G5 running Power PC processors won't boot.

I am using an older G5 running on a PowerPC processor. The system boots with a blank screen except for a small box in the center flashing between a question mark and a Finder icon. How can I resolve this. The most important thing is for me to get my email addresses back.
I also have a current Mac Pro. Can I copy the files from the old boot drive to my new machine?
Thanks in advance.

Chopper5150 wrote:
I am using an older G5 running on a PowerPC processor. The system boots with a blank screen except for a small box in the center flashing between a question mark and a Finder icon.
That means that the Mac can't figure out what to use for a boot device, which in turn means that the drive has failed or the PRAM battery may have failed. Boot with an "option" key held down. If after several minutes you see the internal drive, select it, then tell it to continue to boot. If you don't see that drive, boot from the "system restore" discs that originally came with that Mac or from an OS X installation disc. Early in the installation process you should see a Utilities menu. Run Disk Utility from that and see if Disk Utility can see the internal drive. If it can't, that's a bad sign about the state of the disk.
I also have a current Mac Pro. Can I copy the files from the old boot drive to my new machine?
Try booting the G5 Mac with the "T" key held down, then connect the two Macs with a FireWire cable. If the G5 disk appears on the Mac Pro, you may be able to copy from it.

Similar Messages

Power Mac G5 won't boot with Lion?

After installing Lion, my early Intel 2010 Power Mac G5 won't boot. There were no problems for the first 2 days. The third day my G5 wouldn't boot at all. Not using Lion's recovery function, many attempts to boot from a previous system disk, and firewire target mode. The keyboard seems to be dead after attempting to boot except for the DVD eject key. All I get is a grey screen with an icon of a folder with a question mark within the folder. This icon blinks on and off continuously. Since the keyboard isn't working, I can't reset the PRAM, start in safe mode, or any other keyboard commands. The failed boot doesn't even get far enough for the Apple window to open. I replaced the hard drive and accomplished nothing except for spending even more money and time.
This is VERY frustrating! Has anyone else had a similar problem with booting after Lion't installation??
Thanks.

1) you have a Mac pro Early 2009, remember this. It avoids confusion here in forum
2) you're HDD's OS cannot be found by the firmware of the Mac hence it results to a question mark
perform the following(recommended to use a USB keyboard)
a) startup manager
press and hold option on startup. Do u see your HDD?
b) if you have a back up of your data then you can boot to the install disk and perform an erase and install
repairing the permission will not work since the disc's OS is different from the HDD's OS.

Power mac g5--won't boot, and I can't sleep

Hi all,
I'm hoping someone is awake and can help. My power mac g5, circa 2005, has always come with some problems, specifically, kernal panics. It's not bad RAM, but I have never tested the video card. Oddly enough, it seems to go down most often in the most in simple internet applications.
Today, it froze in Firefox and I cannot get it to reboot. It stalls/freezes in the gray apple screen. Called my IT friend, and he said to zap the PRAM. That brought it back up for a second, and then it froze again. I replaced the battery, no results.
I can't get it to boot in safe mode or even single-user- it freezes up as well. I certainly can't get it up long enough to load the boot disk.
It may be garbage...I can accept that...but it is holding hours of work. Will I be able to retrieve this??
Help
Message was edited by: nigelsupercat

