Yet another dying PowerMac G5- kernel panics galore

First post- whoo.

Well, I have a Dual 2.0Ghz PM G5, late 2005 version? I think it is. A few weeks ago whilst surfing the net, it froze, had a kernel panic, I reset the computer and all was good again (so it seemed).

Last week, I couldn't boot my computer at all. It got to the grey apple logo screen, with the circle progress ring, and freezes there.

It currently has a new 1TB WD drive as the boto drive, completely empty, with a fresh install of Leopard, 256mb ATI Radeon 9800 (mac edition of course) 3.5 gig ram and another 1TB drive.

Right now, when I push the power botton, it chimes, LED turns on, gets to the grey apple screen, and immediately freezes, with words that litter the screen and kernel panic message box in the background. I also noticed that if I plug the DVI cable for my monitor into the back of the computer while it is still booting up, the power cuts out. I also swapped that video card for the stock nVidia Geforce 5200, and still got the same result.

Saying all that though, when I booted the computer with the retail Leopard install disc, it loaded up OS X (very slowly). Felt quite unresponsive and eventually the system just hangs there.

What is wrong with this comptuer? RAM is okay (I have 6 sticks and tried all 3 different pairs with the same result), HD is brand new, swapped video card with same result.

Chances the power supply is at fault? CPU core failure? Is it time for a mac pro? Help

Usually kernel panics are caused by either bad ram or a bad video card (or bad CPU).

Are you 100% sure all of your ram & video card are good?

- Nick

I am sure the RAM and video card are good, not sure about the CPU though. I don't have the original G5 installation discs with me, so I can't run a hardware test.

I have 6 sticks of RAM, and have tried a combination of all 3 pairs, on different slots, yeilding the same results. I have an ATi Radeon 256mb 9800 and nVidia 64mb GeForce 5200 video card I've tried and both have the same results. Both have been working fine before this happened.

So this comes down to CPU I guess?

Well it is NOT a late 2005 Dual Core model as they do not run AGP video cards but PCIE cards. Also the problem may well be a dying hard disk drive. When you get your install disc, boot from that and run Repair Disk and see what is reported. Also up for consideration is the logic board as earlier G5s had this problem.

Without install and/or system discs you are diagnosing blindfolded.

Umm, it's the one with the 8 ram slots and AGP slot. 2004 then?

As for the HD, there is a 3-day old WD drive in there with a fresh install of leopard. It's probably seen less than 3 hrs of power.

I managed to boot up the computer and install leopard with a retail version of leopard, get to about 99% of the install and have the computer crash. Booted it up again, and ran through the installation without any problems.

Is it possible to rule out power supply failure now? The hardware test on the CDs won't pickup a power supply failure would it?

Looks like I'll be giving Nextbyte a call for some CDs...

Many many times these kernel panics are the result of newly installed hardware.

Since you are sure the ram & video card are good...and we will assume for the moment that the CPU is fine (since folks usually don't swap these in G5's)...then the only thing left is that new hard drive.

I would say remove that new hard drive...put an old hard drive back in...and see if you still get the kernel panics.

- Nick

eek said:

Umm, it's the one with the 8 ram slots and AGP slot. 2004 then?

Click to expand...

It's probably not important at this point which 2.0 ghz G5 you have...but there were three different versions of the PowerMac G5 with a dual processor 2.0ghz CPU's.

Of these three...two had 8 ram slots.

Then there was a 4th 2.0 ghz G5...but it was a dual-core rather than a dual-processor CPU.

- Nick

The HD is a Western Digital Green Power drive. I had the stock 160gig and that drive in my system for about 6 months before this with no problems.

The newly purcahsed drive, with a fresh leopard install is also a Western Ditigal Green Power 1TB. My intention was to run two of these WD 1TB discs as raid 0, since they're identical.

The weird things is, I didn't change any hardware when all this crap started.

I will try the old HD again (160gig stock). I was in disc utility when the comptuer went funny, and tried to 'verify' the old HD. It came up with big bold red words saying it was in trouble, tried to repair it but couldn't. I clicked 'repair disk permissions' and the system froze, had a kernel panic and I haven't been able to boot up the system properly since then. Thats what prompted me to purchase a new HD (another WD green power 1TB).

