Power Mac G5 shuts off during boot

[quinnlaup]

Just got a power mac G5 A1047 in last week that shuts off completely within 20-30 seconds of hearing the apple chime I get screen screen output but that's all i have. Not really sure where to start on this one so any help would be most welcome.

kind regards
quinnlaup

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Does it even make it to the point to where you see the Apple logo and spinning gear?

 

[quinnlaup]

Does it even make it to the point to where you see the Apple logo and spinning gear?

Yes i see the apple symbol with the spinning icon underneath it.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Unplug the HD or better yet try booting to an installer/external HD to see if it still shuts down.

 

[quinnlaup]

Removed the HDD now i get the flashing folder icon on the screen but the mac stayed on longer approx 3 mins before shutting off. Should i remove the HDD for testing?

 

[quinnlaup]

Plugged the HDD into my Ubuntu PC and the disk utility tells me the drive has a few bad sectors.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Its likely a bad HD or really screwed up directory structure causing the issue. You could boot to the OSX installer and use Disk utility to try and repair it, but it will most likely need a more powerful tool like DiskWarrior to possibly fix it, if it's repairable. At this time if the data is critical I would make an image of the drive before going any further.

Removed the HDD now i get the flashing folder icon on the screen but the mac stayed on longer approx 3 mins before shutting off.

I just caught this. Did you power it off after 3 minutes or did it shut itself down?

 

[quinnlaup]

It actually shut itself down is there another potential issue?

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

It actually shut itself down is there another potential issue?

More than likely. the directory structure is probably really hosed from the hard shut downs making it seem like a bad HD. So DiskWarrior will most likely get that going unless it also has a bad drive on top of the power issue. Next, I'd start by testing the Power Supply.

 

[Cornerstone Technologies]

By chance, are you troubleshooting with the clear plastic shield on? It has been known to cause issues if this is removed as well, as it is designed to maximize cooling and flow.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

By chance, are you troubleshooting with the clear plastic shield on? It has been known to cause issues if this is removed as well, as it is designed to maximize cooling and flow.

The only thing that will happen with the shield off is the fans will be on hell. Shouldn't really have any bearing on a power issue.

 

[quinnlaup]

Managed to slave the drive on our windows pc which has macdrive 8 installed and was able to copy of some data. We dont have disk warrior but we do have spinrite so i left it running hopefully it can fix the bad sectors. Will keep you all posted many thanks for the great advice.

regards

quinnlaup

 

[MCSTECH]

This could easily be a bad ram stick. - & Check the Caps as well.

 

[techguy90]

Aht

If you have the disc you could run the apple hardware test, I agree with mcstech it could be a RAM issue that is probably where I would check first.