Hi, I'm having same problem. G5 1.8 dual processor purchased March '05, won't boot. Not from cd either.
Took it to the apple geniuses and first was told it might be a bad board or processor and that I might as well just buy a new system. Well, I can't, because I still need to run some classic applications for business reasons, and because of that I'm stuck at Mac OS X 10.3.9. Anyway... I left my system with the apple geniuses and got a call 3 days later saying it was fixed @ no charge and that the 3rd party USB card was bad. They pulled it and said all was well.Great!, saving me $800 charge for a new board and over $430 for a new processor. So on the way home I buy a new USB hub get home start up and nothing! No change. Back to the Apple Store and after some testing this time I'm told it's definitely a bad hard drive. So, on the way home I buy a new hard drive. Get back, install the new HD and, you guessed it, can't format the disk, system won't boot from CD. BACK TO THE APPLE GENIUSES AGAIN! Now they tell me it's definitely the logic board. After 5 days I'm back where I started... except I have an old USB card that is most likely fine and new USB hub and a new HD I purchased because the Apple Geniuses told me they were bad! I asked them if they would apply a credit of some sort for the unnecessary purchases and my time (The closest Apple Store is 30 miles away), They politely said we appologize for the inconvenience, but no, we can't do that. I've been using Macs of all kinds since the early 1980's. And have never had one fail! Since I started looking into G5 problems, I've found many others with this startup issue. I feel there is a known issue with this series that apple is intentionally sweeping under the rug instead of issuing a recall or credit.

EMac running 10.4.X won't boot

Hello All -
I am running an eMac that has been upgraded to 10.4.X (not sure what exact version) and it has been upgraded to 1 GB of memory, has the superdrive and 60 or 80 gig HD. It is about 4 years old. The OS upgrade to 10.4 was done a long time ago, this isn't a recent upgrade.
Now for the problem.
It won't boot. It gets to the 'white' page with the grey apple and the little spinning disk and just hangs.
I can't get it to 'safe boot'. When I do try to get it to safe boot, the hard drive appears to 'turn' a little bit longer, but the end result is the same (apple image plus spinning ring of death).
I can get it to the 'command line' (single user mode) by holding down the apple+'S' and I have tried a number of the items starting with item 4 from the following support page
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464
even though it references 10.3.9 or lower, I saw another post that some of those steps might work.
I also tried the suggestion of applealt+PR and that didn't seem to help either.
I tried to hold down the 'option' key and select the volume to boot (only one volume to select on this machine) and that took me to the 'apple' and the spinning ring of death as well.
Any suggestions on what else to try are appreciated. I am happy to discuss 'cash' incentives to solve this problem.
Just to be clear, I am never getting to a login screen.
Thanks,
Laura
eMac Mac OS X (10.4) 1 GB Memory, 60 or 80 GB HD, Super Drive
eMac Mac OS X (10.4) 1 GB Memory, 60 or 80 GB HD, Super Drive

My advice is to break out two discs. First is the system disc that came with your eMac, the other is your 10.4 disc.
I would try starting the eMac in Visual Mode first. This involves holding Cmd+V when you boot. What we're looking for are any error messages, and at what point does the system hang.
If there are any I/O errors, or inabilities to read or write to files, I would put the 10.4 disc in the drive and boot from it (just boot holding Option, then click on the CD to install, don't worry). When the installer comes up, in the menu bar you should be able to find the Disk Utility. Once DU is open, check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your disk. If it's failing, you'll want to get a replacement, and see about trying to recover your data.
If there is no error on the 10.4 disk checking, this does NOT rule out the possibility of your disk failing, especially if you do notice any I/O errors. S.M.A.R.T. failure prediction only works about 40% of the time, so there's a wide margin for error.
If there is no S.M.A.R.T. warning, I would run the Disk Verification job in DU, and see what that turns up. I would also repair permissions, as that has been known to cause some problems.
If the disk check passes, there is no S.M.A.R.T. error, and no I/O errors, put your original system disc in the drive, and start the Apple Hardware Test. Instructions for booting into the AHT should be printed right on the disc, however holding Option at boot-up should show it as a bootable disk. Do the most thorough test the system will let you do, and see if it comes back with any errors.
If the AHT comes up with nothing, DU has nothing, and there are no I/O errors, then I'd have to ask what happened just prior to the system failing to boot. Depending on what happened, you might want to reinstall 10.4. You should be able to do this without overwriting your personal files, or without overwriting your applications. However, as far as many applications will be concerned, you never installed them, and you might be asked for serial numbers again.
iBook G4 12-inch (1 GHz PPC) Mac OS X (10.4.9) 768 MB RAM, AirPort Extreme

Power Mac G4 won't boot in OS X

I have a number of G4's which have been upgraded to Tiger. I am on the last machine running 9.2.2 and it refuses to boot in 10.4. I have tried the Tiger installation CDs, from a firewire drive with a good copy of Tiger on and from a new internal disk with a clean copy of tiger on (Installed via another Mac). All I get is the G4 sitting there with a blank screen with the fan running - no start up question marks or anything.
Does anyone have any idea why this mac won't recognize OS X at all?
TIA
PS Firmware update claims that it is not needed.

