G4 Quicksilver dual 800mhz

my com has been f'd up for a while and i was told it is the mother board just want to know wat ye think.

heres a vid of wat happens when i press the power button
YouTube - Mac G4 not working

My first though would be a dead PRAM battery (my G4 had the same symptoms).

Its a 1/2 AA 3.6V Lithium battery and is easily replaceable (you cant miss it in a little box on the motherboard)

PRAM Battery - Lithium 3.6 volts | 1-800-525-3888

already tried that.

any other idea

thanks for the suggestion anyway

What happens if you try and boot with no battery in

Have you tried pressing the CUDA button?
Power Mac G4 (PCI Graphics): Resetting the Cuda Chip

Is the ram installed properly (have you moved or replaced the ram)

Alankellyeire said:

my com has been f'd up for a while and i was told it is the mother board just want to know wat ye think.

heres a vid of wat happens when i press the power button
YouTube - Mac G4 not working

Click to expand...

Thanks for the video...the more information the better.

A few questions:

- When was the last time your G4 worked properly?
- Prior to it NOT working...did you do any upgrades to it like a video card, hard drive, or ram?
- When your computer "went bad"...did it stop working all of a sudden (like it is now)...or did it "sort of work" for a while then completely died?

Thanks,

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Thanks for the video...the more information the better.

A few questions:

- When was the last time your G4 worked properly?
- Prior to it NOT working...did you do any upgrades to it like a video card, hard drive, or ram?
- When your computer "went bad"...did it stop working all of a sudden (like it is now)...or did it "sort of work" for a while then completely died?

Thanks,

- Nick

Click to expand...

same thing happens when you take out batery
light comes on for a second and fans come on

like that for over a years
replaced ram and it happened after that.
then
thought it was the battery so changed that with a new one and there was no change then put the old ram back in tryed again and it still happens.
never dropped it

Alankellyeire said:

like that for over a years
replaced ram and it happened after that.
then
thought it was the battery so changed that with a new one and there was no change then put the old ram back in tryed again and it still happens.
never dropped it

Click to expand...

Just so I completely understand...are you saying your G4 has not worked for over a year?

If you replaced your ram...and then the problem started...that's the answer right there! You either have bad/defective ram, or the ram you used is not compatible with Macintosh computers.

If you remove the ram that is in your G4, and install good Macintosh compatible ram, I bet there's a very good chance your computer will work.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Just so I completely understand...are you saying your G4 has not worked for over a year?

If you replaced your ram...and then the problem started...that's the answer right there! You either have bad/defective ram, or the ram you used is not compatible with Macintosh computers.

If you remove the ram that is in your G4, and install good Macintosh compatible ram, I bet there's a very good chance your computer will work.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

Click to expand...

i also have a mac
PowerMac G4 AGP
Dual Processor. the ram in that obsivsly works sinces the com works.
do they take the same type of ram.
if so i can use the ram in that to see if the quicksilver works

Alankellyeire said:

i also have a mac
PowerMac G4 AGP
Dual Processor. the ram in that obsivsly works sinces the com works.
do they take the same type of ram.
if so i can use the ram in that to see if the quicksilver works

Click to expand...

If I understand correctly you have two Macintosh computers:

- a Powermac G4 "Quicksilver" Dual 800mhz
- and a dual processor Powermac G4 "AGP"...probably either a 450 or 500mhz CPU

The Powermac G4 AGP uses PC-100 ram, and the Powermac G4 Quicksilver 800mhz uses PC-133 ram.

There is a good chance that the PC-100 ram from your G4 AGP will work in your 800mhz Quicksilver...so go ahead & give it a try.

Make sure:

- you remove ALL ram from the Quicksilver first
- unplug both computer before removing the ram
- "ground" yourself before removing the ram to release any static electricity

Good luck,

- Nick

This is just a test...Dont stick in every ram you got just one stick will do for now.

I have never had good luck with any PC100 RAM in a Digital Audio or Quicksilver as most can not make 133Mhz.

There was this one Micron stick I had that worked perfectly and ran at 133 and it was a PC100 stick.

dtravis7 said:

I have never had good luck with any PC100 RAM in a Digital Audio or Quicksilver as most can not make 133Mhz.

There was this one Micron stick I had that worked perfectly and ran at 133 and it was a PC100 stick.

Click to expand...

I have had my luck go both ways. I have tried PC-100 in a PC-133 Macintosh computer's and it worked (but sometimes not)...and I have put PC-133 in a PC-100 Macintosh computer's and it worked (but then sometimes not).

I think that I have had more success putting PC-133 into PC-100 computers...than the other way around.

So no guarantees...and since both ram types have the same "pin design", it does give the OP some options to try without spending any additional cash.

Hopefully we will hear back to see how things worked out.

- Nick

i have the exact same problem in my g4 quicksilver. the light turns on till i release the button then off it goes.

i could not find the same battery at frys but i got a close one, fits perfectly. >>??? but it still will not turn on.

i unplugged all ram and boards, still same issue. it gradually deteriorated from working perfectly.

in a previous post here in this thread, ram discussions were about pc ram vs mac ram ?? how do you tell what ram is what, i got a bunch of computers and i'm sure i put in different types of ram, but they all (sorta ) look the same and most of my older ram has no sticker to describe it. i will put only one stick in and see how that works. otherwise if it happened to be a software issue, it wont get the power to turn on so cant fix that

you know come to think about it;... it was turning on in safe mode after i downloaded the last apple software updater, then i thought i fixed it, left for the night came back computer off and power button wont stay on...


i am pretty sure the software would not jack up the hardware?? at least not the power issue??

what is next trick?? cant pram or others without power... how do i determine whatis broken ? i would rather not take it to apple.

Is that battery 3.6 VDC? If not it probably will do no good. Radio Shack used to have those batteries. You can find them brand new and cheap all over Ebay also.

yes, it was a 3.6 vdc yes. the battery said 3.6 volt tl-2150 but i bought a 3.6 (?) other exactly same diff number... fry guy said "should work"= "idk you loser..." hehehe...

i laugh but it s frustrating trying to determine whats wrong and whats not. process o elimination then repeat repeat... do it again.

darque said:

i laugh but it s frustrating trying to determine whats wrong and whats not. process o elimination then repeat repeat... do it again.

Click to expand...

That's why posting questions here first is a great idea before spending a lot of money on fixing a computer...especially an older computer such as yours that may be worth less than $100 bucks.

In fact fixing your own computer (especially an older one)...is really the only way to go...since if you paid a professional to do it, it could cost you $100, $200, or more dollars...which just wouldn't make financial sense.

Good luck,

- Nick

Before you strip it down part by part..you try to boot from a install disc. If it boots to the installer window you know its not the ram or PS and you have not changed the video card. Its the hard drive is messed up.

This might help. My G4 Quicksilver had same fault, turned out to be the power supply unit, cost to replace was more than to buy a second hand QS from ebay, which is what I did. I just then put my hard drive into the 'new' mac - all done. Also, this was a much easier job than changing the power supply unit.

Alas G4, and early G5, machines are not worth the expenditure of readies for things such as power supplies, logic boards etc as they are available so cheaply on auction sites, particularly since the release of Leopard and now Snow Leopard.

ok

lads tryed each stick of ram from my other computer and still no luck.
hit the same problem.
grambo said he had the same problem and it was the power supply. so it must be the same for me.

thanks for the help

p.s.
can any explain to me why when ever my other g4 dual 450mhz is plugged in the fans are on. without the computer being on. it never use to happen with my other g4 when it was working(thats if i am remembering correctly).