need help with older imac

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okay guys im new to mac's and i got one in my room that would be cool to use but its giving me problems.
so its a 17 inch g5 not much good specs but you know i got it with no harddrive
i put a harddrive in it and i get the same error

its a little white folder and a picture of mac os on it
if you can help me with this id love to hear it also known that it powers up fine but i have taken the back off to check it out and it has 2 capcitors that look a smidge buldgy
 

pigoo3

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so its a 17 inch g5 not much good specs but you know i got it with no harddrive
i put a harddrive in it and i get the same error

You said you get the same error...but you haven't told us what the error is yet.

its a little white folder and a picture of mac os on it

Is it a "sad" Mac on the folder...or a flashing question mark "?"


...i have taken the back off to check it out and it has 2 capcitors that look a smidge buldgy

Some iMac G5's did have a bulging/leaky capacitor problem...so great observation mentioning this!:) This could certainly be the source of the problem.

- Nick
 
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no its just the old mac operating system picture earlier than mac os x and then it flashes a question mark and back and forth and so on it does this with a harddrive in it and without one i think its the capacitors that went bad on the board but just wanted to be sure.

one capacitor is just buldgy the other has some gunk i think its completely bad!? :( sucks but u know even if i cant fix someone will give me something for it someday


also i had a 27 inch model just like this one but with a 500gb harddrive and better everything and it came on and went to boot into mac os x from my cd and never could get it to do a complete install i bought it for 250 and i got 300 out of it i mean i have the other macs so was that bad to sell it ?
 

pigoo3

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no its just the old mac operating system picture earlier than mac os x and then it flashes a question mark and back and forth and so on it does this with a harddrive in it and without one i think its the capacitors that went bad on the board but just wanted to be sure.

If you're getting the flashing question mark...that simply means there's no OS installed (or compatible OS installed) on the hard drive. Not very surprising if you've just installed a hard drive in it (since you said this iMac G5 had no HD when you got it). So you need to install the OS on this computer (probably OS 10.4 or 10.5)...to find out of the computer is fully functional or not.

one capacitor is just buldgy the other has some gunk i think its completely bad!? :(

Need to install an OS onto that HD to know for sure if the capacitor(s) are the problem. But if they are leaky/bulging...a definite possibility.

sucks but u know even if i cant fix someone will give me something for it someday

This is true...but the computer is losing value everyday it remains in your possession. If you wait long enough...it will be worth about $10-$20 bucks just like old iMac G3's!;)


also i had a 27 inch model just like this one but with a 500gb harddrive and better everything and it came on and went to boot into mac os x from my cd and never could get it to do a complete install i bought it for 250 and i got 300 out of it i mean i have the other macs so was that bad to sell it ?

If you bought a 27" iMac for $250...it certainly had something wrong with it...or you got very very lucky & bought it from someone that was completely "clueless" as to it's value. I certainly would have gone over it with a "fine tooth comb" to be absolutely sure it didn't have something wrong with it that could have been fixed for a reasonable price...before I would have sold it.

- Nick
 
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yeah it was a 27 inch model the guy needed money and he had ubuntu on it but didnt have a password so i tried to put a new os on it and it would get so far and then stop and turn itself off i think it was a bad disc drive because it sounded horrible

yeah i dont have anything less than mac os x
can you tell me how to get the imac to do something i mean i dont have a mac certified harddrive right now it has a 60gb harddrive in it?

i have snow leopard so if that wont work its for sale as is
 

pigoo3

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yeah i dont have anything less than mac os x
can you tell me how to get the imac to do something i mean i dont have a mac certified harddrive right now it has a 60gb harddrive in it?

You need to:

- Install an OS on the HD. Probably either OS 10.4 or 10.5.
- Boot the computer from the OS install disk.
- Then format the HD (Mac OS Extended Journaled).
- Install the OS
- Then reboot the computer from the HD to see if it works...or if the capacitors are the problem.

i have snow leopard so if that wont work its for sale as is

If you only have Snow Leopard (OS 10.6)...it will not run on a G5 computer. Only Apple computers with an Intel cpu can run Snow Leopard.

Good luck,

- Nick
 

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