Just another note, apparently I can hold down D whilst power up the system to enter the hardware test? or hold down shift to enter 'safe mode'. I will try the hardware test when I get home.....

Good luck!

- Nick

Pop in disc one when you are home, reboot and hold down the option key. The drive and Apple Hardware Test will come up as options to boot from.

You know what's really freaky?

I formatted the HD when I first put it in the computer with disk utility and installed leopard fresh. I checked again last night and htere were millions of disk errors when I clicked on verify disk. I just decided to erase and install leopard again.

All seems to be going well...until I got a kernel panic updating 10.5.x...whatever the latest software updates are. Forced shut down, installed them again, and all seems to be wella again. I'm fully paranoid it's just going to throw a kernel panic very soon, but disk utility says all is okay.

I couldnt' get into the hardware test either, with a wired keyboard plugged in and holding down D. Holding down the option key didn't give me an option to select boot drives either.

Weiiirrrddddd

RAM RAM RAM... unless you have tried different ram literally with same problem occurring its ram. i purchased expensive ram went back to the store said did not work they tested ram told me good. go back still kernal panics bought another stick and bam kernal panic over errrrrr

Gaarrghh, is it possible this is a result of the OS X software updates?

I can boot into Leopard fine, it pops up with a message saying OS X shut down unexpectedly last time, then the system just hangs in about 10 seconds. I can never get more than 10s of use out of it in Leopard before everything freezes. Disconnecting all input devices has the same result.

THe other thing is....I can't get into the Apple Hardware test either! Holding down C, D, Option on a USB keyboard does nothing, it just tries to boot into Leopard anyways.

Obiously yesterday was a strangely lucky day where everything worked, and I still don't know whats wrong with my computer.

Are you using the original system install discs that came with the G5 to access Apple Hardware Test because that is where they are and not on the Leopard disc? G5s came with late OS X.3 or early OS X.4 depending when manufactured.

harryb2448 said:

Are you using the original system install discs that came with the G5 to access Apple Hardware Test because that is where they are and not on the Leopard disc? G5s came with late OS X.3 or early OS X.4 depending when manufactured.

Click to expand...

Yep, I am using the grey install discs that came with the G5. Nothing happens when I hold down D.

At the moment, every second boot results in the system hanging on the blue screen (between the grey boot screen and leopard wallpaper)

Normally it allows me into Leopard, however after about 10 seconds up to 60 seconds the entire system will freeze (no kernel panic box though) but fans end up full-blast.

Do not use the D key on reboot.

Hold down Option after the chimes to access Apple Hardware Test which is on Disc 1 of the original system install discs. Apple Hardware test should be available,. select that and run the full test.

darque said:

RAM RAM RAM... unless you have tried different ram literally with same problem occurring its ram. i purchased expensive ram went back to the store said did not work they tested ram told me good. go back still kernal panics bought another stick and bam kernal panic over errrrrr

Click to expand...

Agreed.

Memory issues can be very tricky to sort out - and cheap, generic memory is one of the worst causes of these kinds of issues. Regardless of how certain you feel that the memory is OK, your issue just reeks of bad memory IMO. I would recommend purchasing replacement modules from OWC, which specializes in certified Mac-compatible memory.

harryb2448 said:

Do not use the D key on reboot.

Hold down Option after the chimes to access Apple Hardware Test which is on Disc 1 of the original system install discs. Apple Hardware test should be available,. select that and run the full test.

Click to expand...

Actually, holding option or C keyes don't do anything either with install disk 1. Weird huh? Could it be a logic board/USB fault even?

As for the RAM issue, perhaps I need to run a loop test with all 6 sticks installed? I did try a combination of the 3 pairs of RAM on different slots on the motherboard and got the same results. I understand it is a tedious process, so I might have to keep at it. Is it weird for RAM to just suddenly fail after a few years? I have kingston, stock Apple and some other random brand of ram in there i think.

Well remove all the Kingston and other random brand and just retain the original memory in matched pairs of course and see how you go. If things look good just add a pair at a time.

Back it up about 18 posts in this thread...bad ram was one of the first things I suggested.

Basically this system needs to be stripped down to the bare essentials...and only 100% "good" parts put back in. Then test stability. If stability is good...then add one & only one component back at a time.

- Nick