G5 - Seems like a bad problem

Question

Hello. I think my G5 has a serious issue. Over the past several days I had noticed an odd sound coming from the computer. Last night, while moving a large music file, the computer froze. After several minutes of waiting and trying keyboard shortcuts to force quit all the apps I was in, I forced the computer off by holding down the power button. After waiting several minutes, I turned the computer back on and all that happens is the fans run. The white light indicating that the computer is on initially comes on and then fades off. The fans run and then they accelerate to full power. The hard drive doesn't spin up. I left it unplugged from the ac over night and tried this morning before I went to work and the same thing happens.
I have just read, in the last few hours, of hard drives in this machine over heating and failing. From the symptoms I listed, does this sound plausible?
If so, how much am I going to have to pay to have my data recovered and have a new drive installed?
I am extremely upset and disappointed. This is by far the most expensive computer I have ever owned. In fact, I just finished paying for it a few months ago. It's out of warranty. I never expected such a horrible issue with a Mac. I laid out over $5K for my home recording studio and now, it's all rendered useless and I don't and won't have the funds available for quite some time to deal with this issue if it's going to be costly.
I'm going to be sick...

Answer 1

Hi David,
right first off (barring hardware failure) it sounds very much like your G5 has suffered some kind of Kernel Panic while you were copying, & all it may need is a few resets to get things going again. My old G4 FW800 did the exact same thing a few times. The first thing you should try is to unplug all extra kit you may have, all externals all USB etc. (apart from keyboard & mouse) now try to reset the SMU, unplug the Mac from the wall, discharge any static from yourself by touching the rear of the case & follow the exact directions in this link: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300341 Note also NEVER press the SMU button for more than a second OR more than once without restarting the machine first!
Note: The below does require the machine to at least power up if not partly boot. So if you can't sort it with a SMU reset there may well be a hardware issue - although read on as removing any extra RAM "may" help.
If no dice you could try to reset the PRAM, to do this hold the AppleAlt/Opt+PR keys at startup (just after the chime) then keep them held until it chimes 3-5 times over, now let go & see if it'll start.
Does it work? If not unplug from the wall again, discharge any static from yourself by touching the rear of the case, now remove all but the original pair of RAM you may have installed - handle them by the edges ONLY & never touch the components, & always remove in pairs, one from each corresponding bank - the pair in the center should be the only boards left now. You could try this because bad RAM can be the main cause of a Kernel Panic - copying a large amount of data at once could cause it to show up if you do have some bad RAM. When it happens you may get a message, you may not - just lockup. See this link: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106227
Once all but your original RAM that shipped with the Mac has been removed try to boot the machine again, does it work? If no maybe try the PRAM & SMU resets again & boot. But if yes retrieve any data you need (if you can) then shutdown & add your RAM pair by pair with a startup in-between to see if any boards are bad. i.e. it most likely wont start or will just hang or crash - but also if it runs with all RAM boot from your Hardware test CD to check the system.
But if all that still doesn't work & you've not had a successful startup, shutdown & unplug from the wall (+static drill), remove the cables to your HD & have your install CD to hand. Startup the Mac holding the mouse button (wired Apple mouse best) as this will open the CD drive, insert the CD & push the drive closed, now hold the C key - can you load the installer? If yes your HD maybe toast. Though that probably wont stop it from doing something at least - starting to blue or grey screen etc. (as posted above) so that may not be the issue, but its worth a go.
These resets may or may not help you, but one thing you should most definitely NOT do is to put your HD in the freezer (as posted above) for 8hrs & plug it back in still frozen! As the sudden & extreme temperature difference from cold freezer to warm computer will cause large amounts of condensation on the cold metal surfaces of the drive, yes it may work but you risk frying the whole Mac as I'm sure you know water, electricity & sensitive computer components don't mix!
I hope the above can help you, if not give Apple a try - you maybe surprised.
Good luck.
...just thought, do you still hear the power relays clicking on or off when you plug/unplug power from the wall? Any abnormal smells or discolouration of the internal boards or casing?
Rory