desperate for G5 solutions...

hi, no you didn't - I failed to realise there were more messages waiting on page 2! Sorry about that. So I posted my last - then read yours.
And I went to the dead 2ghz box, and huffily pulled out the ram, which was 3gigs of Crucial DDR SDRAM.
Zilch, not a flutter....
I decided to put 2gb back. Just 2gb.
And thereafter as I absent-mindedly kept prodding the power button on and off, having aleady given the thing up for dead, I decided on one last try at setting the firmware, so I did apple/alt/OF on one of the attempts when it sounded like it might try to boot, and it gave me firmware. Usual 3 commands and..... ye gods, talk about the raising of Lazarus...!?! It went through with it and booted. The date was 1970 again but I think that was because I hadn't been able to boot since I tried the new PRAM battery.
After about 2 minutes the machine froze. Had to shut down. Expecting the worst I turned it on again - well blow me.... it booted twice in succession for the first time since the trouble began.
It is now still running after 10 minutes and I am typing this on it.
I almost daren't switch it off....
But how can this be??
If this over optimistic report rings any bells with you experienced mac people, what do you reckon the current state of things is...? Does it sound like it could have been the 2X500 ram chips? All the memory tested ok before though with memtest, as did the entire machine with the AHT.
Am totally baffled...
I think I'll leave the baby on.

migrations53 said:

Usual 3 commands and..... ye gods, talk about the raising of Lazarus...!?! It went through with it and booted. The date was 1970 again but I think that was because I hadn't been able to boot since I tried the new PRAM battery.
After about 2 minutes the machine froze. Had to shut down. Expecting the worst I turned it on again - well blow me.... it booted twice in succession for the first time since the trouble began.
It is now still running after 10 minutes and I am typing this on it.
I almost daren't switch it off....
But how can this be??
If this over optimistic report rings any bells with you experienced mac people, what do you reckon the current state of things is...?

Click to expand...

Good deal that you read this thread a bit more carefully! The answer was there...sometimes you have to sift through everything & pay attention to the details.

Sounds to me that you had multiple issues with this computer...and along the way you were probably solving just one issue at a time, but never getting them all at the same time (which is tough to do).

The starting point in fixing a troublesome computer is to get back to "ground zero" (pull all the ram, remove anything new, good PRAM battery, etc.). Then rebuilding back slowly.

Sometimes it's the smallest things that can give you the biggest headaches!

Let's keep our fingers crossed that your computer is stable...please post again & let us know how things are going.

- Nick

Thanks Nick, well.... I did speak too soon actually. After an hour I discovered that the machine had gone to sleep. And upon pressing keys etc the machine made hopeful sounds.... fan whirring again etc... but nothing on the screen, just black. Had to switch off. After this I managed to get it to start to boot a few times but not finish. After a while not even this much worked. I have just switched on and off about 20 times. Not even the slightest boot noises. But then it was like this before.
I'm not sure what to do now, except there is one other thing I observed, I don't know if it's relevant. Most of the time the small light to the lower right of the screen remains on after the unit is switched off. Even if I leave it for hours that light will stay on. If I switch off at the mains and then on again, it is then off. I wondered if it is an indication of some kind of problem....

I'm now on an old 1.07ghz ibook... at least it might let me finish this before it freezes, which it always does after abt 30 mins... My house is a mac disaster area.

Although I usually like and recommend Crucial RAM, it is possible to have bad modules - and memory issues can be the devil to nail down.

