imac G5 turns off unexpectedly

S

starflower311

Registered
I have an older imac (20-inch, 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5) running OS X 10.4.11. It is no longer under warranty. About 2 weeks ago it turned off suddenly and then tried to restart itself. The issue has continued since then, with no rhyme or reason that I can identify. One time it got so bad that it wouldn't stay on long enough for me to log in. It has progressed to turning off and not turning back on (at which point I unplug it from the wall for a while and try again later). After a few tries, I can generally get it to come on and stay on each day, although the process can't be good for the equipment.
Any ideas on what this could be?
 
Some things I have done to try and help it:
cleaned out the dust from inside (with a can of air),
booted up in safe mode, run disc utility. Today it turned on and stayed on, no problems. (fixing itself??)
 
It's probably a failing power supply - very common on that model.
Could also be bad logic board, with the famous swelling capacitors - unfortunately, also common on this model iMac. You can take the back off, and look for swelling caps inside. Those are easy to see. If you don't see a problem with the caps, then replacing the power supply is a good next step.

If it continues to work, then the cleaning inside is a good idea. I hope it continues to work.
 
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