First let me ask you this, when you install for the first did your machine boot from the 10.4 or not.
And if you did, sounds like everything is ok if you have what you said you have
G4 350mhz, 512mb RAM, 40 gb drive with OS 9 ,80 gb drive with 10.4
(1) Have you check the Battery Type 3.6V Lithium maybe is out.
(2) did you removed the processor if is 350mhz or did you remove the video card.
Here's a link that might help you out that's if you haven't done it already.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301341
Here's a link about the Mac and choose the one you have ok
http://lowendmac.com/ppc/g4upgrades.html
http://lowendmac.com/ppc/yikes-power-mac-g4-pci.html
Here's a old PCworld link for Mac G4
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130282/article.html
And at last the link for Apple.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301341

My power mac G5 won't boot up but has red flashing light and intense fan noise.

I Have a Power Mac G5 that flashes a red light that I've never seen before. There is nothing on the monitor and the fan noise is incredible.
HAs anyone ever had this problem?

Hi Michael,
It's normal for the fans to go full speed if the OS won't load to handle them.
Where is this red light, on the logic board, or front panel?
Can you count the beeps or flashes?
1 beep = no RAM installed
2 beeps = incompatible RAM types
3 beeps = no good banks
4 beeps = no good boot images in the boot ROM (and/or bad sys config block)
5 beeps = processor is not usable
In addition to the beeps, on some computers the power LED will flash a corresponding number of times plus one. The LED will repeat the sequence after approximately a 5-second pause. The tones are only played once.
Note: In this case, a flash is considered to be 1/4 second or 250 ms or greater in length.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1547
LED 1—CPU A: red—contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider
LED 2—Overtemp: red—contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider
LED 3—Power On: red—the main power is on
LED 4—Trickle: yellow—Power Mac G5 is plugged into the wall correctly
LED 5—Open Firmware good: green—no problem
LED 6—CPU B: red—contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider
LED 7—Checkstop: red—contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider

Old G4 running 10.3.9 won't boot after Airport update

Hi,
My roommate has an ancient PowerMac G4 / 450 Mhz that runs on 10.3.9. Recently, he installed an Airport update that came up in Software update. When trying to restart, the computer wouldn't boot anymore but got stuck on the grey screen w/ grey apple logo, without any error message.
Does anyone have this problem, too? If yes, are there any easy workarounds? As of now, I am planning to boot from my 10.3 Install disk and try to restore the system, hopefully without losing any of his data.
If you have any suggestions / comments, I'd be very grateful.

Welcome To  Discussions rabatjoie!
"...PowerMac G4 / 450 Mhz..."
That would have to be a G3, not a G4.
Is this the model Apple Power Macintosh G3 450?
What size is the Hard Drive, and how much space is available?
How much RAM is installed, and is it original or added?
Is the Mac shutdown overnight, or does it run 24/7?
Have any routine Maintenance procedures ever been run?
What peripherals are connected? A keyboard, mouse, printer, external drive or modem, router, etc?
"...planning to boot from my 10.3 Install disk..."
Why not use your roommate's Panther 10.3.x discs?
Are those available?
Is your version a Full Retail Version, of the Panther Install CDs?
The discs should look exactly like the images in the above links, and not say Upgrade, CPU Drop-in DVD, or "This software is part of a hardware bundle purchase - not to be sold seperately." on them.
If your discs are Model Specific or Upgrade discs, they will not work to do an Archive & Install of Panther 10.3.x, on the PowerMac 450 Mhz.
Additional info in these links.
Using OS X Install CDs/DVDs On Multiple Macs
What's A Computer Specific Mac OS X Release
Software Update, Upgrade: What's The Difference?
If you have the correct discs, startup from the system install disc 1, and run Disk Repair, and Repair Permissions.
Also review this KB Article You see a blank, gray screen
ali b

