G4 MDD Dual 1.25 has trouble with start button

[Dennis S]

The last few times I've started, the button will make a quick flash, but show no sign of starting up. It will not even light up about a fourth of the time. The last time I started it, I had to punch the button over 30 times before it caught. Is it the button or the power supply?

[Paul F.]

I don't know for sure, but I had EXACTLY the same symptoms (except I never got it to start on the 30th try...) and replaceing the power supply fixed it right up.

From reading various articles on Apple's support forums, it could ALSO be the buttons circuit board.
I didn't investigate that since I DID have a power supply, but no extra button and related board... I swapped the power supply, and it fired right up.

Hope this helps.

[Doc]

Do you have a power button on your keyboard?

Sometimes the button on the front of the Mac gets busted. Sometimes it's the front power board. In both cases, starting up from the keyboard may work.

[Dennis S]

I have a MacAlly iKey and the button on it has never started it.

[lipskidder]

I had that problem twice. First time the little battery needed replacing. That lasted several months. Next I had to replace the power supply and now it works dandy!

[dk62]

A common problem with those was not starting up after a power failure. But they would not start up, period, not even after 100 tries. Pressing the CUDA/power manager unit switch would do the trick for this problem. The act of replacing the battery would have a similar effect, just in a more expensive way (the system does not really need a functional battery).

Your problem seems to be different, but I would still try pressing PMU button (once only, otherwise you may cause more damage). There used to be instructions somewhere on Apple site.

[bwicklander]

Mine has that trouble - I took my dualie offline and replaced it with a mac mini.
now my hearing is coming back but I do miss my dualie

[Racer X]

safe way to do a PMU reset is to power off, pull the AC cord, pull the battery, hit the power button to drain any charge in any capacitors, let it sit for a few minutes, and then put the battery back in, plug the AC back in, and hit the power button. It should start right up.

[ka jowct]

Racer's procedure may keep you limping along for a while, if the power supply is dying, but eventually death will come.