Lost without my mac - please help!

J

JeanieW

Registered
Hi
This is my first posting on this forum and I have tried to search for a solution to my problem but can't find one so.....

Following a move of house my iMac G5 was positioned in its new home but when powered up it froze. It was left overnight but when I tried to turn it back on it failed to respond. The on/off switch is unresponsive, there is no light and the only sound that can be heard is the whir of the fan when switched on at the mains.

Hubby replaced the back-up battery (no change) and while the back was off, noticed 2 LED's light up out of a possible four.

We took it to a local PC repair Company who offered to do a diagnostic check on it. They could find nothing wrong with the Hard Drive, Motherboard or Powerpack so we don't know what to try next.

If anyone has any ideas we would be interested but please don't suggest inserting any discs to get it going as the machine is totally unresponsive and won't take a disc or any keyboard commands.
 
Hi,
You might want to check the hard drive. remove it and put it in anther mac and see if you can access the HD. If you can do this copy your files off it. if you can't run a hard drive program on it like spin right.

You might try connecting it to a external display like a monitor or a TV. The LCD on your iMac might have gone bad. If this is a whats wrong then you can still use it.

When you moved a connection inside the Mac might have come loose.

If the Mac has a safe mode try to boot into that. It usely involves pressing some keys on the keyboard.

The PC repair place might not know how to fix macs so don't take there word on everything being OK.
 
iMac G5's were know for this, it sounds like the capacitors on your motherboard have "popped" I would bring this to an "Apple" Certified place, and have them take a look at your capacitors, they can be bought off ebay for 14 dollars i think.
 
Try what Satcomer suggested, but I fear that the issue is more likely what Jesse714 mentioned because it happened with my iMac G5. Apple used to have a repair extension program for the bad capacitor issue that affected the logic board and power supply not just for the Rev A iMac G5 models, but eventually for all their iMac G5 models. Unfortunately, that program expired about a year ago so you would have to pay for the parts to be replaced. Yes, it does suck, I should know. However, it's possible that the parts can be found cheaply nowadays on eBay or other similar sites. You just have to make sure that you get the parts specific to the revision iMac G5 that you have. Personally, if you can do it, I would recommend an earlier model Intel iMac with a Core 2 Duo. You can find some decent prices on here:

http://www.lowendmac.com/deals/best-intel-imac-prices.html
 
Jesse714 said:
iMac G5's were know for this, it sounds like the capacitors on your motherboard have "popped" I would bring this to an "Apple" Certified place, and have them take a look at your capacitors, they can be bought off ebay for 14 dollars i think.
Click to expand...

You can check the caps by setting the machine down on its face and loosen 3 phillips screws on the bottom. Then just take the foot and lift the back off. A new logic board will cost around $500 just for the part. I replaced tons of logic boards in these units due to the now expired REP but never replaced the individual caps on the board due to the fact that not an Apple repair procedure. That method of repair has worked for some but requires someone very good at soldering.
 
djackmac said:
You can check the caps by setting the machine down on its face and loosen 3 phillips screws on the bottom. Then just take the foot and lift the back off. A new logic board will cost around $500 just for the part. I replaced tons of logic boards in these units due to the now expired REP but never replaced the individual caps on the board due to the fact that not an Apple repair procedure. That method of repair has worked for some but requires someone very good at soldering.
Click to expand...

Yeah, for a little more money you could just purchase one of those earlier generation iMacs listed there. I've actually considered that myself even though my iMac G5 is still running. Something like the 2nd generation iMac, which came with a Conroe Core 2 Duo if I'm not mistaken, would be more than enough for my needs (plenty faster than the iMac G5 for sure, and it supports Snow Leopard).

Of course, if you're crafty with a soldering iron, you could replace the caps yourself. That's probably what I may do if my Mac G5 fails again (God forbid).
 
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