R.I.P. PowerMac G5

[deWaardt]

Hi all,

 

For the past few months I've had a PowerMac G5, bought it from some other tech guy for 50 bucks, complete with 4gb RAM, a 500gb Hitachi hard drive, original keyboard and mouse.

I already found this to be suspiciously cheap..

When I got home and power the machine on it appeared to work fine, although the prints on the keyboard and mouse suggested this machine has been used a lot. It was a 2003 Dual Processor 1.8ghz model.

 

 

After running it for a couple of hours, I already started noticing the machine was troublesome, it was unstable and would fail to boot sometimes, after a month or so the problems where getting significant, but I managed to get a workaround working. I started searching around what could possibly be wrong, and came to the conclusion that the logic board was probably faulty.

Yesterday it made it's last successful boot cycle, somewhat later. it wouldn't boot anymore (stuck at Apple logo with spinning wheel)

Today it showed just a grey screen,
Now it won't even turn on anymore.

 

I've opened up the machine to check for physical damage and cleaned out the dust, but no avail.

It's dead, 

 

Rest In Peace, PowerMac G5. 2003-2016

 

 

[Unhelpful]

Gut and re-use the case. 

[deWaardt]

Gut and re-use the case. 

Lol that's exactly what I'm planning to do.

[deWaardt]

Good riddance, I didn't get the hype with them, they were ugly IMO

I like the look of them.

I'm gonna reuse it as case for my custom built PC, it offers quite some nice air cooling options.

I might spray it black or something.

[pwn_intended]

re-using the case is a total pain in the ass and pretty much requires you to fabricate a rear and motherboard tray area. They can look really sweet if done well though.

 

As far as $50 being suspiciously cheap...the machine is pretty much useless since it cannot go higher than 10.5, meaning you cant really install any relevant software...but those cases alone can sell for much more..

[Unhelpful]

I like the look of them.

I'm gonna reuse it as case for my custom built PC, it offers quite some nice air cooling options.

I might spray it black or something.

Spray paint it black and do silver on the lining, 

[Rheinwasser]

overheating problems? replace thermal paste?

[deWaardt]

They have nice layout inside.

Yea

 

Spray paint it black and do silver on the lining, 

Souds cool.

 

Reusing the case will indeed be a pain, but it's possible.

I'm gonna try my best at it.

Think I'm gonna replace the DVD-drive with some more USB ports and mod the sliding door so I can open it manually.

[deWaardt]

overheating problems? replace thermal paste?

No, the memory controller is probably toast.

Common issue on the G5's.

Usually it causes the system to either not turn on, or turn on but get stuck in the boot process.

Another option is the PSU being toast, but whatever it is... It's not worth the effort and money to fix it.

[Mug]

There was bound to be someone I suppose

[DildorTheDecent]

13 years it lasted. 

 

Not too shabby.

[deWaardt]

There was bound to be someone I suppose

Looks cool!

I'm not quite sure where to place the USB ports tho, I still have some USB ports that connect directly to the motherboard lying around.

Like I said, I'm probably gonna put them behind the sliding DVD door, as I never ever use the DVD drive. I'm not even sure if mine still works, it has been disconnected for the past 1 and a half year.

 

13 years it lasted. 

 

Not too shabby.

No, it's kind of a shame it died, it was a fine computer, but on the other side....

PowerPC..... Kinda pointless to have in 2016

[Mug]

Looks cool!

I'm not quite sure where to place the USB ports tho, I still have some USB ports that connect directly to the motherboard lying around.

Like I said, I'm probably gonna put them behind the sliding DVD door, as I never ever use the DVD drive. I'm not even sure if mine still works, it has been disconnected for the past 1 and a half year.

 

No, it's kind of a shame it died, it was a fine computer, but on the other side....

PowerPC..... Kinda pointless to have in 2016

Yeah, I found the same conundrum. It's really difficult to use the G5's standard I/O because you need to be a master solderer (I at the time was not).

I suppose you could also cut out the entire I/O panel then place in the ports and buttons that you want.

 

Check out http://www.thelaserhive.com/ the guy's stuff is second to none in terms of modding for Mac cases (Mac Pro, G5, G4, G4 Cube etc). He does front panel kits too.

 

And RE: the DVD door, it's really swaggy but I wanted to put a fan there so I cut out the entire top shelf (be careful because it's steel and you go through cutting discs like it's nobody's business). I just use an external drive now, easier tbh.