IMac G5 won't detect any S-ATA disks

Hi there,
I would really appreciate help with the following:
I work as a computer support tech at a university. In front of me right now I have an out of warranty iMac G5 with the following symptoms:
- on boot, it chimes normally; after that, the screen goes blank (not black) and the fans start spinning madly. No error messages appear, nor any symbols regarding missing system disks etc.
- tried booting from different media (OS x.3 cd, OS X.4 dvd, external firewire drive w/OS X.4.6), won't work. It detects the system on the external fw drive, I can even select it when pressing alt on boot, but it won't start up from it; it displays a grey 'traffic sign'-like no-go sign.
- reset pram, no joy.
- After resetting pram, it booted from the Tiger dvd; it went through the first few screens of the installer, up until I need to select an install location: it does not display any drives nor partitions
- started drive utility: no drives detected apart from the install dvd.
- I opened up the casing and reset the PMU: no result.
- I disconnected the original s-ata drive: system boots up fine, but (of course) cannot find a hard drive; now it shows a 'no disk' blinking icon; fans behave normally with drive disconnected (i.e. not constantly working at full speed).
- I took out the hard drive and tested it in another system (G5 tower): boots fine from it, I can login, open apps etcetera; drive seems to work perfectly
- I put in another s-ata harddrive (Western Digital Caviar 200gigabyte S-ATA II): does not work either although the drive works perfectly on the other mac; I tried different jumper settings on the drive to ensure S-ATA I bandwith etc, but none work including no jumpers at all.
- Swapped RAM: no result
- Reset open firmware (reset-vram, set-defaults, reset-all, reboot): no result. I can't think of any way to approach this machine for a firmware update, so I can't try that.
- checked the mainboard for any suspicious-looking condensators etcetera: none.
To me this seems like a faulty s-ata controller or some other motherboard-related hardware fault. Do you agree?
Do you think I've skipped any steps or is there anything left to try?
And if necessary, is an out of warranty repair possible, and how much would this cost, approximately?
Thank you very much in advance for your time and expertise,
Kind Regards,
Sander
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Thank you for the advice!
The serial number starts with W844, which makes it indeed eligible for the extended repair program. But I wonder, isn't this program meant for iMacs with symptoms like scrambled or distorted video, no video or no power?
This mac has a problem with detecting its harddrive and other media, and only if a s-ata disk is built in. When taken out, it boots nicely from external FW media or dvd.
The Apple Hardware Test oddly enough does not find any problem whatsoever. I think this might be because all it does to test the harddrive is directly interrogate the disks SMART-chip, which (correctly) reports no problems with the disk itself. The test does not attempt any reading/writing as far as I can tell. Neither does a program like Disk Warrior.
Do you think this is an early symptom of the display issue? Well, I suppose the machine needs repairing anyway, so we might as well try for the program. If it's another issue, there will probably a hefty bill, right?
Kind regards,
Sander
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Similar Messages

10.5.8 won't detect any external hard drives

I want to update my 10.5.8 Macbook Pro which I bought in 2008. It runs incredibly slow, and I want to reformat it before updating with Snow Leopard. The problem is that my computer won't detect any external disc drives, so I can't back up my important files. Is there any way to fix this, or is there something I'm missing?
I'm also wondering if I'll be able to reformat without my original OSX install disc that came with my computer, and if so, how? Thanks in advance.

If you are going to be upgrading to OS X Snow Leopard, the installer for that should be able to format your drive for you before you do the installation. I'm assuming that you have those CD's for your computer as you need discs to be able to ugrade to Snow Leopard. What happens when you plug in an external drive? Does it just not recognize the drive, or do you just not have it selected to show the drive on your desktop? With Finder being the top window, click on the Finder Menu and select preferences > select general in the tabs at the top and then make sure that External discs is checked.

My iphone 4s won't detect any wifi networks.

Hi
My iPhone 4s won't detect any wireless networks. It was working fine until last night when the connection dropped int he middle of me watching a programme. At first I thought it was our router, but I reset that about 5 times, and all other devices are working fine on it. The phone won't detect any other networks either - if I ask to join a network it comes up with the message "could not scan for wireless networks". I have tried resetting the network settings as suggested on the support page, but it hasn't worked. Can anybody help? Thank you.

