Power Light Indicator blinks 3 times at start up... what do I do?

[JT the Beard]

Hey everyone,

I tried searching and couldn't find anything on this, so maybe someone can tell me what's wrong...

I recently received a Power Mac G5 from work. They told me I could have it, but reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling the OS was on me. So, I took it home, and plugged it in to turn it on, and the white light on the front blinks 3 times and then stays steady... and then blinks 3 times again... and so on and so on.

The RAM that came with it was bad, so I put in 2, 1 GB PC3200 sticks in it. Isn't it a RAM problem? Please advise me if you can. I appreciate it very much. Thanks!

 

[Dragonforce]

Please check this support document.
You will find the power LED flash codes at the end of the document.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2652?viewlocale=en_US

 

[propictrix]

I recently received a Power Mac G5 from work. They told me I could have it, but reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling the OS was on me. So, I took it home, and plugged it in to turn it on, and the white light on the front blinks 3 times and then stays steady... and then blinks 3 times again... and so on and so on.

The RAM that came with it was bad, so I put in 2, 1 GB PC3200 sticks in it. Isn't it a RAM problem? Please advise me if you can. I appreciate it very much. Thanks!

I had this same issue on a MacBook Pro... looked up the codes for the blinking here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2652?viewlocale=en_US

It suggested the RAM was an issue. I took off the plate and sure enough, one of the RAM cards looked like it had come out a bit (I'd just been doing a lot of traveling, so the machine certainly took a few padded jolts...). After re-seating the card and a restart, it seems fine, and has been on 24 hours without spontaneous shut-down.

 

[GermanyChris]

I had this same issue on a MacBook Pro... looked up the codes for the blinking here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2652?viewlocale=en_US

It suggested the RAM was an issue. I took off the plate and sure enough, one of the RAM cards looked like it had come out a bit (I'd just been doing a lot of traveling, so the machine certainly took a few padded jolts...). After re-seating the card and a restart, it seems fine, and has been on 24 hours without spontaneous shut-down.

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