Running the Apple Service Diagnostics

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My Power Mac G5 (late 2005) with 5 GB RAM, has been having issues with sudden shot-downs, usually late at night, while LED #7 was glowing.

After pulling out my RAM DIMMS and reinstalling them, I noticed that

1. As long as I left my Mac on for days, w/o a restart, it would run quite stable.

2. Once I have to restart, as long as I ZAP the PRAM, 3-4 times per restart, my Mac would run OK.

I got the "Apple Service Diagnostics Dual Boot" disc, v. 2.6.3 that fits my G5 model. I ran it twice, once as a single loop (always "continue on error"), which took couple hours and PASSED. The 2nd time I put it to run for 5 hours. I checked the monitor from time to time, and all the "result" (?) lines in the Log were green. After about 5 hours I noticed LED #7 glowing again, and the screen was frozen, see below.

...So at least I did not get any error messages...

What you guys thinking?

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=18273&stc=1&d=1352677147

104_5313.jpg
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Have you tried taking the old girl apart and giving it a good clean out? Also remove the graphics card and clean it and reseat firmly. Boot with door off and see if graphics card fan, where fitted, starts up.

Also make sure the deflector is in the correct position when closing.
 
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The computer looks very clean inside.... I was told if there's dust building up inside the temperature would be rising, but my Temperature Monitor widget shows normal temps, nothing above 65 C, mostly around 50 C when checking different parts inside.
 
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The diagnostic disc is not known outside of Apple technicians so don't think much will come to light regarding that. Do you have the original discs that came with the G5? Running Apple Hardware Test may be worthwhile.
 
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The diagnostic disc is not known outside of Apple technicians so don't think much will come to light regarding that. Do you have the original discs that came with the G5? Running Apple Hardware Test may be worthwhile.

Yes, I suspected that the DVD I got from a friend is not the hardware test software mentioned in some forums....

My G5 came with Tiger. and I don't see the 2 CDs including any hardware testing.
 
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MacBookPro 11,2 <--DAW!!!
I have both of the Tiger OS discs and disc #2 has the hardware test on it. I even put OS Tiger disc #2 on a USB stick for quicker access.
 
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I have both of the Tiger OS discs and disc #2 has the hardware test on it. I even put it on USB stick for quicker access.

...So disc 2 is also bootable? I can startup from it and run the hardware test you say?
 
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yes. the #2 disc is bootable.
Just insert the DVD, reboot, hold down the 'Option' key and a boot menu will appear where you can choose the Apple Hardware Test.
 
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if that doesn't work, try holding down either both the Option and the d key (Option+d) or just the "D" key to get AHT.

Sorry... It's been awhile since I've done it so I'm going from memory.
 
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...Never mind... I opened my G5 user guide, and it says to use Disc 1 for the Apple Hardware Test, with instructions... I'll do it in a couple days.
 
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Ahhh when all else fails eh?
 
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Ahhh when all else fails eh?

Indeed... Somehow I was under the impression that this AHT is a new program that Apple started supplying only with the Leopard install disc and later.

Still, what can be a logical explanation to my experience with my Mac, functioning for days w/o a problem, yet once I do a restart — it would quit few hours later (fans blowing, red LED #7 glowing), unless I restart with zapping the PRAM couple times?
 

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