Got a G5 Quad!

[MacSoftware3]

Hi everyone,

yesterday, I got myself a PowerMac G5 Quad. It had a 1TB hard drive, and I upgraded the RAM to 8GB. The graphics card is a Geforce 6600 (Default as far as I know). I am really suprised how smooth this machine is running Leopard, compared to my PowerMac G4 MDD (DP 867MHz, a lot slower indeed).

The only thing which concerns me a little bit, is the fans running loud when I am using TenFourFox (latest version) and Leopard Webkit, TenFourFox does it worse. Is there a reason for this, does anyone else with a G5 Quad have the same problem? And what is the application called to get a graphic in the top OS X bar for CPU usage?

 

[Dronecatcher]

Congrats on getting a great machine!
You can download an Apple Service Disk (write it to CD) and perform a hardware check and calibrate the fans - this might address the noise issue.

http://www.dreamsupport.us/downloads/apple-mac/Apple_Service_Diagnostic_Disks_25_GB/ASD Dual Boot 2.6.3/

But you may just have got a noisy one - this happens with Quads, some are noisy, some silent (my last was).

To track CPU in menu bar, there are a few options but I prefer MenuMeters as other monitors take up too much CPU themselves!

https://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/

 

[647156]

Are there any red error lights on the logic board (near the front) and is the calibration successful sing the ASD disc? If no lights and successful calibration then it's probably all ok - I found one recently that was noisy and there was a red light and it froze during calibration, so I think there was something wrong with that one even though it seemed to run fine otherwise.

 

[MacSoftware3]

When I start the Mac, there is a red light which disappears a second later, machine boots fine and I can hear the bong.

I tried to calibrate the fans with the Apple Service Disk, but I got this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19XarXv3oTAd5xlBPZUOnY3xAm83AaoYq/view?usp=drivesdk

Does anyone know what to do now? Maybe replace thermal paste with some new? The machine has not been running for a long time, when I started it up for the first time, there were files on the machine which were last edited in 2013 (I didn't open them of course haha).

 

[pl1984]

I would thoroughly inspect the liquid cooling system for signs of leaks. Quads tend to be more reliable than the other liquid cooled models but there's still the potential for the cooling system to leak. If there are any signs of leakage then the fans spinning up are likely the result of insufficient / no liquid in the cooling system and you'll need to rebuild it.

 

[MacSoftware3]

I would thoroughly inspect the liquid cooling system for signs of leaks. Quads tend to be more reliable than the other liquid cooled models but there's still the potential for the cooling system to leak. If there are any signs of leakage then the fans spinning up are likely the result of insufficient / no liquid in the cooling system and you'll need to rebuild it.

The fans are running full speed when I start the Apple Service Disk (it starts when I am on the boot screen). To see if there are any signs of leakage I need to remove the G5 cover I think? Is there a safe way to do that?

 

[pl1984]

The fans are running full speed when I start the Apple Service Disk (it starts when I am on the boot screen). To see if there are any signs of leakage I need to remove the G5 cover I think? Is there a safe way to do that?

You can check for signs of leakage by inspecting the area beneath the processors. Typically this is the rear of the system. Check the top of the power supply (which runs along the bottom of the chassis and well as the lower, rear most stand).

 

[MacSoftware3]

I don't have a lot of experience with cooling, but I took some pictures which can be found here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TMaV7gQuj8oqkDhk-OKk4-99_j46HppB

 

[Dronecatcher]

I can't see any coolant leaks.
Have you tried adjusting the Performance settings to "Reduced" to see if that makes a difference to the fans? That worked for me with an errant G5 2.3 DP. Of course, drawback is you're then not running at full speed.

 

[MacSoftware3]

I can't see any coolant leaks.
Have you tried adjusting the Performance settings to "Reduced" to see if that makes a difference to the fans? That worked for me with an errant G5 2.3 DP. Of course, drawback is you're then not running at full speed.

Thanks, that helped a lot! Now I can browse the web without being blown away haha. It didn't solve the problem with Apple Service Disk though...

 

[Dronecatcher]

Thanks, that helped a lot! Now I can browse the web without being blown away haha. It didn't solve the problem with Apple Service Disk though...

No, It won't unfortunately But even at reduced capacity, the Quad is still awesome. I'm sure one of the "Mac Mechanics" will be along shortly to advise you regarding the CPUs...could be a sensor problem or they just need re-pasting - I never stripped mine so can't say for sure.

 

[Hrududu]

Just curious, did you take some compressed air to the cooling system & fans to clear it out? Also never a bad idea to hit the power supply fans with the air compressor as well.

 

[AphoticD]

That is a very tidy looking Quad and in excellent condition. Even though the cooling system appears to be in good shape, it won't be very effective if it is not drawing heat off the CPU cores due to deteriorated thermal paste.

The hardware test failure indicates that the cooling system isn't dissipating the heat quickly enough for the CPU to stay below the temperature threshold when under constant load. I think the threshold is about 75-80°C on the 970MP cores. I had the same hardware test error on my air-cooled Dual Proc 2.0Ghz G5. Everything worked fine, but the service disk reported a failure. The fix was to re-paste the CPUs and it now passes the tests with flying colors.

If you are willing to remove the cooling system, you'll find the original thermal compound will have cracked and turned to powder by now. Clean it off with Isopropyl Alcohol and then renew with a quality paste like the Arctic Silver 5, or better yet, Grizzly Kryonaut.

 

[ziggy29]

I would concur with the above. If there are no signs of coolant leaks the next thing to work on is the thermal paste. If you can get something loaded in 'reduced' performance setting that will show you the sensor temps, that would give you confirmation that something is simply too hot. You might even be able to (briefly) increase the settings to see what temps you are getting. Note that if you are hitting 80ºC and higher when doing so, stop right away. Throttle back to reduced if that keeps you out of the "danger zone", and redo the thermal paste as soon as reasonably possible. The 970MP CPUs themselves are actually rated up to 105ºC, but these units are not designed to run nearly that hot.

I had a problem like this with one of my CPUs on the "new" (to me) Quad G5 I got back in January (one CPU was fine but the other quickly went well into the 80s and higher, and it had to be a cold ambient temperature to get it to even boot up before failure). I actually had a good spare CPU core unit, so I swapped that in and all was well. Still have redoing the paste on the swapped out core on my "to do" list.

 

[MacSoftware3]

I would concur with the above. If there are no signs of coolant leaks the next thing to work on is the thermal paste. If you can get something loaded in 'reduced' performance setting that will show you the sensor temps, that would give you confirmation that something is simply too hot. You might even be able to (briefly) increase the settings to see what temps you are getting. Note that if you are hitting 80ºC and higher when doing so, stop right away. Throttle back to reduced if that keeps you out of the "danger zone", and redo the thermal paste as soon as reasonably possible. The 970MP CPUs themselves are actually rated up to 105ºC, but these units are not designed to run nearly that hot.

I had a problem like this with one of my CPUs on the "new" (to me) Quad G5 I got back in January (one CPU was fine but the other quickly went well into the 80s and higher, and it had to be a cold ambient temperature to get it to even boot up before failure). I actually had a good spare CPU core unit, so I swapped that in and all was well. Still have redoing the paste on the swapped out core on my "to do" list.

Isn't there a big chance of damaging the CPUs when I am going to replace the thermal paste?

 

[AphoticD]

Isn't there a big chance of damaging the CPUs when I am going to replace the thermal paste?

Not really. Everything just screws together. Just take your time lining up the screw threads and don’t over-tighten things. The machining on the G5 is beautifully precise.