G5 Shutdown

Dual 2 MHz G5, OS 10.4.10, FCP 5.1.4, QT 7.1.3

Hi Ken (and anyone else who has any ideas),

I'm having a disquieting problem; My Mac shuts down just before it's fully started. The first time it happened I did a Safe Boot and that worked -- then I hit Restart and the same thing happened again. I safe booted again and opened Tech Tool Platinum, went to directory repair (or whatever they call it) and when I okayed start from e-drive it did the same thing. I did another safe boot and it booted from the e-drive. I ran the directory fixer then the hardware tests and everything passed. When it was finished I told it to restart from the boot drive and, again premature shutdown. After yet another safe boot I tried to restart from the clone of my boot drive and -- you guessed it. So it appears that the problem is NOT my boot drive.

I had to go home (where I am now and until tomorrow morning) so I won't be able to execute any suggestions I might get until then.

I have an edit scheduled at 11 AM so I have another question: Can I run FCP in Safe Boot?

Thanx in advance for all the advice I expect to get.

BB

Hi Ben,

Not good.

Disconnect all Firewire and USB devices (except the keyboard and mouse) and try.

It does not sound like the boot drive to me either but try this. When you start up, hold down the Option key. This should produce a dialog box that lets you select which drive to boot from. Select your clone (reattach it to your Mac). If you get the same issue, then it's not your boot drive.

Safe boot does run some UNIX utilities, what it does is turn a lot of things off, like extensions in the old Mac OS (OS 9), so you would not be able to run FCP.

One other thing to try would be to zap your PRAM, this probably won't help, but it does reset some EProm chips (ROM chips) and monitor settings.

Restart your Mac while holding down the Option Command P and R keys, continue to hold down through three startup 'bongs', then release the keys.

Do you have AppleCare, might be time to make a call.

--ken

Thanx, Ken, I'll try this stuff in the morning.

Applecare ran out nearly a year ago. I assume your last paragraph is how to zap pram?

BB

Correct, for zapping Pram.

Keep us posted.

--ken

Will do, (Probably before you're up Wednesday morning.)

Thanx.

I just remembered; A couple of years ago this same machine was shutting down when running DVD-SP and the problem turned out to be a bad memory chip. Do you suppose that could be it now?

BB

Could be.

--ken

Hi Ken,

I unplugged all USB and some Firewire (missed a couple) devices and hit the button. Big Mac started up just fine -- on the Clone -- which, fortunately I had not unplugged since it was the last drive I had specified in Syst. Prefs. I plugged everything back in and, for now, am leaving well enough alone since I have an edit client due in an hour.

After I finish with her I'll go back to the boot drive and see what happens. Hey. maybe he was just in a bad mood yesterday.

BB

Okay, Booted from the Clone, I edited for 4 hours, created a DVD and burned 4 copies with no problem.

When the client left I ran Verify (Disc Utility) on the main Boot Drive; all was well. I selected the main boot drive in Syst. Prefs., hit restart and got a shutdown. I unplugged all the USB & FW drives, started again and shut it down again. Zapped the PRAM. Tried the Option startup to Clone - shut down.

Did a safe boot, (main drive) then in Syst. Prefs. selected the clone and hit restart; same result. Just tried another start -- shut down.

Those are the news as of now.

Could it be heat in the box, or dirt?

Arrgghhh!

BB

Hi Ben,

What process did you use when you were able to boot from the clone?

It sounds like an intermittent hardware problem. I wonder if one of the ram sticks is loose.

--ken

When I got in this A.M. I just pushed the power button (after I unplugged all USB and some Firewire devices -- missed a couple including the clone drive) and it started from the clone. I had selected it as the start drive before the last shutdown Tuesday night.

I'll check the rams.

BB

Checked the ram chips, they seem tight.

Started up and this time it started (from the clone -- which I had designated prior to the last shutdown).

Maybe it's time to retire this four-and-a-half year old War Horse.

Do the new iMacs have FW 800 ports?

BB

I checked at the apple store and they don't make mention of FW 800, but I'm sure thatn they do. You would want the 24".

--ken

I just looked, too and although they don't show specs for ports, I looked at a picture of the back and they have both 400 & 800.

The display I use with my G5 is a 16", my old iMac is 17" so I'd be happy with a 20". I'm not too flush at the moment and I'm sure it would be a speed bump from my venerable G5 and I've got about 3 TB of FW 800s. I could plug in more RAM couldn't I?

I can get a refurb for under a grand. Repair on the G5 could be nearly that much.

That may be the way to go. What do you think?

BB

You would need the 24" for color and has a better monitor card.

--ken

I'm not sure what you mean by "for color". I use an NTSC/PAL monitor for that. And what's a monitor card? You know (tech-challenged) me.

BB

PS: Heading home. Will reply to next post later.

The Color application that comes with FC S.

--ken

Re Color and 20 v 24 inch monitors: Is it a question of real estate or something else?
BB

The 24" has a much better monitor card. Aside from Color, it will do a better job with Motion.

--ken