G4 MDD wont turn on....

[poolin1243]

i looked at some previous threads...but i just recieved this g4 from ups tonight...and it wont turn on right outta the box. i tried resetting pmu, replaced the dead battery, tried turning on without battery installed...reseating most of the wiring. still not turning on.....

it was working for the prev. owner zeke just a few days ago when he shipped it...the only thing he said maybe, is that he installed a second dvd or cdrw crive in the second mirror bay...

anybody have anything?!??!?!?!

HELLLLLPPP

 

[ElectricSheep]

i looked at some previous threads...but i just recieved this g4 from ups tonight...and it wont turn on right outta the box. i tried resetting pmu, replaced the dead battery, tried turning on without battery installed...reseating most of the wiring. still not turning on.....

it was working for the prev. owner zeke just a few days ago when he shipped it...the only thing he said maybe, is that he installed a second dvd or cdrw crive in the second mirror bay...

anybody have anything?!??!?!?!

HELLLLLPPP

How far do you get? Do you get a chime? Fans? Anything?

 

[poolin1243]

oh ya forgot to include that....


ALLL i get is when i push in the power button...the light turns on...when i let go...light turns off...if i hold down the power button...light stays on as long as im pressing...basically if im not pressing, light wont stay on...other that that...nada..no fan...no chime...nada.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

disconnect anything extra thats been added drives etc to the machine and then give it a whirl, also make sure there isnt anything in the PCI slots.

 

[poolin1243]

nothing in the pci slots...just a graphics card in agp? and i disconnected that second dvd drive....also tried taking out all the ram and putting it back in.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

You might want to reseat that video card, may have gotton loose in shipping.

 

[poolin1243]

ive completely taken out and put back in the nvidia card........

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Any chance you might have replaced a bad battery with another? I dont know what else to tell you other then check all those connections again, make sure the hard drive is plugged up. Something must have jarred loose if it was really working when he shipped it to you.
I once had a bad Ethernet card sitting in my PCI slot in my Powermac and it did the exact same. upon removal of that card it fired up. Good luck is the only other thing i can offer.

 

[poolin1243]

so the loose hard drive or something could do that but sitll have it partially power on...like meaning just have the light light up when i touch it...?anybody else??

 

[StealthRider]

Bad PSU, maybe? Sounds exactly like what happened to my old Blue and White.

 

[poolin1243]

whats a psu..?

how much is it..

should he pay for it?

 

[Makosuke]

PSU = Power Supply Unit. They're not that expensive, but since you might need a custom one that fits the G4 case, it'll be more than usual.

That said, I've seen an identical issue that turned out to be caused by the internal power management circuitry acting up. It *sounds* like you've already tried this stuff, but just for reference, what I did to resurrect it:

1. Unplug the G4 from the wall, pull the motherboard battery.
2. Push the power button on it; it should light for just a moment as it bleeds down the capacitors.
3. Push them motherboard buttons just for good measure, though they shouldn't do anything when it's completely powered down like this.
4. Let it sit for a while--I only waited 10 minutes, but if that doesn't work I've heard of others waiting as long as overnight just to be sure.
5. Put the battry back in, plug it in, and hit the PMU reset button *once*.
6. Try it.

(You might also try doing a PRAM reset while attempting to turn it on, or booting into Open Firmware--there's a small chance one or the other might do something.)

If that's not it, PSU is most likely since everything's already tightly connected.

 

[poolin1243]

...nothing after waiting 10 minutes.....any other ideas...? where do i find these power supplies...should i take my computer to the apple store tomorrow???

 

[fartheststar]

...nothing after waiting 10 minutes.....any other ideas...? where do i find these power supplies...should i take my computer to the apple store tomorrow???

Stupid question: Do you know the shipper? Could he have sent you a DOA unit on purpose?

 

[poolin1243]

i dont KNOW the shipper...but hes a macrumors guy on here...i have his phone number, address, etc etc...and i called and he was the one who talked me through all this stuff with the pram reset and all that initially...seems like an ok guy?

 

[poolin1243]

yup...still nothing now....


any ideas....?

 

[Makosuke]

any ideas....?

Nope, if you ran through my list it's probably a bum power supply (though it wouldn't hurt to leave it unplugged all night just to be sure). Never heard of one just going out all of a sudden like that, but it can certainly happen, particularly after being jostled around in shipping (just hope it is the power supply, not the motherboard).

The Apple store might be able to help (or some other computer repair shop that can at least test for a reasonable price and see if that's actually the issue), but it's going to cost. If you've got a friend with a similar Mac and one of you is handy, you might ask if you can swap the two power supplies and see if that fixes yours; if so, you know what the issue is. If not, you've got more serious problems.

The bad news is, a quick look at eBay shows QS power supplies going for about $70 + $15 shipping, so it's going to cost near a hundred bucks to fix if that is the issue. It'll be more if Apple does it.

 

[poolin1243]

well
this computer is sent off to where the seller bought the processor and such...we will see what happens when it comes back, hopefully sometime around thanksgiving..who knows!