G5 fans run fast and computer won't boot

I have a dual core G5 that will not boot. The screen remains black and the fans seem to run awfully fast. Once the Mac powers up, the power light goes out. I also noticed a red light on the motherboard, just behind the power switch. Any idea what the problem is, or how serious?

There should be one red LED lit...
LED 1—CPU A: red—contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider
LED 2—Overtemp: red—contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider
LED 3—Power On: red—the main power is on
LED 4—Trickle: yellow—Power Mac G5 is plugged into the wall correctly
LED 5—Open Firmware good: green—no problem
LED 6—CPU B: red—contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider
LED 7—Checkstop: red—contact Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider

Power Mac G4 Won't Boot

I have recently received an old Power Mac G4 MDD. It will not boot. When I press the power button, the light will come on for as long as I press the button. There is no chime, and the fans do not spin. Nothing happens except that the light comes on until I release the button. I have tried the logic board reset and the PMU reset. I am not sure of the operating system or anything about the processor as it will not boot. It does have a hard drive and a cd drive. Thank you for your help.

Hi cessna.ian, and a warm welcome to the forums!
First thing to try is replacing the PRAM Battery, 4 years is close to their lifespan, far less if left unplugged from the A/C...
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/BAA36VPRAM/
Then, How to reset the SMU/PMU on a Earlier G3, G4, G5 models...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1939

Power Mac G4 Won't Boot...New RAM Installed...

Hey there,
I was just given a Power Mac G5, QuickSilver. It looked relatively clean inside, and had all the neccessary components already installed except for the RAM. I went ahead and bought 3 PC133 SDRAM modules, but when I put them in, I hear one loud beep and it appears nothing is happening. I can hear the fans blowing inside, but I don't get anything displayed.
I know this one beep means the computer doesn't see the RAM, but could my battery be dead? Would that also cause the sound?
Anyone have any other tips or tricks?
Thanks in advance for any info. I'd like to salvage this bad boy if at all possible.
Cheers

Hi-
Apparently it was one of the launch models for the Quicksilver, or at least that's what I'm told.
That'll be this one:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermacg4/stats/powermac_g4_733qs.html
do you know if there are limitations to how high I can go with hard drives?
That model/series (QS 2001) only supports up to 137 GB drives (128GB formatted).
You can use a 160GB drive with no worries regarding the "unused" portion.
I was kind of wondering if I could purchase a Serial ATA PCI controller card that would allow me to use SATA hard drives.
Of course you can.
This will also get rid of the capacity limit.
However, if you want to boot to the connected drives, not all support boot.
The best, hands down, controller that also supports boot is the Firmtek Seritek line.
The 1S2 is as cheap as they come:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Firmtek/FTST1S2/
I was also given an AGP G4 (400MHz) that was missing the hard drives, RAM, and battery.
All those parts are basically the same for the QS and the Sawtooth (AGP G4).
You can try a stick of your new RAM and any ATA hard drive (up to the same limits as the 733 QS) and see if you can get it going.
Order a new PRAM battery (or 2) from OWC while your at it.
Always nice to have a fresh one.
BTW, ALL QS processors are interchangeable.
That is to say, if you find a deal on any other QS processor (and heatsink), even a dual processor, it is a straight swap.
Look around my website, as there is a bunch of information that you might find interesting:
http://www.jcsenterprises.com/JapamacsPage/All_ThingsPPC.html

Installed FCP7 on a brand new mac running lion, Now FCP won't boot.

