PowerMac G4 questions...

[ivel]

I've got a G4, 533mhz, Digital audio.

Someone gave it to a friend who took the HD out and gave it to me and it doesn't work. When I push the power button, the light comes on and goes out when you release it, the fan spins a bit and then nothing. Total time is around 5 - 10 seconds. My thinking is that it's the power supply.

I'd like to mess with a Mac to learn on it but I'm not looking to spend a mint to play.I've looked on the net for power supplies and they seem to be quite expensive and that might not be the only problem I don't know if the rest of the machine is any good. Does anyone know a place to get power supplies on the cheap or have one for sell?

How does one tell the difference in a single 533mhz and a dual 533mhz, a picture would be great.

I would like to run OS X, is this machine sufficient?

Any and all heip is most appreciated.

I'm Mac illiterate and looking to learn.

Thanks, ivel

 

[CanadaRAM]

Do you mean to say there is no hard drive in it?

Is there any RAM in it?

Do you have a Mac OS CD ROM for it?

 

[ivel]

Do you mean to say there is no hard drive in it?

That is correct

Is there any RAM in it?

Yes there is one stick, 128mg PC133.

Do you have a Mac OS CD ROM for it?

Yes I have OS X for it.

 

[thomasp]

It could be a problem with the PMU and requires a PMU Reset (there's a button with "Reset PMU" on it). I wouldn't advise doing this until someone with more technical experience than me confirms it, because it can totally destroy the computer if you do it wrong

 

[ivel]

bump

 

[yenko]

Install a HD and boot with the OS X disk in the DVD drive holding the C key.

 

[zen.state]

Install a HD and boot with the OS X disk in the DVD drive holding the C key.

what he said..

 

[kbonnel]

Will any of that matter if he can't get the PowerMac to stay turned on? Or is it because there is no hard drive? I don't know much about older PowerMacs (or new ones for that matter), but I do see a lot of people suggesting booting from the CD, which would be hard to do when a lot of people indicate they can't turn their systems on

Kimo

 

[ivel]

Will any of that matter if he can't get the PowerMac to stay turned on? Or is it because there is no hard drive? I don't know much about older PowerMacs (or new ones for that matter), but I do see a lot of people suggesting booting from the CD, which would be hard to do when a lot of people indicate they can't turn their systems on

Kimo

That's what I was thinking. How can I boot from the disk if the machine won't power up?

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Check the back of the case. There should be a sticker listing the original config of the computer - for example my Digital Audio (a dual 533) says something like "G4533MP/256/40/DVD", listing CPU, RAM, HD and optical drive.

It sounds like you do indeed have a power issue. It's either a bad power supply, a severe oveheating issue (sometimes encountered with OC'd G4s), or a short that is tripping the breaker (unlikely). There are other possibilities as well but a bad PSU is the most likely culprit by far.

A replacement PSU will cost you around $200-$280,(from here, here or here for example) though you might be able to get parts cheaper off ebay.

Alternately, you could sell your dead Mac for parts and use the cash to buy a slower G4 that works, like a Sawtooth 400MHz. It will run OS X pretty much as well as a DA and only costs a few bucks more than a PSU replacement. Heck, they have a cube for sale for $289 at the linked site, I'd get that.

Good luck with it.

 

[crackajacka]

Yea i would say sell the parts or find a place that will take it and give u money for it towards a working powermac. I obtained my mac from a university. it had a yellow sticky with bad proc on it. i bought it for 50 dollars and went home and looked at it. didnt have any ram in it so i put a pc133 stick in it and it magically wanted to start, except for the fact it didnt have a hard drive, but since then it has 1.62gb of pc133 ram, an 80 gig hd, g4 400 and its running osX 10.4 and it does what i want, i can run "ichat,word,excel,firefox,and entourage" and still not have much lag if any. If i can find the link theres a place selling an upgrade proccessor for 100 dollars that would bump u up to 800mhz. I'm holding out till tax time to get a dual proc upgrade for mine . it'll be the best investment you could do. or u could go get a mac mini and be stuck with limited upgradability.

Paul