06-28-2011, 11:57 AM

I have a PowerMac G4 M8570, it powers up, I hear a fan but it will not power up a monitor, I changed the video card with no success.

Anyone heard of this?

06-28-2011, 12:16 PM

I've been making use of my MDD G4 as a file server and for streaming media. I use screen sharing to do any occasional admin - generally all it has are a kettle lead and ethernet. There is no monitor attached.

It's full of disks, RAM, and the best AGP card I found, years ago.

One thing I don't like is the noise the graphics card makes. I'd like to get rid of that and put the original card back, which would be silent, with no fan on it.

No monitor needed, but when I screen share (vnc) would that reduce the performance? I get a great desktop view remotely, but does it require the good card to produce that? This is transferred over LAN. Anyone know if the card is used for that?

06-28-2011, 12:22 PM

Make sure its not the monitor that went bad, i would also try making sure you replaced the existing card with a compatible one. I have a few G4's and they will give you lights and fans but no boot if one of these is out of line; processor, ram, video card. if your computer doesn't give you the mac "bong" sound when it boots then its probably not booting so try reseating the graphics card too. Once you've eliminated some of the obvious variables then you can move on to something more serious like a fried motherboard or bad AGP slot. if you've got a PCI graphics card, maybeeeeee you could try that?

06-28-2011, 12:35 PM

i do get a bong noise, i am not sure about the card.

06-28-2011, 12:40 PM

That means the computer is booting, since you tried a new graphics card, try checking the monitor (to see if the brightness is all the way down or something, most monitors have a factory reset option) and the connections, make sure its plugged in and powered on, etc. if all is well or if the monitor works on another computer, then i would work with the assumption that your AGP port has defected.

06-28-2011, 12:42 PM

What monitor do you have hooked up to your MDD? Are you sure the monitor is working? Do you have another system you can check the monitor with?

06-28-2011, 01:33 PM

Yes, I tried a couple known working monitors, no luck

06-28-2011, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by jevanof

Yes, I tried a couple known working monitors, no luck

Another question for you. You say you put in a different video card? What card did you install? Just a reminder that only Video cards with Apple Firmware will work in a Mac. Otherwise nothing on the screen if the card uses Firmware code for a PC.