Just got a new mac quad running the latest version of lion. When i start FCP7, it's gets to the splash page, asks me to select a deck, then when I hit continue, it just quits out. Any suggestions? I have done the simple restart and tossed out preferences.
Thanks

Use Disk Utility to repair permissions on your boot drive. Restart. Try again.

Has Mavericks gone all maverick on my 2010, 27" iMac? Long story, short: Replaced 'bad' HD with identical model (1TB), reloaded apps, + got external 2TB HD. Fan was running high, now machine won't boot in ANY mode.

I have a mid-2010 iMac (27") 2.66 GHz Core i5 (750) with 4GB RAM that I bought second-hand almost three years ago. It worked perfectly...until I 'upgraded' to Mavericks last Fall, & all my trouble began. At first, certain apps started getting kinda wobbly, especially Chrome which was really unstable. Eventually one day on boot-up I got the gray screen/apple logo/spinning wheel/loading bar--and then it would shut down. I got apple care on the phone and we went through a laundry list of various tests and start-up attempts. We reset PRAM, got me into safe mode and eventually hit a point where we were going to have to wipe the HD and start fresh--except I didn't have a back-up (shame on me!). He told me 1) the error code that came up after running disk utitility (?) indicated no problem with HD and that it was software related; and, 2) to take it into Genius Bar, have them backup data and then I could call him back and we'd do the deed and then reinstall with backed-up files. Tried but Geniuses said, "We don't do that" and told my hubby how to. We bought the equipment and prepared to back-up using my son's MacBook Pro. No glory. Nada.
After much back-and-forth with 'geniuses' and guy on phone, we took it to MicroCenter. Their diagnostics said HD is shot--get new one. After pricing everything out we went with iFixit's instructions, and I ordered the identical (I thought) HD for Mac online from manufacturer. We installed it, but had wee problem with LCD temp sensor and so fan ran like crazy. I also bought a 2TB external back-up and did routine back-ups, so I should be good there. I am aware of that third rail on the HD's with sensor but thought I could circumvent that and 'knew' it was really the LCD sensor that was the problem. I was traveling for months all winter/spring so didn't have time to devote to a pesky fan noise. HOWEVER, with increased use being home for several weeks, suddenly we are back to square one it seems. One day the machine shut down and has not rebooted since--about three weeks ago now. Haven't called apple care but tried to reset PRAM and tried to restart using thumb drive where I thought I had saved a copy of Mavericks--didn't work so don't know for sure if it's on there. I opened machine back up and saw that LCD sensor wire was not connected and falling apart. I ordered a new wire which installed tonight with no apparent problems, crossed my fingers and...NADA. Same-o, same-o: gray screen, apple, spinning wheel, loading bar...then it shuts down and goes to black. I have tried to restart with all kinds of codes: reset PRAM, safe mode, hold down option key, hold down Command+R...again, nothing. I even replaced the keyboard batteries. As the progress bar fills up near the end, I hear a little click and whirr, fan running softly, but then it just shuts down. I should mention that the PRAM reset did actually start out like it was working--it shut down/restarted but then the daggone apple/gray scree/spinning wheel/progress bar would kick in again...and then shut down 5-10 minutes later. Any ideas, folks? Please help?

