Power Mac G4 cutting out during start up

Hi everyone,

I've been reading a lot of posts on here and decided to sign up to post my problem. Hopefully someone can help me out.

I've got an old G4 power mac (i think that's what it's called, it's the tower one with a big apple logo of the side), which has been used daily for a good five years without any issues at all.

We've recently replaced it with a new iMac so it hasn't been used for a few months. a few days ago decided to switch it on and run some OS and application updates which all carried out without error.

A few hours later however it wouldn't start up. I opened the case up and noticed that there were three sticks of RAM in there:

2 x 512MB
1 x 256MB

yet I knew for a fact that the system was originally showing the installed RAM as only 1GB. I suspected the OS updates somehow didn't like the rogue RAM and I removed it.

The system started up much faster than it used to and all was good.

The next day it wouldn't start up again. It gets to the white screen with the grey apple logo then cuts dead. All the usual start up tone and what have you are fine up until you get the Apple logo on screen.

I moved the RAM into different slots as I seem to remember it needing to be in pairs in the right slots (I've tried all combinations since), and the system booted straight up.

Again a few hours later it wouldn't restart. I switched the RAM again and it successfully booted up until I tried to restart it again later that day.

I've had it boot up ok, then freeze on the desktop at random times, but generally it just won't start up once it gets to the Apple logo.

I remembered that after moving the RAM around I'd get an error which said the clock was set to a day earlier than it should be. So I looked into this online and it led to a suggestion to press that button on the Motherboard.

Having pressed the button and waiting the 10 minutes someone suggested, it resulted in a successful boot! I thought everything was fixed as I restarted the machine multiple times successfully. Then the next day it wouldn't start up again

Does anyone have any suggestions to help me please?

Have you replaced the PRAM battery? http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/BAA36VPRAM/

Cheers I'll give that a go!

The battery finally arrived but it has made no difference

Any ideas where I should go from here please?

nobody got any suggestions to try?

Looks like it's a dud then, although I am missing a footstool.

Ok. Have you reset PRAM and NVRAM at all?
Have you run Disk Utility to verify the HD?

Thanks for the reply!

I pressed the button on the motherboard but I've not done the PRAM & NVRAM reset, so I looked it up online and found a guide on Apple. I'll try that and see how I get on.

Cheers

Help me!

My Power Macintosh G4- The power cuts out right as it boots up! I see the fan move for about 1.5 secs, then stops! The smartboard doesn't even get power! HELP ME!

madboi9o2 said:

My Power Macintosh G4- The power cuts out right as it boots up! I see the fan move for about 1.5 secs, then stops! The smartboard doesn't even get power! HELP ME!

Click to expand...

Could be several things...so just for a try reseat the video card.

urbanriver said:

nobody got any suggestions to try?

Looks like it's a dud then, although I am missing a footstool.

Click to expand...

Try just one stick of 512...see what happens. If it boots reset the time and date.

So now it will not boot at all but just powers on for 1.5 seconds and dies?

The main 2 reasons I've seen for a Power Mac G4 shutting down while booting up are either power supply or hard drive. To confirm or isolate the hard drive, simply remove the drive's ribbon cable and power on. It obviously won't boot, but does it now stay powered on? If yes, then diskwarrior the drive and if not successful replace it. If it still shuts down it's likely the PSU is failing.