Comments on: PowerMac G5 Quad RAM Fix (fans on full blast, won’t boot)

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:26:20 +0000

If you can boot to run disk utility, you have a different problem.

By: Jamie Cheek

Jamie Cheek — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:25:09 +0000

I read all of this and ran all the solutions with no success. I’m trying to run disk utility and I get “reserved fields in the catalog record have incorrect data.” for everything on both harddrives. Is this dead harddrives or something else? any help?

By: John Watson

John Watson — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:19:17 +0000

…oh and the dead battery I would look for initially…

By: John Watson

John Watson — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:14:50 +0000

for what its worth my old Power Mac G5s (I have two of them that we purely use for web) did the old fans going ape a a clicking sound trick – each time (happened twice in a few years) I solved it with taking the video card out and re-seating it – so could purely be dust/heat build up IMO

By: Jerimy Spencer

Jerimy Spencer — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:16:42 +0000

Everything worked. Was able to type in the commands, the computer initiated the reboot, but it ended up on the screen with the Face/? folder flashing at me again .

By: J

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:16:58 +0000

My Mac used to do this fan thing on start up every now and then, so I came across this and thought I’d try it.

Now it does it EVERY time on start up!

Not the best tip I’ve ever tried, for sure

By: richard

richard — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:44:24 +0000

didn’t work

By: richard

richard — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:42:44 +0000

i took out the cpus and cleaned the socketscontacts with sanding paper.
swapped the bottom and the top cpu. started up , swapped them back because fans ran wild.
all is well now.

sanding paper is a bit rude but the mac was in a coma anyway.

By: Dave Laidlaw

Dave Laidlaw — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:52:08 +0000

What have Apple done? I don’t remember having these problems with my G3!
Same problem here I’m afraid. I left my PowerMac G5 running, only to return to find the screen black and all fans running at high speed. No reaction from keyboard or mouse, so I had to force shut-down by pressing the power button for 5 secs. Now when I press Power the Mac surges up, the fans come on, but there’s no start “Bong!” and the screen stays blank. I’ve unplugged everything except the keyboard, but still no joy. I’ve tried the usual keyboard shortcuts to try and fix the PRAM, but the Mac doesn’t get far enough to regonise any keyboard – all it does is turn it’s fans on, it just doesn’t start! What can I do??

By: stevie68a

stevie68a — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:54:10 +0000

I’m surprised at how many have this problem. I’ve been using second hand
macs for 13 years, and I’ve never seen such dirty insides as a G5.
I think the fan system draws in dirt and dust like no other, and that would cause most components to malfunction.
I tried some of the fixes here, with no luck yet. I should also note that this
G5, I found on the street. I’m writing this on my trusty MDD dual 1.25 G4,
for which I bought for $150. on craigslist a year and a half ago. It runs like
a dream….

By: Stephen Clark

Stephen Clark — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:48:36 +0000

Hi everyone: I bought a G5 2.7 dual from eBay and the system would freeze between 5-20 minutes and the jet engine fans would blast.I tried everything posted with no results. All temps in istat were normal, AHT was ran with all systems passed, Techtool Pro showed all systems passed, and even the Apple store gave it a clean bill of health. Believe it or not, a box fan sitting in front of my G5 blasting through the machine allows it to run perfectly. I do not understand this but I think the ambient temperature sensor is not working, does anyone have advice? It’s kind of lame to run a big noisy fan to make my puter work. Please help.

By: d lynch

d lynch — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:30:10 +0000

NEW PRAM BATTERY!!!!!

I had grey screen with apple logo then nothing for a few minutes, then fans on at full blast. After trying resetting, rebooting, cleaning and reseating everything still the same problem. then spent Â£4.95 on a new pram battery 1/2 aa 3.6v size, problem solved. got to be worth a try before replacing bits or taking it to someone to fix

By: W Goodman

W Goodman — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:20:47 +0000

I had the fans running full blast and it wouldn’t boot. I tried setting p-ram, safe mode and also tried booting off of the OS disc, but nothing worked… then I read your post and booted into firmware and re-set it as per your instructions. It is now working fine… thanks!

By: John Cleave

John Cleave — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:08:53 +0000

Hi Guys
I have this problem start happening over the last 2 weeks sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn’t today I turned the machine on and the only thing that happens is the fan comes on at full speed no power to key board or screens what can I do can someone please please HELP

By: Juan.G

Juan.G — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 02:47:28 +0000

hello every one,i recently bought a power mac g5 dual 2.3 ghz on craigslist and binn having it for 6 months . I was using it to make music on logic studio,and i used toast titanium to burn a movie on dvd one day and it took 3 days to burn it,it was super slow after that but it was wierd bcus ive burned movies on to dvds b4 but they wouldent take days….but anyway,after the movie was done i turned it off and turned it back on. Then it would get to the apple logo then the fans would spinn like crazy,i tried the command+o+f thing but didnt work ssooo now im hoping its the PRAM BATTERY or the fact its SUPPER DUSTY !!!! PLZZZZ HELP :/