G4 Cube Issues.

[Xeon3D]

Hi.

I bought a G4 Cube from the bay a while ago, and it currently has some issues maybe you guys can help me with.

The Cube is pretty much a stock one, and all it does is:

It powers on and shows the apple boot logo / plays the bong and even starts to load the OS. All ok up to here right?

Thing is, as soon as I plug or unplug something on the (only working) USB port, it restarts. The other USB port is damaged (!!!!). If I turn it on with something already plugged in, it works, but it seems that the USB port hasn't got enough power to deal with a HUB, a keyboard and a mouse, so I can't really install a new OS onto it.

Should I remove the damaged usb port? I heard somethign about a power board going rogue as well? Help!

 

[Byrd]

Check connections first, notably the overly sensitive power button that might trigger a power cycle if moved. Check Cubeowner for basic fixes on this.  I've heard of USB ports going bad on Cubes before (and Airport harnesses), check for physical damage to the pins first and continuity.  You could install the OS onto the pulled hard disk from another Mac, to see if the USB ports are properly detected under System Profiler.

Reseating all components, such as the VRM, RAM, video card riser might also help.

Good luck!

JB

 

[bibilit]

Thing is, as soon as I plug or unplug something on the (only working) USB port, it restarts. The other USB port is damaged (!!!!). If I turn it on with something already plugged in, it works, but it seems that the USB port hasn't got enough power to deal with a HUB, a keyboard and a mouse, so I can't really install a new OS onto it.

you don't need a Hub, the keyboard is connected to the port and  mouse to the keyboard.

Yes, i agree, using another mac will be easier and quicker to install the OS.

Maybe the damaged USB port is shorted...

 

[Elfen]

I would have to agree that there is something is up with the damaged USB Port like Bibilit stated. I had a similar problem with 2 Raspberry Pi Model Bs which somebody took their anger out on and stomped the little guys - damaging and shorting the USB Ports and I got them on Ebay for $5 each. Under Raspbian it kept popping up an error that there was an "Over voltage load" on the USB Ports though Raspbian continued to load but the mouse or keyboard were dead. Looking inside the mangled ports, the pins were shorted.

It took a while to replace the ports as they used high temp lead free solder. Once the ports were replaced, they work just fine as if nothing happened.

Excuse the blurriness of the image; on the right is the before with the damaged port, the one on the left is a normal R-Pi, and the middle is the fixed port. Note that the fixed port has White USB ports while the typical R-Pi at this time used Black ports, so these are the only model Bs of this era with White Ports! LOL. It's no biggie since R-Pi's now use black or white ports, but back then it was only black ports.

Just be careful in not using too much solder when soldering the replacement USB port, and it will flow into the hole and short against the case/ground which will cause a over voltage condition again. You just need to desolder the USB port again and solder it again with less solder.