G4 Cube - DS2 Red Light - Crashing

[serdar13]

Hi G4 Cube owners, I was wondering if any of you could help. I am trying to fix my G4 Cube which crashes on startup. I get the apple logo and then gets stuck on that screen. I noticed a red light near the ram which is DS2 and was wondering if this is the culprit.

I have tried another ATI Rage 128 Pro from a G4 Tower with a faceplate swap but again no joy thinking it might be graphics card.

I booted to open firmware and reset nvram but no joy. It was working up until a few months back so would be good to get it back up. I have 10.5.8 running on an ide drive.

Any help appreciated.

 

[mode11]

Have you tried booting from CD or from a FW drive? Can you put it in Target Disk Mode and check the disk with Disk Utility from another Mac? I'm pretty sure that red light comes on whenever the Cube's powered up, though could be thinking of a different LED.

 

[California]

Hi G4 Cube owners, I was wondering if any of you could help. I am trying to fix my G4 Cube which crashes on startup. I get the apple logo and then gets stuck on that screen. I noticed a red light near the ram which is DS2 and was wondering if this is the culprit.

I have tried another ATI Rage 128 Pro from a G4 Tower with a faceplate swap but again no joy thinking it might be graphics card.

I booted to open firmware and reset nvram but no joy. It was working up until a few months back so would be good to get it back up. I have 10.5.8 running on an ide drive.

Any help appreciated.

Try booting from Tiger or Panther or Jaguar?

 

[HunterZ]

Did you get anywhere on this? I have a G4 cube with a red DS2 LED also. It sounds like it boots up just fine, but the display doesn't come on (regardless of whether I use the Apple LCD or a VGA monitor).

 

[serdar13]

Did you get anywhere on this? I have a G4 cube with a red DS2 LED also. It sounds like it boots up just fine, but the display doesn't come on (regardless of whether I use the Apple LCD or a VGA monitor).

Hi, haven't had to chance. Hopefully over the Christmas holiday period can try and sort it or at least do further testing.

 

[galgot]

Did you get anywhere on this? I have a G4 cube with a red DS2 LED also. It sounds like it boots up just fine, but the display doesn't come on (regardless of whether I use the Apple LCD or a VGA monitor).

Inherited a Cube that have the same problem. plus no chime (does Cube chime anyway ?). no video on any screen I try.
Only some quick flashes (4 ?) on the main power and screen buttons. With that DS2 red led on.
Think it's a ram problem...?
Tried resetting the ram, using only one slot and moving the ram to each slots for testing, using different ones... no joy.
I know the HD is fine as I removed and tested it. Does the same with a CD (Cube hardware test) in the tray.

Anyway, bumping here if anyone as an idea...

Edit: also tried PMU reset, button is on the logic board, under the vid card. no joy.

 

[serdar13]

Hi, i have been really busy and haven't had the time to look at G4 Cube. Hopefully soon i can look at it and get somewhere with it.

 

[galgot]

Hi, i have been really busy and haven't had the time to look at G4 Cube. Hopefully soon i can look at it and get somewhere with it.

No worries. Take your time.
Btw, found out that mine doesn't have PRAM battery. Could this be the cause of the problem ?

 

[1042686]

I’ve not experienced this but According to low end Mac, it can - especially common in portables.

 

[serdar13]

Hi guys, i just tried booting up my G4 Cube again and i do get the Apple Logo on boot and get an image so i don't think its my Video riser board or graphics card. It does not boot though and i get a kernal panic. I tried booting off a 10.4 install cd but i think the cube is not recognising my Apple wired keyboard. Not sure if firmware on Apple keyboard is too new for it but i assume it would work. I will make a 10.4 install cd but without a keyboard i wont be able to boot off the usb stick. The DS2 light is still on though.

 

[PatrickRolfsen]

I actually just started having the same issue. I booted my cube up for the first time in about a month today, it was fine, and while I was loading tenfourfox and trying to authorize iTunes the whole thing just froze. I thought it was my mouse and then realized the whole system was seized up.

I forced it to shut down by holding the sensor and then it wouldn't boot. I took it all apart and it chimed and got to the apple screen, and I thought I was good. The progress wheel then froze at the apple screen. I reset the Cuda switch, and nothing. I last ditch tried to hit one of the buttons in back and now it just spins up and keeps going in a reset loop. I swapped out the video card to the stock one with no luck, but I'm running a 23 inch Cinema HD so I'm not certain that would have done much anyway.

