc etc. Great price, very excited. Bad news, Fed Ex dropped it and the thing won't turn on.(and no insurance so no dice on the claim.. ) No lights on the front panel when the power button is pressed, no fans, no drives spinning. Disassembled and tested the power supply, 5V coming out of the appropriate pins. So power is good. No signs of wear and tear or damage to the logic board, and the CPU and heat sink seemed to be mounted correctly. I take a look at the front panel board and notice during tear down that one of the posts that it attaches itself (via two black screws) to the logic board has been separated from the board. The impact was on the bottom of the case from the front so this may have been the casualty. Is there a way that the front panel board is damaged to a point where it will not start the computer? Or is it a necessity that the logic board connecting post be physically attached to the logic board. I have pictures of both if necessary. To the untrained eye they seem reasonably fine. Some signs of trauma around the openings for the screws on the front panel board, but other than that not horrible looking.

OK, thanks for reading my ramblings. Any info would be much appreciated. Especially a way that I might test the front panel board to ensure it is the problem, or anything that leads to my power mac becoming more than just a paperweight worth over $500.

Thanks so much,
Sean

[reader50]

Pictures would be helpful. Outside damage to give us a location idea, and the inside pics you suspect.

In the meantime, check the motherboard battery for voltage. It's on bottom left side of the MB. Assuming it has voltage, press the PMU reset button (near battery) briefly, then try to boot up again.

You do need the front panel board to register the power button. There's no alternate way to tell your G5 to boot up. With power connected and the side door open, are any LEDs illuminated on the motherboard? There are several diagnostic LEDs located forward of the RAM slots, though they may not light up unless you remove the air deflector.

[smoran06]

Thanks Reader50,

All the pics I have are posted here:
Click Here

I replaced the mother board battery and did the pmu reset option when I first couldn't get it to boot up, unfortunately to no avail.

And yea, the only led on the MB that illuminates is the one that pops on when the air deflector is removed.

Thanks again for the help, hopefully we can get to the bottom of this.
-Sean

[reader50]

Which LED, exactly, and what color is it? Steady light or blinking? The diagnostic LEDs are numbered from 1-7 from top to bottom, with tiny function names printed beside them.

From the pictures, the front panel board got jolted around against the screw heads when the system was dropped. I'd suspect damage to the snap connector on the front board, and/or the motherboard connector for it. You don't have a picture of the back side of the board, but the MB pic (MB3.jpg) appears to show two pin connectors dislodged on left. Top left, and 5th down on left do not look like the others.

Also, the pics are noisy/blurred. It would help if they were sharper. I'd suggest manually setting ISO to minimum (usually 80 or 100 on most cameras) and either using forced flash, or using a fixed mount to handle the longer exposures. You'll have to go to Macro mode for most of these shots in order for autofocus to work

One pic caught my eye for another reason (After 06.jpg). There are two bits of white discoloration visible on the main case where it (used to) meet the lower carriage. Towards the front, beginning just behind the front foot. Can you confirm if the white along bottom is scuffing, or liquid residue?

[smoran06]

My LED's don't appear to be numbered that way, so I'll do my best to explain which one. Also I have labeled them as best I could in the pictures I include at the bottom. The LED that illuminates for me is labeled "trickle", and it glows solid/continuous orange, if the power cord is plugged in and the air cover is removed. That's the only one that illuminates. I labeled all the other LED's in the pictures at the bottom. Doing so I noticed one of the LED's was missing, go figure, huh.

And yea, sorry about the picture quality. Using my Samsung Omnia phone to take these. It is a 5MP, but it sure proves more MP doesn't mean better quality. I adjusted the ISO to 50 as suggested and posted a few more shots here:
click here

They may/may not help. I will have access to a better camera tomorrow afternoon and will take better pics if necessary. Do you think readjusting those two pins and reconnecting everything is worth a shot?

And yea, the white mark on that shot is scuffing. I've tried rubbing it off and it doesn't come off like you would expect water residue would.

Seriously, thanks so much for your help. If you crack the code on this I'm buying you a beer. I don't know how one would send a beer through the internet, but I'll find a way.

Thanks again,
Sean

[reader50]

Don't worry about the missing LED #6, it's for CPU 'B' which is only present in the Quad 2.5 GHz model. Models without the 2nd CPU omit the extra LED - it would be lit all the time if present, since the 2nd CPU isn't responding.

Sounds like your motherboard thinks it is OK. The dislodged screw insert needs to be put back with some superglue, then allowed to set before torque is applied. I'd glue it overnight before trying it.

