Please help; G4 MDD Dual 1.25 would not boot or power up; installed new power supply and boots right up but now goes to

[DjS]

I am trying to help a fellow forum member (Dennis S) solve his problem with his G4 MDD.
See his original post below!



I sent him a known working power supply and he installed it today. It started right up and was using it, but now he says it goes to sleep for no reason. He can wake it from sleep to only have it go to sleep again. All I could tell him was to unplug it and leave it for a couple of hours and then depress the cuda/reset button to see if that solves the problem. I also told him that a new pram batterey might be in order, seeing that he has had it for 5 years and never changed it.

It is his only computer and has to go to the library now to go online!

Does anyone on the forum have any ideas on what is the problem? Could this be something hardware other than the PS or a software problem that might require a nuke and pave. He is running OS 10.4.11 but does not have DVD's to start up from or Hardware test disk.

All opinions very much welcome. He will be checking the post tomorrow afternoon.

[Paul F.]

I think you're right on with the new battery, unplugged time, and CUDA reset idea. That would be what I tried first.

I would also see if there is ANY other drive with OS X-point-anything on it to boot from, and see if ti might be a software problem, but I'd do this mostly to rule it out... my bet is something hardware.

Fingers crossed that fixes it!

[C(-)ris]

Doesn't sound particularly like a power supply problem. Boot from the restore media and see if it will go to sleep while booted from there. That will rule out any software problems. Do an full wipe and with no data migration and see if that works. If so, software is the problem. If it still has sleep issues then it is some sort of hardware deal. Typical hardware troubleshooting is pull any expansion cards and ram and any other accessories. I'd go so far as taking the keyboard and mouse off. If he has an ADC monitor definitely disconenct that as those have sleep buttons in them.

[lafinfil]

Aftermarket PCI card ?

I had a 4 post USB PCI card that would do the same thing to a G4 I had.

[mattkime]

maybe its falling asleep because its bored. i had that problem in high school

(sorry, useful advice has already been provided.)

[C(-)ris]

If he is in MN I can take a look at it for him.

[Wailer]

Beg, borrow or steal a Tiger install CD/DVD or anything else that might be bootable. Maybe a bootable firewire drive?

[DjS]

Dennis S. is in Arkansaw

I will send him the 10.4 and hardware test DVD's tomorrow.

[Ted King]

I usually try booting into safe mode early on in my trouble-shooting efforts. If it doesn't have the sleep problem in safe mode then a reinstall of the system may fix the problem.

[Dennis S]

Here I am at the library (using a badly leaning Gateway POS.) I am leaving soon for a long fishing trip and won't be back until Monday before I can mess with my Mac gain. I just ordered a new PRAM battery from OWC (very good checkout system and very REASONABLE shipping.)

That was the first time I had ever changed out anything more than RAM and I might have messed something up, although I can't imagine what. I almost postive the power supply I had in it originally was bad. With the new one, it fired right up and worked fine for about 5 minutes. Then, it got very sluggish and would barely download from the net and barely even do things like move the mouse and close windows. Then, the sleeping started. I don't know if was actually "sleeping" because it was almost violent, with loud noises going to sleep and then waking up, after about 5-10 seconds. The mysterious thing is, it never chimed in the 3 times it was started, although I am positive the connected speakers were turned up.

I don't think the problem is the new power supply, as it kicks it right off. It has a USB 2/FW PCI card installed, but it never caused a problem with the first power supply.

Well, the library woman is shutting me down in 5 minutes to close up.

Thanks for the help.