If no change after resetting network settings on the iPhone, try restoring the iPhone with iTunes as a new iPhone or not from the backup.
If no change after that, the iPhone has a hardware problem.

My X230 won't detect any USB devices..

hello all,
I'm from Indonesia, a few days ago I bought lenovo X230 5FA.. but every I pluged in every USB devices, it won't detect on my x230..
the devices is:
1. Sandisk Cruser Swicth 16GB.
2. USB Modem Huawei E169.
note that I use the latest driver provided by the web support device..
can anyone help to fix it?
thanks and sorry if my english not good :-P

What operating system are you running on your E330 and X230?
The answer may be found by figuring out why it works on the E330...
Have you tried to use any other devices in the USB ports besides those 2?
And were the recognized?
Did these devices ever work with your X230?
You could try to roll back to a previous driver update and see if that helps?
Here are some resources that might help you:
ThinkVantage Technologies Download
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-61432
Diagnostic Software
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/diagnose-and-fix/detail.page?LegacyDocID=LENV-DIAGS
Tool Box:
http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/Lenovo_System_Toolbox/pdf/Lenovo%20System%20Toolbox.pdf
Be AWESOME Everyday!
Donate KUDOS and Click "Accepted Solution"
Did someone help you today?
Press the star on the left to thank them with a Kudo!
If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution"
This will help the rest of the Community with similar issues identify the verified solution and benefit from it.

My computer won't detect any of my devices

Hello everyone,
I've been having this issue for a long time now. In april, I got a windows 8 computer. Everything works perfectly fine. It always detected my ipod classic (despite it being old), my ipad first generation and my iphone 4. After updating to ios7 my computer stopped detecting my phone. No matter what I did it wouldn't detect it. About a month ago I synced my ipod classic and it worked perfectly fine. Around two nights ago, I plugged in my ipod and my ipad and it wouldn't detect it. my ipad would say 'not charning' and the ipod would in fact be charging. I've seen plenty of forums how you need to delete itunes and the mobile support thing and reinstall but it isn't helping me much. I did that already but itunes still doesn't detect any of my devices. i ran a test that itunes has, the diagnostics one and despite my phone being connected, it says 'no iphone,ipod or ipad found.' my phone charges when plugged but it's really annoying to not be able to sync any of my devices. Does anybody have an alternative or something else I can do? Thanks.

What operating system are you running on your E330 and X230?
The answer may be found by figuring out why it works on the E330...
Have you tried to use any other devices in the USB ports besides those 2?
And were the recognized?
Did these devices ever work with your X230?
You could try to roll back to a previous driver update and see if that helps?
Here are some resources that might help you:
ThinkVantage Technologies Download
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-61432
Diagnostic Software
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/diagnose-and-fix/detail.page?LegacyDocID=LENV-DIAGS
Tool Box:
http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/Lenovo_System_Toolbox/pdf/Lenovo%20System%20Toolbox.pdf
Be AWESOME Everyday!
Donate KUDOS and Click "Accepted Solution"
Did someone help you today?
Press the star on the left to thank them with a Kudo!
If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution"
This will help the rest of the Community with similar issues identify the verified solution and benefit from it.

Help: 2011 imac 27" won't detect External Display connected via thunderbolt to HDMI

I have an 2011 imac 27" and I'm trying to connect an Acer 23" monitor as an external display. I'm using a miniDV(thunderbolt) to hdmi cable. For some reason the computer is unable to detect the display. However when I reboot into windows via bootcamp, the display is detected and works perfectly.. Any way to force thunderbolt to detect this?

Well, weird outcome... I took the monitor back and exchanged it for a better model, better brand. The thunderbolt to hdmi cable works fine with this new monitor in osx. Thanks again..

