Question

Apple G5 Reinstall OSX on new Hard Drive - Possibly Overheating

Asked by: FASTECHS

I am helping a friend with his G5 before as he says he uses it for firewood.

The problem is that it randomly turns off. If you hit the keyboard it goes right back to where you were. Sometimes you can run it for hours even days and it is find. Then it will then just randomly restart.

My friend has had the motherboard replaced as well as the power supply  same problem.

We tried safe boot, yet the ical and imail programs would still start. Not sure why these wont go away because when we terminate them they come back.

We tried running applejack. It actually completed without any reboots or freeze ups!!! This made me think well maybe it was something messed up with the os because no sooner than we rebooted after a full scan with applejack and no problems, the system went back into os x and did the same exact thing.

I thought well lets try installing a fresh version of mac os 10.3 on a brand new Seagate 1 TB sata hard drive. I got his black cds and put them in. I held down the c key. However I cant figure out how to get it to install. The hard drive has nothing on it and was brand new sealed.

At this point I believe it is either an overheating issue, thermal sensor that is messed up, or bad os installation.  

Reasons I think it could be overheating  when I have a large fan blowing, the unit seems to run better. Also please see attached photo, but the two fans in the lower left corner spin, but there is a duct with a silver heat spreader that gets REALLY and I mean REALLY hot. It is so hot at times you could easily cook breakfast on it.

Reasons I think it could be an OS  I cant seem to get ical and imail programs to stop running. Even in safe boot I would close and they would just reopen in like an endless cycle!

My questions are, what are your thoughts?
Are these sensors easily replaceable?
Whats the trick to install OS 10.3 on this new drive?

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Asked On
2009-10-01 at 16:37:07ID24778904
Topics

Apple Desktop

,

Apple Hardware

,

Apple

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: FASTECHSPosted on 2009-10-01 at 16:44:08ID: 25474206

Here are a vareity of photos. The screen shots are what I kept getting when trying to install. Can't figure out how to get the install to work. Had the cd in and kept holding down c. The other photos are pictures of the silver and black duct that gets really hot. The other two fans on the left and right side spin.

 

by: dlethePosted on 2009-10-01 at 16:45:32ID: 25474210

Well, let's eliminate the disk.  Unplug the power connector to the internal disk,  and fire up the mac and wait.  (Unplug the DVD as well if you want a more agressive test) This will kill 3 birds with one stone, as an unpowered disk will generate 0 BTUs, so you can see if temperature is also an issue, and your powersupply will also have a smaller load.   Make sure the screen is on some setup information or something that requires a few keystrokes, otherwise you won't know if it recycled power.

I would do this before going through time & expense of replacing disk that may have nothing to do with the problem.

 

by: aleghartPosted on 2009-10-01 at 22:28:56ID: 25475375

Also remove any other cards/hardware installed.  They draw power from the power supply, which adds to the heat load.

Components inside the case do get extremely hot.  Figure that high temperature range for a hard drive is 50-60C, which is 140F...the temperature of a sidewalk in the summertime.

Hardware components could go up to 90-120C, which is near 250F.    Water boils at 212F.

High temperatures may affect component performance, or even cause premature failure.  But, each has a set of operating parameters.

 

by: FASTECHSPosted on 2009-10-02 at 04:46:50ID: 25476941

Is there a log somewhere I can check to see why it is turning off. The silver heatsink that is connected to the black duct seems to be where it gets really hot.

 

by: calldrdavePosted on 2009-10-04 at 06:52:07ID: 25489181

Here's a link to view the log files.  For temperature, you can use this program to monitor it.  That looks like an iMac which do have known heat issues and other problems.  For monitoring the temp, use this software http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19994

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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