G4 Rip

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mysteriousal

Guest
Oh my god. I think I've killed it.

If anyone can please help me out here- I'd be stoked....

I just got my new G5 home last night, and connected it to my LAN, along with a G3 and a G4. The G4 started behaving very strangley- with the cursopr freezing, and system locking- This began happening a lot within a few hours. It seemed as if there was no power going to the keyboard, as the optical mouse's light kept going out....

after numerous restarts and crashes- I powered down my G4 and disconnected everything. I tried restarting, then plugging into the network very gently- but to no avail. I unplugged it all again, and went to sleep.

This morning, I cannot get anything out of the G4 at all! It will not turn on at all. I have triple checked all my connections, and am really starting to sh!t myself.

I have so much data on the G4's HDD. I tried removing this and connecting it to my G5, but the plugs are different....

I just want to get my G4 alive again.... i seriously hope I haven't lost any data! Has anyone got any suggestions?
 
OP
C

Chamorro

Guest
Sounds like your G4 had some sort of power issue. You may want to try and replace the PRAM battery, and check all your fuses/circuit breakers, possibly try a different outlet. Are the G4 and G5 in close proximity? Maybe there's some sort of electrical interference.

If the G4 is dead, you should be able to connect the HD to the G3, but you may not be able to read all of it....depends on the ATA controllers. If both the G3 and G4 are ATA 66 or 100 or whatever, you should be fine. Otherwise, you may want to get an external case to put the G4 HD in, and connect it to the G5 via FireWire.
 
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WilliS

Guest
well, first off, your data will still be there, so just calm down a bit... sounds like a power issue, not a dead hard drive in any way.

you might have a dead power supply.... ive had a power supply quit on me once.. check to see if you smell a burned electronic smell near where the power cord connects to the computer.

um...other than that, i couldnt tell ya... maybe a surge of power somehow... did you have a storm recently? try doing what chamorro said, put the g4 on a different circut in your house, to make sure that it is infact the computer...
 
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mysteriousal

Guest
Bravo! Both of ya!
I think it was a burned out power block due to a jumble of wires behind my desk!
I have disconnected the G4's HDD and connected it to the G5 via a FireWire case- appeared first time! I now have my data back! Although it's in a very strange order...!

Big up to you both for your help. Thank god this worked! Anyone got any suggestions on how to get the power block replaced? is it easy to do myself? Or an expensive repair job?

PS- transferring 70GB of data via FireWire was no hassle at all for my G5..... in fact, I think itt wanted to go faster! heh :)
 
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The power supply replacement should be easy. As to the file order, I bet repair premissions would help ;)
 
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M

mysteriousal

Guest
Does anyone know where I can get a new power supply? How much do they retail for? aqnd are there any instructions online on how to replace one?

I went to my mac dealer and he said a repair would cost 'between £300 and £500"! Oh my god!
 
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C

Chamorro

Guest
mysteriousal said:
I went to my mac dealer and he said a repair would cost 'between £300 and £500"! Oh my god!

A lot of that is probably the labor charge. Either look on eBay or try to find Apple parts suppliers....sorry I can't help more b/c I don't think it'll be cheap to buy stuff in the US and ship it over.
 
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M

mysteriousal

Guest
Okay guys- Thanks again for all your suggestions.

I am going to take on fixing this machine as a little ongoing project :)

Just wondering if there's any way to tell if the PRAM battery is dead? Also, are there any internal fuses in the G4? If so where are they so I can check?

Sorry if these are lame questions- As you can tell I know very little about the inside of computers!
 
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Hard to tell if the PRAM battery is dead without testing it by voltmeter... Anytime your in that be careful to dump static by touching the metal chassis/frame first before anything. I have never heard of internal fuses
 
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M

mysteriousal

Guest
Thanks man. I will borrow a voltmeter and test the PRAM battery. Is it okay to remove the PRAM battery without losing any data?
Does anyone have a good idea as to where I can get a new power block for a G4 350? ;)
 
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mysteriousal said:
Thanks man. I will borrow a voltmeter and test the PRAM battery. Is it okay to remove the PRAM battery without losing any data?
Does anyone have a good idea as to where I can get a new power block for a G4 350? ;)
Removing the pram battery won't affect any data on the hard drive. Almost any computer store Apple or CompUSA maybe is likely to have the right power supply
 

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