G5 doesn't like to start up

ti fighterti fighter
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hi all, I'm having a problem with my Dual 2gz G5(20"cinema,2gig ram) at work. I've been meaning to call apple but haven't had a chance so I thought i'd run it by you guys first. Basically this started happening a few months after i got it:



If I turn the machine off for the night and come back in the morning and I press the power button, it chimes, then nothing, black screen, and no power going out to anything, I can tell cuz I have a usb dongle with a light attached to the keyboard that doesn't light up, but fans are going and the computer is running. First I would just power it down by holding in the power button and then start it up power down multiple times (around 10x), unplugging and plugging in the power, display, usb devices, and eventually it would boot up. Then I realized that if I try to power it up and power down first in the morning, one time, and then wait 5-10 minutes and then power it on it works. But now thats not working anymore. Oh and if I let it sleep overnight it wont wake up in the morning. So basically I've been leaving it on and just having the display sleep.



Any thoughts? It's gonna really suck if I have to drag this thing to an apple store to get fixed.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    I would boot off the cd and run the hardware test. It may find a problem. Do the full test that takes like 15 minutes.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    jbljbl Posts: 555member
    This is a "known" problem. Actually, best I can tell, Apple doesn't officially acknowledge this, but a lot of people have it. Check out Apple's G5/Displays Forum. The problem has come to be known as the Black Screen of Death, or Black Screen for short. You have a classic case. The solution is to replace the video card. Apple should do this for free but sometimes you have to argue. It depends on who you talk to.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    ti fighterti fighter Posts: 863member
    hmm thanks for the link jbl, well I guess I'm calling apple. The replacement video cards look like they are fixing the problem, although mine didn't act up for at least a month after I got it.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    jbljbl Posts: 555member
    Neither of mine acted up at first. The second one has failed a couple times with the new video card. I think it is typical that they slowly get worse.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    ti fighterti fighter Posts: 863member
    hmmm apple makes me mad sometimes, call em up they make me do the usual stuff, try disk utility disk repair, run hardware test, I told them I did already (took 2 hours btw) and it came back clean. So she says press the power management reset button under the memory in the computer and maybe that fixes it. If not call back and it will have to go to someone who can test it further. I'm guessing apple store. I brought up the graphics card issue a couple of times but she had no note of it. This sucks, it's not like I can have the computer out of the office for any amount of time. Hopefully the person I call tomorrow will know about the g card issue.



    Oh and of course the entire apple.com discussions section is down today \
  • Reply 6 of 8
    jbljbl Posts: 555member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ti Fighter

    So she says press the power management reset button under the memory in the computer and maybe that fixes it.



    This actually worked for me the first few times (although the problem seems to get worse and eventually this trick quit working. It may get you started in a pinch. But, yeah, it is really annoying that they don't just recognize the problem.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    From what I could gather, it's a temperature thing. The colder the environment, the more likely you are to suffer the problem.



    And yes it's definately the graphics card that's the root of the problem.



    I've only suffered the problem a couple of times, on both occassions it was a cold Monday morning after the machine had been switched off all weekend.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    ti fighterti fighter Posts: 863member
    well my machine at work is right by a window thats an old NYC loft window, so I'm sure it gets a little extra chill. I guess it want's to hibernate till spring.
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