I think my recommendation would be to replace all of the memory in both machines with memory from OWC, which is specifically certified for Macs (which can be picky about memory):

Find the latest Performance Upgrades, Firewire and USB Hard Drives, SATA, Memory, Laptop Battery, and more at OWC

crashing noises

Hi everyone, I want to thank you for your suggestions back in August when my dual 2ghz powermac died. It's actually still dead, occasionally it will boot, once booted provided I don't let it go to sleep, it's totally fine until something gives it a KP. Then I probably can't boot again for another 100 attempts.
Anyhow, an update. I reinstalled 10.4 on my other 1.6 powermac and managed to stop a lot of the KPs and crashing... the problems are always caused by music programs, seems to be the audio component. The 1.6 isn't ideal for me because the processor isn't really enough to deal with all the samples I use in making music. But it will have to do for now.
But I'm having the same problems I always had with this machine, namely HUGE crashes through the speakers, usually when a score is playing, and without warning. I get a hint that this might happen from various pops and crackles, but I can't predict. When it happens it's so alarming it could give me a heart attack. The program I use is MOTU's Digital Performer, and their audio hardware the 828 audio interface.
I also use Sibelius 4, Sibelius is arguably THE standard now in musical notation software, it's irreplacable, but it too causes problems, the audio makes very odd echoey sinister sounds and bumps and clicks, before sooner or later a KP.... So I'm saving every 30 seconds incase of a KP.
I can't understand why the Mac seems so unstable, they're known to be brilliant for music work. Any musicians here who work with computers have any ideas?
Thanks
Adrian

You've got two machines with hardware issues, it isn't that Macs are inherently unstable. If they were, they wouldn't be as popular as they are.

... hardware issues that the thorough Apple hardware tests fail to pick up, they sail through, all passed. As for memory, memtest give all my memory the thumbs up. Yet there are these problems.
I didn't mean to suggest that The Mac collectively is unstable. Sorry if being unclear offended.... whew
I would be grateful for more suggestions, especially about the issues in my previous post concerning music software. Thanks.

How old are the hard drives in the Pro? Perhaps starting anew with a new drive may solve some issues. Another item, is power conditioning. Some areas of cities have poor voltages and the like. My iMac and servers are plugged into a battery backup that gives steady clean power.

Last idea is to used compressed air to clean out the interior especially any cooling fins and fans. G5 machines run very hot and if they head towards overheating the machine will shut down as a protection. The heat issue is one reason I skipped over the G5 era.

When you are installing OS software also download and install the latest Combo updater as the OS that comes from the original DVD may be suspect. Just read the Snow Leopard threads for current issues. Keep the Combo update on a USB stick or burn it to a DVD as insurance. As for the music software, it may be that the company has not continued to develop it past a certain OS level. Do you have the latest and greatest version?

hi again, came back to my old thread!
Thank you for your suggestions.
I've been despondent about the condition of my G5s and so had it all on hold. Now I'm getting surious again. To recap: it's the old 1.6ghz which is working but useless for my music work as it stands at the moment becuase I have concluded the audio system is causing the KPs. I reckon I will have to do a lot of updating and replacing.... money money.
So, I am focussing my attention on the inoperative 2ghz dual processor G5. I want to try and get to the bottom of the fault absolutely and for sure before I do any replacing. You will remember I have tried just about all I know to revive the machine, except to see what could be done through Open Firmware.
I was wondering how I can install Applejack on the HD without booting it using OF. Can anyone advise about this please? Or, maybe there is a way to 'reinstall' the version of OF, thinking it is this which may have become corrupted maybe.
I mention applejack because it has improved the performance of my laptops and so wondered if the HD was in better shape it could be encouraged to boot.
the problem right now is that it only very very occasionally boots, maybe once in 200 attempts! Imagine how long it takes just sitting there finger on power button..
About 1 in 6 times you will hear the chime and it will start to boot, the apple screen appears and the boot scrunch sounds stop.... then no more. Have to switch off. Sometimes going through the OF procedure (reset etc) encourages it to boot but now I don't think so. PRAM battery new, loigic bd button pressed, memtest done, apple hardware test done (and passed...)

I'm obstinate so I want to see if I can try a few more things. Anyone able to advise me how I can usefully employ Open Firmware to diagnose/fix/reprogram etc?
Thanks a lot.

take it apart ... and try to replace some parts that usable ...