You could also try booting into verbose mode by holding down the v key.
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Question
PoewrMac G4 won't complete POST or Boot.
My PowerMac G4 won't boot. When I press the power button, the fans and drive spin up, but the screen stays black, it doesn't chime, and it doesn't get to the grey apple splash screen. After about 10 seconds, the CPU fan will speed up to High. I have to unplug it to turn it off.
The problem started when the computer froze when waking up (not from sleep mode, more like Screen Saver mode on a Windows computer). It displayed the last screen, but nothing on the keyboard and mouse would work. So, I held the power button down to turn it off. When I pushed the button again to turn it on, that's when nothing happens.
I tried pushing the PMU reset button (unplugged first, pressed button, waited 10 seconds, plugged back in), but that didn't do anything. The battery is reading 3.6 volts (3.5-3.7 is the operating range). I also removed memory chips, incase one of them went bad. I'm not sure how to test if it is a graphics card problem, but I presume I would at least get a chime if the graphics card were defective.
If this was a Windows PC, I would describe the problem as PC not completing the POST (power on self test).
PowerMac G4. 1 GHZ, 1 GB RAM. AGP graphics card. It was running OS X 10.5.11 (Tiger).
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Answers
Before you throw any money at it for repairs, bear in mind the whole computer is probably only worth a couple of hundred bucks: http://shop.ebay.com/?_fro
It could be a bad voltage line on the PSU. The PSU does have indications that it is working (the CPU FAN goes to High after 10 seconds). If the PSU was totally fried (blown fuse or something), then the CPU fan wouldn't work at all.
If someone knows the in's and outs of CUDA/PMU, the CPU Fan going to high might give me some insight into what is wrong. Is POST getting to a certain point, and getting a bad reading so turns the CPU Fan to high? That implies that POST is doing something. Is there a fail safe where if POST doesn't set the CPU Fan within so many seconds, it defaults to high to protect the CPU? That implies that POST isn't working.
I found some posts that give a more detailed method to reset the PMU. It appears that if a button push doesn't work, a complete discharge may be required - Unplug and remove the batter for at least 30 minutes. I think I will try it overnight.
I know it is not worth much. I didn't pay much for it. I needed a real Mac to do some disk stuff through terminal.
Well, I unplugged everything. Removed the battery. Pushed the PMU reset switch for 5 seconds. Pushed the power switch for 5 seconds. Left it overnight. Replaced the battery and plugged everything back in. Same thing. Push the power button. It lights up momentarily. CPU fan to low. Disk spins up. Screen blank, no chime. After a few seconds, the CPU fan goes to high. I can hold down the power button to turn it off. I tried booting holding down the C, F, and then the V key, and no difference. I don't think the boot is getting that far. Also, the mouse doesn't light up. I tried the monitor, keyboard, and mouse on another computer, and they are all working fine. I tried a different keyboard with the PowerMac. I also tried removing any cards I could (except memory), and no difference (see if I could get it to chime).
I guess the next thing is to check all the voltages on the PSU connector. Maybe try to reseat the CPU - Is it in a ZIF socket?
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by: strungPosted on 2009-09-28 at 10:10:36ID: 25441139
Will it boot from a system CD if you boot while holding down the c key?
Also see if it will boot into Firewire Target Disk mode if you hold down the t key.
If it won't do either, it is a good bet that you have hardware problems.