Imac 27" won't detect samsung syncmaster dvi

A couple weeks ago I bought my first mac. iMac 27" 2.7 GHz. Before that I had a custom built pc with a Samsung Syncmaster T260HD hooked up through DVI.
Today I mini-display to DVI adaptor in attempt to connect my samsung and use it as an external display. It isn't working. Everything is connected properly and the monitor is on and set to DVI. I go to the system pref menu and hit detect displays and nothing happens. One thing that I have noticed it that when I switch to DVI on the monitor it goes for a sec and then basically falls asleep. It is still on but nothing goes up.
My computer is also fully updated and I've tried restarting it.
Please HELP!
Thanks

bump.
Just bought a new adapter and it still doesn't work.

Nokia 700 won't detect any headset?

Hi,
I have big problem here. I am having a problem with my Nokia 700.
Whenever I connect my headset to the phone, it did not detect! I have already plug in properly.
Please help me, I need it to listen to radio!
This happens a few minutes ago, when I'm turning off the radio.
I turned the radio off, but it froze.
When I unplug the headset, I'm surprised that my handphone is still playing the radio.
After that, it stops working and this happens.
I already restart, restore and remove the battery. The software is the latest version.
However, it worked on my computer, but not my hand phone.
I bought this phone 2 weeks ago, please! Can anyone help me? Thanks.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

it is good to know that your problem is solved.
but dont be too happy, you will get the problem soon.
It is not the problem of the software.
it is the problem with the connector.
Nokia is supplying the worst quality
connector in its device costing more than 16 K in India.
I too got the problem.
went to nokia care.
they said , it has to be taken to their workshop for replacement.
I am afraid of sending my brand new device
to nokia care, as they are now providing recycling facility.
that thay may replace it with any recycled material.
Any way, i lost my hard earned 16200 INR and the trust over the NOKIA.

IMac G5 won't read any CDs but DVDs work fine

I have an iMac G5 with a PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K04L drive
and firmware revision D441.
Just recently it stopped accepting any CDs (commercial CDs, software CDs, blank CD-Rs). It buzzes and grinds and groans and then spits them back out, but refuses to mount them. The only exception is the Apple OX Installation CD that came with the machine - that one works without a hitch. DVDs play fine and I can burn to blank DVDs. The problem is only with CDs.
I've tried suggestions from the forums:
- reset PRAM and NVRAM
- trashed com.apple.kernecaches, Extensions.kextcache, and CD Info.cidb and then rebooted
- fixed permissions
- verified disks
Not sure what else to do - but I would appreciate any suggestions - since it reads the Apple installation CD, does this mean it's not a hardware problem but a software problem?

You will need to take it
to your local Apple Authorized Service Provider and
have them take a look at it. Hopefully your iMac is
still under warranty or AppleCare.
Thanks for the reply.
Is it possible to install a replacement unit on my own - or is this definitely not a do-it-yourself type fix? Also are there more reliable internal dual layer DVD/CD burners than the one the iMac G5 came with?
If I decide to simply plug in an external burner, are the external burners compatible with iLife 06 (iDVD and iTunes)?
Thanks.

Audio jack won't detect any earphone after soaking wet on saltwater/sea

Hi!
I'm a Sony Xperia Z2 user from the Philippines. Just last week,I spent my time on a paradise. Doing island hopping for 3 straight days and that means,my Z2 is continously soaking wet in salt water for 3 days,capturing pictures and videos of corals and other life underwater. I was not having any problem at all! Amazing device I have!
And then the 4th day came. All was well,phone's working normally. But upon looking the audio jack,the walls inside it is covered by 'GREEN' particles. I was told to follow-up running tap water on it,so I did. Nothing happened. Again running lukewarm water on it then cleaned it with cottonbuds.But still,nothing. There's a part of the jack unreachable by cottonbuds,thus,leaving little green particles on it.
I was told by a friend that there's an xperia forum discussing the same fate as mine and got theirs back to normal again. I'm not sure if this is the same forum he was talking about. But anyhow,I want to hear from you if you had heard already the same problem as mine and know the solution to it. I'd be in luck if somebody can link me a thread similar to this.
Thank you in advance for responding.

@julfinch
I'm sorry to hear this, contact your local Xperia Care and request a vacuum test
http://support.sonymobile.com/global-en/contactUs/
keep in mind that although the phone it's waterproof, sea water will destroy your phone.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." Kurt Cobain (1967-1994)

HT201210 WLAN won't detect any networks!! + WLAN to Wi-Fi?

