Aluminum conquest

[MrMacintosh]

Hi all,

I found a CL ad for "4 Apple towers and 3 Apple monitors." Three of the computers were G5s, and one a Sawtooth. There was a 22" acrylic Cinema display, and a 23" aluminum cinema display. The third monitor was a 2009 iMac. I snagged the lot, but it's definitely all gonna need some work. I wanted the iMac and display, so I snagged the lot

The Sawtooth only needs an OS, of course, because it will run forever.

The first G5 is a 2.7GHz dual, but when you plug it in, the power light blinks for an instant but there is no response to pressing the power button or anything else.

2nd G5 has no RAM but powers on - this is a 2GHz dual

3rd G5 had a post-it that said "black smoke from power supply." It is corroded and rusted all throughout the inside. Pics to follow. Obviously not plugging this one in  }

The acrylic LCD appears to work. The 23" cinema will power on, but blinks rapidly. When it is on, the backlights are fully illuminated. It's like the display is power cycling about twice a second. ??

The '09 iMac is totally dead - I'm assuming power supply woes. I'm going to look into it further as I have time.

I definitely have my work cut out for me, but I'm hoping to come out with a working 23" and working iMac in the end.

Kyle-

 

[XBHS1997]

Hi and congratulations for your haul!

The dual 2.7 should be an early 2005. You should have a look at this: http://www.cwu.edu/~pruittj/powermac_g5.pdf

There are also pdf manuals for the other G5 generations on the net. I've not looked yet, maybe this model has diagnostic LEDs on the motherboard which could help with finding the solution.

Also found this, maybe helpful: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2620983?tstart=0

About the third unit, this is most likely a dual 2.5 or another dual 2.7, thus watercooled and prone to leaking. I have myself a dual 2.5 which has some white stuff under the logic board. The first step is disassembly and inspection of the damage. Some are still working with this symptom, bit I won't take the risk. Here is a pinned post about overhauling a G5 LCS. In your case the damage is unfortunaly quite advanced I'd say, as your PSU already fried/died. I don't know how the other components react to a sudden PSU death, but it could be worth checking how it looks underneath the cooling system. If not saveable, you have an unit for parts.

Cheers,

Nicolas

 

[XBHS1997]

Needless to say that I'd strongly recommend to check the (first) 2.7 for leaks.

I don't know if this should be considered just as the recapping of older Macs; it's possible that all the LCS (at least the dual core models) start to leak at some point, so it would maybe be a good idea to overhaul it before it starts to leak. Waiting until the "PSU-boom" may take less effort, but the best is to preserve one more watercooled G5. Unfortunately this common problem was and will be the death reason for a considerable amount of these Macs.

 

[MrMacintosh]

Thanks for the info! The only G5 I've ever had was a 1.6GHz. 

All three have fans and heatsinks on the CPUs, though. No LCS. I'll have a look at the links and get back with them soon!

 

[XBHS1997]

They also have fans and heatsinks. LCS is hidden behind the G5 cover.

LCS-models should also have a warning label on the bottom plate inside.