From your pictures, the front board does not use a snap connector - it uses spring pins (MB side) against contact pads (back of FPB). Without both screws pulling down, not all pins may make contact. So we've found a likely culprit. Straighten the two MB pins that are out of alignment. Then reassemble in the morning after the glue has set.

The newer pics are only slightly better - lower ISO will help, but your phone may not offer the controls needed. For sharp pics, you also need to close down the aperature and increase the exposure time - a real camera would have done this automatically when you forced the ISO down. Your phone camera probably has a fixed aperature and may have a fixed lens. If so, taking a clean shot is essentially impossible with that camera.

Don't worry about the scuff marks on the case - that is good news. Your G5 has a liquid cooling system on the CPU. If the coolant system had leaked, you would see telltale corrosion signs on the case, the power supply will be trashed, and the CPU / logic board might be gonners too. So scuff marks are good news, and I'll cross the other possible answer off my list.

Yes, readjust the pins, glue the screw terminal back in, and reassemble in the morning. The damage seems to have been absorbed by the front foot, with the main case getting a jolt that only affected the front area - basically, affected the one board. There's a good chance it will boot up.

[smoran06]

Awesome,

I'll pick up some super glue in the morning, follow your recommendations, let it set and then give her a try.

(crosses fingers)

Thanks again!

[Dex13]

i just want to say thank you to reader50. that was amazing.

[reader50]

I'd like to hear that it booted up before celebrating ... the pics were not sharp enough to tell if there were any hairline cracks radiating from the threaded inserts, for example. Or from the screw slots on the FPB. But it does look much better than the first report suggested. Let's keep hoping.

[smoran06]

SUCCESS!!!!

First, reader50 you are amazing. I really wanna do something to thank you. Whether it's a paypal thank you, a donation to your favorite charity, or a UPS Overnight case of your favorite beer; just let me know and it's yours!

Second, here's what happened. You were right about the pins and the screw posts. And it was further complicated by the front mesh portion of the case. The front mesh material was pushed inward, causing the front panel board to not line up correctly with the pins on the motherboard. You may laugh, but since that mesh is hard to permanently manipulate by hand I used a small wood block as a shim in between it and the cover for the power supply. And I guess things are lined up correctly, because it turned on.

So now here are my concerns. The front panel issue was noticeable due to not booting up, but since the machine was dropped I want to make sure that there are no underlying issues with the rest of the computer. Are there built in software tools that I can use to check all of the hardware components to make sure they are kosher? Just point me to another post or give me a software name and I'll learn the rest. Or should I take it into a Mac store and ask them to do a checkup?(Although I don't know if my dignity can take the humiliation from explaining the wooden shim ) And I guess, just asking if there are any other recommendations to make sure this thing is healthy as can be. Would not like to get full into development and then have it explode and ruin all my work.

Again, thanks so much reader50. You are my hero. Let me know what I can do to make it up to you.

Thanks,
Sean

[reader50]

Better hold the beer, since I don't drink. Having a case arrive could ... um, make for complicated explanations.

Just stick around. We can always use more sharp people to keep things interesting, and you did really well considering the circumstances. Most people would have panicked and given up on their investment.

Concerning the wood shim - if it works, it's good. The case is doubtless bent a bit. If you could figure out the error, you might be able to force it back to true with a bar clamp, which would correct the mesh alignment problem. Or you can pick up a case on ebay from a dead PowerMac - it would have to be a "late 2005 dualcore" like yours, so that the rear ports all match the motherboard.

You can pick up original shipping boxes too, which is what your seller should have done. That, or pack it better and pony up a little cash for insurance. I'm sorry you got let down when testing the waters on the Mac side of the fence. That was part of the reason I stuck by rather late, trying to solve the problem.

As to a general diagnostic, if you have the original install DVD that came with your G5, you have what you need. Hold down the Option (Alt) key during bootup, it will give you a selection of all available volumes to boot from. Including the hidden diagnostic partition on the install DVD called "Apple Hardware Test". This will do a decent job of checking your hardware out.

My suspicions would be on the CPU mounts or the hard drive(s). But if the CPU mounts had been knocked loose - well, you only have one (dualcore) CPU. It wouldn't have booted. The hard drive(s) were powered down when the jolt happened, so the heads were parked. Shouldn't be any damage there either. The last thing to check might be the video card - it's another item that connects to both the motherboard and the case. You could reseat it, and you'll notice any alignment problem while doing so.

If you do stick around, most new arrivals check out the tech-specific forums (like here, PowerMac & MacPro) then drift into the Lounge, where we keep the loonies. The seriously damaged hang out in the Political Lounge, so you might want to keep a safe distance from there.