power mac g5 refuses to start

[robertsenior]

hi

i have a power mac g5 and it has been intermitent for a while

 

some times it will load most of the time it wont

 

when i press the power button the white led above the button flashes and there is a faint clicking noise.

 

also when i remove all power and then try it again there is a quick red flash after the button is pressed.

 

can any one help me

[HodgeHi]

Have you checked the internals?

check to see if the liquid cooling system is leaking.

 

Hope that it is and hope that the next bit is true.

 

There was a rumor i read (macrumors i think it was) that Apple are replacing powermac g5's with mac pros due to a problem with leaking liquid cooling systems.

 

How true that is i don't know, but i'm hoping that it is and my G5 develops that specific fault

 

Other things to try. Turn the machine on and hold down the cmd, shift and P and R keys on your keyboard.

 

Try reseating the battery on board the mainboard.

 

Remove any other devices inside the machine i.e. pci cards, additional HDDs etc. Re-seat all the fans in the machine to make sure that they are snug etc.

 

Start in verbose by holding down cmd and V keys.

[NotVeryPC]

Sounds like it could be a faulty power supply.

[robertsenior]

thanks ill try all that

 

if it is the power supply then how do i go bout replacing it or is it not worth it

[morganw]

I replaced the power supply in mine, it was about £270 for a refurbished power supply in exchange for my broken one. To actually fit you have to remove pretty much everything except the logic board and it's still pretty tight. I think I took an entire morning just to remove my old one, for rebuilding it I managed to get the official take-apart instructions which gives you information that might be critical e.g. the order that you tighten the screws to secure the liquid cooling system to make sure it's contacting properly.

 

I wouldn't be entirely convinced it was the power supply, mine actually exploded when I switched on at the wall socket so I was pretty sure.

 

Apparently there are two different models of liquid cooler, one being more prone to leaks, this is the one that I have but it has been fine so far. I doubt Apple would give out Mac Pros as a replacement unit, there are so many problems with the late G5s regarding power supplies (exploding and squealing), fan speeds, firewire controller, cpu power management, the list goes on...