Your internal hard drive is not good.
Your Time Machine drive with your backups on it, if these backups were created using OS X Mavericks version of Time Machine, these will not be accessible by early OS X versions of Time Machine.
Plus, Time Machine stores data and nothing of the OS X system.
Plus, you want to save/retrieve your data that is still on your iMac's internal drive.
So, we can try to get your iMac back to running OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
The most easiest and direct way to do this is to just purchase another external 2 TB hard drive (preferably a fast FireWire 800 external hard drive)
You can use your OS X Snow Leopard install DVD to format this new hard drive as an OS X Extended Format with GUID partition scheme.
Create two partitions on the new external drive one that is big enough for OS X and all applications (say 500 Gbs) and the remaining partition for storage so you can manually copy all your important data ( and maybe your Applications folder, too) from your Mac's internal drive (if it is accessible) to the large partition on this new drive.
Once the drive is formatted using the Disk Utility app that is on your OS X Snow Leopard DVD disc, you can then proceed to install OS X Snow Leopard to this new external drive and now giving you a bootable hard drive that will have a fairly fast, working OS X version your iMac can boot to, now.
Once OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is install to this new external hard drive, you need to boot to this to get up and running.
Use OS X Software Update feature to get you back to OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard so you can regain use of The Mac App Store.
You have two options, now.
You still need to attempt to manually copy over all your important data and applications over to the large storage partition you created on this new external drive.
Once you have done this, you need to search for, purchase, download and install a data cloning app, like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to be able to clone your new hard drive's system back to your iMac's internal drive once you have resolved/replaced you iMac's Internal hard drive, again, if it is damaged.
If you still want to be able to access your Time Machine Backup drive, you can go ahead and try to re-download OS X 10.9 Mavericks ( you may need to use a Combo Update version from the Mac App Store, now as Mavericks is up to 10.9.5, now. You will upgrade install Mavericks over your new OS X Snow Leopard partition on the new external hard drive.
If, successful, you should be able to access your Time Machine backup at this point.
You will be running your iMac from this external drive until the internal drive is repaired/replaced.
The other idea is if you do not care about your Time Machine backups on the other drive, you can foresake the data on this drive and keep this new external drive , and your iMac, running OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard and forget about upgrading to Mavericks, at all, since you had so many issues with it.

POWER MAC G5 WON'T BOOT UP AFTER GRAY SCREEN!!!!!!!

My wife was on my G5 one day and then came and told me it was messed up. When i turned my G5 on, the fans came on and it appeared that it was booting up. The computer got to the gray screen, had the little working icon under the apple logo came on, then it appeared to black out right around the the icon. The screen went black and then the screed said no connection.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Hi foleypopo, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.
See if it will boot up to a screen by holding the Option/alt key down at bootup.
Any results?

Power Mac G4 Won't Boot after Installing 2nd Hard Drive and Additional RAM

Hello. I am using a Power Mac G4 (PCI graphics) that I bought a few weeks ago. It was working perfectly fine until I tried to add an additional hard drive and add more RAM to the machine. After I closed the case and plugged it back in, it won't start up at all. No sound, no lights, nothing spinning, nothing. I removed the added hard drive and RAM, but it still refuses to start. I don't know what happened. Hopefully it's not a logic board failure or anything else equally bad.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
The PowerMac G4 PCI forum is over here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=586
I'll ask a moderator to move your thread. Try replacing the clock battery, and hitting the CUDAS switch.

Power Mac Lion Won't Boot! Fixes

Ok, I have the following: 2 x 2.66 Ghz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Power Mac that had 10.6.8, 4 GB MHz DDR@ FB-Dimm Ram over 4 slots. I had the original hard drive (Western Digital Caviar SE 250gb Ram HD model #WD2500AAJS-41RYA0) drive in this morning, and cloned it to a Seagate Barracuda SATA 1 TB 7200rpm 32 Cache Hard Drive. When I formated the new drive, I did it journaled. I took out the Western Digital and made the Seagate Barracuda the boot drive. I also installed a second drive, a Seagare Barracuda SATA 2 TB 7200rpm in bay 2. That drive is not journaled since I am storing video on it. Both of the new drives were formated properly and without issue. They worked all day without issue. This evening, I downloaded Lion without issue. It installed and rebooted. Everytime the computer boots, it goes to the "you need to reboot screen" aka "Mac Kernel Panic Screen" with four languages. Here is a link to the image: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3742. Any ideas of what is happening or what I did wrong? Any thoughts on what happened? Any fixes? Help please. Do you need any other information?

OK. ALSO, I installed the OLD hard drive on its own and it boots fine. It seems like it can't find the new drive. Thoughts?

G5 running Power PC processors won't boot.

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