G5 hardware failure, help!

[mrbungle]

Hello people

My inlaws have a G5 rev1 and it has had a hissy fit today and now will not boot. I am a pc repair technician by trade but have very limited knowledge of Macs themselves.

So they seem to think it could be a hard drive failure but as they system is not posting im a little dubious (on a pc id likely get a bios screen/post even with a failed drive) so i was wondering what you guys thought?

Power light turns on and after a while the fans kick in apparently if thats any help.

Any input would be a big help!

 

[louishen]

you got power, some fan noises, is that right?

Does the power light come on, then just fade out and then nada

 

[mrbungle]

Yes the light comes on fans, can hear drives spinning but nothing

 

[dtravis7]

Is this the REV 1 iMac G5 system? The one with the built in display? Some of the REV 1's had a recall for bad capacitors if memory serves me correctly.

 

[mrbungle]

Is this the REV 1 iMac G5 system? The one with the built in display? Some of the REV 1's had a recall for bad capacitors if memory serves me correctly.

nope its a power mac matey

 

[louishen]

with the age of that mac (coming up to 4 years) it could be a dud pram battery

What do you all think?

 

[dtravis7]

with the age of that mac (coming up to 4 years) it could be a dud pram battery

What do you all think?

Could be. I know some of the very first 1.6 or was it 1.8Ghz G5 Power Macs had some issues. I will search around and see what I can find. Been a while.

 

[mrbungle]

Ok well to rule out the HD if i booted the mac with the HD removed what would I get post screen / error msg wise

 

[dtravis7]

If the Hard Drive dies or is not there normally a Mac will go to a gray screen and show a drive icon with a Question Mark in the middle.

 

[mrbungle]

Righty, ill tell them to prehaps try to get it to do that first off by removing the drive.

Pretty sure it wont be the drive tbh unless its died in such a way its stopping the machine posting.

That said don't G5's of this age use rubbishy Maxtor drives.......