G5 shuts down

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Thank you in advance! Have a Power PC G5 running Leopard. At start up get gray screen, spinning wheel and power shuts off in about 15 seconds, resulting in black screen. Have tried resetting PRAM, S start, C start (disk is already in holder). I get gray screen etc. as above. Thanks, Mark
 

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Thank you in advance! Have a Power PC G5 running Leopard. At start up get gray screen, spinning wheel and power shuts off in about 15 seconds, resulting in black screen. Have tried resetting PRAM, S start, C start (disk is already in holder). I get gray screen etc. as above. Thanks, Mark

- Is this an iMac G5...or a Powermac G5?
- How long has this been going on?
- When was the last time it was working ok?

Assuming that there is nothing wrong with the computer...something simple that could be tried...is to test & possibly replace the PRAM battery.

- Nick
 

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Do you have another graphics card that you can sub in place of the one in the G5? Your graphics card might have failed causing the gray screen and then the power shutting down. It could be other things also but I would start there. Also check out your power supply and make sure all the fans are working in the machine. Go to iFixit: The free repair manual for take apart instructions.
 
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Thank you for your quick responses. I don't have another graphics card. Power supply is OK and I checked the battery and it has a full charge. It is a Power MAC not an iMAC. Just started 24 hours ago. Tried to reboot with installation disc but since it shuts down within 20 seconds after spinning wheel, I can't even get the disc to eject. I can get it out by going into the box but I wanted to avoid that. I have another HD in the machine but can't get to that either to try to boot from it.
 
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Is that a B26 war bird on the tarmac?
 

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It is a Power MAC not an iMAC.

Your original post mentioned that you had a "Power PC G5"...which is the nomenclature for the cpu (thus it could be a Powermac G5 or an iMac G5)...so thanks for clarifying.

Don't forget in my earlier post to make sure you have a good PRAM battery. Sometimes on some models...a dead PRAM battery can cause problems.

- Nick
 

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Is that a B26 war bird on the tarmac?

It's a Douglas B-26D model which was built toward the end of WWII and used in the Korean and Viet Nam wars.
 
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Hi: Battery is good. I'd like to try to boot from my installation disc but it is already in the DVD drive. How can I get it out (other than opening the cabinet) when the gray screen and spinning wheel disappears so quickly and the computer shuts down. Thanks, Mark
 

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Hi: Battery is good. I'd like to try to boot from my installation disc but it is already in the DVD drive. How can I get it out (other than opening the cabinet) when the gray screen and spinning wheel disappears so quickly and the computer shuts down. Thanks, Mark

When you restart the computer (and have about 20 seconds)…press & hold down the mouse button…and the optical drive door should open…allowing you to remove the disk.

Also…if the install disk is already in the DVD drive (and you want to boot the computer from it)…why do you want to remove it…isn't the DVD drive where you want it to be (to boot from)?? If you want to boot from the DVD drive (with the install disk already in it)…just press the "c" key when you reboot the computer to boot from the DVD drive.

- Nick
 
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Good question Nick! Normally that's exactly where I would want the installation DVD to be but up to now when I try to boot up, all I get is the gray screen, logo, spinning wheel and then 20 seconds later a complete shutdown. I've already tried "C" but it shuts down anyway. I'm trying to start from scratch by pulling everything that's connected. I have another drive installed, so my next step will be to pull the "offending" drive and try to boot off the other drive. I'll try the mouse first. Thanks, Mark
 

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Mouse, "no mas!" Moving on!

If you have an Apple keyboard…you can press the key with the underlined-triangle on it (usually above the Delete Key). This is the open/close keyboard button for the optical drive.

Of course with only 20 seconds to work with…this idea still may not work…since the computer may not have enough time to react.

- Nick
 
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You're right! I tried the eject key first out of the gate. No luck! And you're right, shutting off as quickly as it does, it may not have time to process anything. Next for me is to switch to the spare HD in the bay and see if I can boot from that.
 

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Next for me is to switch to the spare HD in the bay and see if I can boot from that.

I don't think that this is an HD problem…because even if the HD was "fried" (or the computer contained no HD at all)…the computer would still power on (and stay on) until you pushed the power button to turn it off.

When the computer stays on for these 20 seconds…are the computers fans running at high speed…sounding like a jet airplane were about to take off?

- Nick
 

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No, not at all!

I'm not sure if this was covered yet…have you tried removing the ram & video card…and reseating them? You never know.;)

Also…it the ram in this computer in the proper ram slots. Ram in Powermac G5's needs to be installed in the proper slots to avoid problems.

- Nick
 
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For the time being, I'm giving up on getting the G5 to work. Part of my concession is that I'm looking at cannablizing the SATA G5 HD and putting into an old G4. Both are Power PCs. Is it just a simple matter of sliding the HD from one bay to another or do I need additional cards? Thanks, Mark
 

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Part of my concession is that I'm looking at cannablizing the SATA G5 HD and putting into an old G4. Both are Power PCs. Is it just a simple matter of sliding the HD from one bay to another or do I need additional cards? Thanks, Mark

Just because they're both "PowerPC's" does not mean things are swappable. The G4 uses IDE hard drives...the G5 uses SATA hard drives. So yes...you will need an adapter. Or...if the G4 already has an HD in it...you could put the G5's HD into an external HD case...and plug it into the G4 via a usb cable.

- Nick
 
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I've temporarily given up on fixing the shut down problem on my G5. I'm looking now to learn if I can use the SATA HD from the G5 in an old G4, also a PowerPC. Can I just slide it into the bay or, in addition, do I need any supplemental cards? Thanks, Mark
 
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As NIck advised one is SATA and the G4 is IDE hence the G5 drive will not fit straight in. It is possible to buy a SATA PCI card and hook up the G5 drive externally as Nick also suggested. From personal experience not really worth the cost of purchasing the card for use with the G4.

Depending on the model G4, it will always be throttled by the 133MHz or 100MHz system bus speed.
 

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