I recently got a iPhone 5s from China, I moved to the UK in the summer but I went back and got a iPhone as a present. Over here in the UK, WLAN was working fine until a few days ago. I asked one of my tech buddies and he asked me what was WLAN? He showed me his iPhone, the place where it said WLAN said Wi-Fi, he said that might have been the problem and he told me to reset my phone... and it was just the same. Could the region be an issue? My dad got an iPhone 5 last year and within a few days he had the same issue. He got a new one with warranty. Please help!
Thanks

WLAN is just another name for WiFi.
Try using Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

IMac G5 won't boot, flashing folder icon, disk not found

Hi fellow Mac users,
My mother's G5 iMac suddenly stopped booting after no significant event. Here is some information :
- When the Mac boots up, I get a flashing folder icon.
- When running the extended Apple Hardware Test (from the original Tiger DVD), I get no error, even the hard drive (Mass Storage) seems to be fine.
- When I boot on the Leopard DVD, the hard drive doesn't show up in disk utility.
I think the hard drive is broken, do you agree or is there something else that I am missing ? I am confused because the test says nothing about the hard drive.
Thank you for your help

@ Klaus1 :
Thanks. I tried but everything is fine on this side, the first three LEDs are On and the last is Off as expected.
But the article is about iMacs that display nothing.
@ mrbear235 :
Pressing cmd+R does nothing. I get a grey screen and the computer eventually reboots after a while.
The computer seems fine appart from the fact that there is no hard drive detected. But shouldn't the Apple Hardware Test say something about it ?

Imac running Yosemite won't detect external display

I previously was using a 2008 iMac desktop and running OS X Yosemite. I was using dual monitors (other monitor being Insignia brand) and everything worked fine. Since this was an earlier mac version, I was using the Mini DVI to VGA Adapter to connect. Last week, I got a brand new iMac (Mid 2014 version). I am running OS X Yosemite as well, but now it won't detect any displays. I'm now using the Thunderbolt cable to connect so I wonder if that has anything to do with it. But I have used that same Thunderbolt cable before on my macbook and it worked just fine.
I've tried restarting, resetting the PRAM and everything. I don't know what else to do. Help!

Thanks for the reply, but tried everything and it still won't work. Rebooted, installed updates, cleared PRAM, everything. It will not detect the displays at all. Maybe there is something wrong with my VGA cable.

IMac won't detect SD card

My iMac won't detect any SD card's. It doesn't seem to matter the size (2GB-16GB) or brand, it is just like I haven't inserted one. I have never used one with it before so it isn't from failing to "safetly remove hardware" and I have tried cleaning the slot (with air can)

Have you checked to see if the SD card reader is listed in system profiler? (apple menu, about this mac, more info button) it should be listed under Hardware, under USB, it would be labeled some thing like "Internal Memory Card Reader".
If the card reader isn't listed:
Have you tried a NVRAM Reset?
Have you tried a SMC Reset?
If the card reader is listed, but your not seeing the inserted cards:
Have you checked to see if the cards are reconised in Disk Utility? (go to the dock, click on finder, go to the menu bar, click on the go menu, chose Utilties, double click on disk utility) Do you see the sd card listed?

Audio Hijack not Detecting Any Audio

OK, I know there are plenty of posts on various forums regarding how to record audio from your Mac, but that's not exactly what I'm looking for. I have been using Audio Hijack to record from the BBC iPlayer for some years now on my old G3 iMac, just stuff I don't get the time to listen to live or like to keep for myself. Anyways, I recently bought myself a new (to me) iMac G4 and now when I hit 'Hijack' on AJPro, it won't detect any audio. I have a feeling this is something to do with my system input but can't for the life of me work it out, or find anyone else online suffering from the same problem. Any help would be massively appreciated, particularly as the excellent (although 6 hours long) BBC dramatisation of 'Titus Groan' comes offline in three days! ;o)
For what it's worth I'm using an older version of AJPro, 2.5.6

Not sure, but besides the Sound Pref Pane, Open Audio Midi Setup in Applications>Utilities, see the input & output options & KHz setting there, some things will change it for their own use, then not set it back.

IMac G5 won't detect any S-ATA disks

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for