If anyone has any idea how to pull it back please share!

 

[springmajs]

I actually just started having the same issue. I booted my cube up for the first time in about a month today, it was fine, and while I was loading tenfourfox and trying to authorize iTunes the whole thing just froze. I thought it was my mouse and then realized the whole system was seized up.

I forced it to shut down by holding the sensor and then it wouldn't boot. I took it all apart and it chimed and got to the apple screen, and I thought I was good. The progress wheel then froze at the apple screen. I reset the Cuda switch, and nothing. I last ditch tried to hit one of the buttons in back and now it just spins up and keeps going in a reset loop. I swapped out the video card to the stock one with no luck, but I'm running a 23 inch Cinema HD so I'm not certain that would have done much anyway.

If anyone has any idea how to pull it back please share!

I had the exact same thing happen to me. Even having tenfourfox freezing on me before the same reset loop. I've switched RAM around. New battery. Without certain hardware like the DVD and harddrive. No change in the loop. It also automatically boots when I plugin the power.

 

[swamprock]

My Cube is a bit weird, where it only boots when it wants to- it usually takes 4-5 tries, and sometimes I have to let it rest after shutting it down before it'll boot again. Reboots are hit and miss. I've replaced the PRAM battery, VRM and power supply, swapped video cards and RAM, booted it without anything attached, and nothing has made a difference. Once it's up and running, though, it's just fine. I've currently got an uptime of 19 days, and it's solid as a rock.

It's currently the only PowerPC Mac that I use out of my myriad of PPC machines, with Links as a browser, running Tiger (with no theming, if you can believe that from me). There's something "peaceful" about using it for lightweight browsing and website editing.

 

[AppleManFan]

I have a theory or two to test... I checked another Apple thread about the "DS" lights (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/591455). Apparently the G4 towers don't have a DS2 light (it's specified in that thread), but the others refer to the ATA bus and USB bus. Here's G4 Service Manual about the lights, and it too specifies that the DS2 and DS3 lights are not present (http://www.applerepairmanuals.com/the_manuals_are_in_here/PowerMac_G4.pdf), but why?

This leads me to believe it has nothing to do with the GPU or RAM, but potentially the USB or ATA ports. I haven't tried booting up from a CD yet to see if the DS2 light goes off, but I have booted up without USB devices plugged in and it still stays on... I feel like we're getting closer though...

I'll try the following steps and will report back afterwards:

• Boot from CD
• Run Apple Hardware Test
• Voltage test of the DC-to-DC board (and J3 on the vidoe riser card)
• Replacing the PRAM Battery
• Ensure the Pro Speakers are plugged in
• Ensure I don't have both SDRAM and EDO RAM installed simultaneously
• Reset the PMU on the Logic board.
• Last Ditch: Get new RAM!

UPDATE 08/27/20 - Booting from a disk does not stop the red DS2 light, nor ensuring the Pro Speakers are plugged in. I ran the Apple Hardware Test (v1.1, the latest it can run) and the Logic Board immediately failed with the following error:

Error Code scc /1/5​

​

I couldn't find exactly what that code translated to anywhere, but according to Google and other forums, it means Slave Controller Chip (SCC). According to Apple G4 Cube Developers, it means Serial Communications Controller (SCC) for its USB functionality. And then on other forums, it's tied to the CPU-- which for me would make sense, because it's an aftermarket 1.2Ghz G4 upgrade, 3rd party CPU... So I'm going to try replacing the PRAM batter, doing the PMU reset, and doing the voltage test. If that DS2 light is still lit, it truly must be a logic board or "SCC" failure like AHT says; or, a result of upgrading the CPU.

 

[springmajs]

Thanks for the thourourgh update. I also have an after market CPU. And what I was doing during the same time this happened was that I had another after market CPU fan installed. A more quiet one. But maybe it didn't cool enough and the CPU has "halt & catch fire"?

 

[springmajs]

I now have mine up and running.

The cube was in a startup loop because of the proximity sensor hardware it seems. It didn't directly work with the proximity sensor disconnected, it was extremely slow from the grey startup screen to the blue. But the blue one never got a prompt that it was starting the OS. So I booted the OS X installer from a USB and from there I only quit the installer and choose the internal hard drive. Then it just worked!

I did the whole process again after validating the error by connecting the proximity sensor again. So the hardware issue really created some kind of boot problem after being disconnected.

I hope this help someone. Now Ill see if I can get hold of a new sensor and get it working properly.