G5 & standby

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Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hi all,



A friend's having problems with her G5. If it has apps running when it goes into sleep, it can't recover from it. Apparently the person they spoke to on the phone thinks it's a problem with all the computers...



Any reasons this could be happening?



Thanks,

Mike

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    My G5 at work has started playing up. Sometimes it won't wake up from sleep, and other times it won't boot. The power lights come on, and the fans, but the display stays black.



    If you leave it long enough, the fans really get going. Its like someone using a hair dryer in the room. But it still refuses to boot.



    On average, it'll start up properly about one time in five.



    Another G5 owner told me it was a well known problem with the logic board - but I haven't really heard anything about it...
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  • Reply 2 of 4
    costiquecostique Posts: 1,084member
    You will have to find out the culprit yourself. Try the tips below and see if any of them helps. Basic troubleshooting tips:
    • install the G5 firmware update if it applies to your machine;

    • unplug any USB and Firewire cables, except for the keyboard;

    • unplug your monitor if it's plugged in via a DVI adaptor;

    • if you have any SCSI card inside, take it out;

    • reset PRAM by booting with Command, Option, P and R keys pressed;

    • make a fresh new user, log into the new account and try putting the Mac to sleep and waking it up;

    • repair permissions with Disk Utility (just in case).

    Note that after the first 4 steps you will have a bare-bones machine. If none of these helps, try re-installing Panther using "Erase and Install" option - of course, after backing up your important files. If even that doesn't help, call Apple and tell them you tried the above things.
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  • Reply 3 of 4
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    I've been checking out the discussions boards this morning, and the problem seems to lie with the video card.



    Apparently, if it's a cold morning (and there are plenty of them in Scotland), or the machine has been left 'cold' for a while, the video card doesn't kick-in properly. So when you boot the machine you'll just get a black screen and nothing else. After a while the fans will pick up speed and eventually top-out.



    There seem to be an awful lot of people suffering this problem. Someone's suggstion that this problem might effect all of the first rev. G5s - but I don't know about that.



    The fix is to get Apple to send you out a new video card. Apparently this fixes the problem. A temp workaround is to open up the case, and warm the video card up with a hair dryer for 10-15 seconds. Then the machine'll startup first time. Again, I don't know how safe that is.



    This would explain why once you've managed to get the machine up and running in the first place, it'll stay stable for the rest of the day. I think I'll give my dealer a call at some point today.
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  • Reply 4 of 4
    costiquecostique Posts: 1,084member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Messiah

    A temp workaround is to open up the case, and warm the video card up with a hair dryer for 10-15 seconds.



    Let's send Apple an 'enhancement request' so that Apple bundles G5s with hair-dryers.



    Seriously though, it's perfectly unacceptable to have to do this sort of thing to your desktop supercomputer.
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