Broken Power Mac G5 - $500

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Tom Owad's picture
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Broken Power Mac G5 - $500

Power Mac G5

2.0 GHz G5 processor
1 GB RAM (maybe 1.5 GB)
stock nVidia video card (whatever that is)
ships in original box and packaging
no hard drive (the only part I have a use for)

This is a customer's computer that failed the other week when it was so hot. The RAM is 512 MB from Apple and either 512MB or 1 GB third party RAM (I can't remember which). The computer was used in an un-air conditioned and acidic environment (engraving business), in an interior room where the temperature was pushing 100°. The first day the computer would start to boot up, then shut off. I pulled the third party RAM, and that fixed it. That evening and the next day, the computer starting sporadically shutting itself off. The day after that, it died completely. Pushing the power button yields no response whatsoever. Given the extreme heat and the frequency with which G5 power supplies fail, I have a pretty strong suspicion it's the power supply. The third party RAM is a bit dubious, too, though, and the customer says the USB port on the front panel never worked since it was new.

There's also one other issue, which dissuaded me from trying to fix it up and resell it myself:

There is a light layer of rust on the heads of PCI slot screws, the shiedling of the front panel (board with the power switch & front switches), and superdrive's shielding. This is probably due to the acidic environment. The rust is very light and I have not spotted it anywhere but where mentioned above. No rust is visible from the exterior and all the circuitry looks normal. The screws are easy to replace and the rest looks like it can be cleaned off with ease.

I opened up the power supply and couldn't find anything visibly wrong (the caps all look good and the fuse isn't blown, but that's all the more I messed with it. I was kicking around the idea of cutting off the power connectors and trying to wire up a generic power supply). Even if I do get it all cleaned up and fixed, I wouldn't want to sell it without mentioning the rust, and I suspect that would lower the value enough to make it not worth my time.

$500 takes it. If nobody's interested in a couple days, I'll post some pictures to prove the rust really isn't that bad, and look into specifics on the RAM and video card.

Tom Owad's picture
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I have an update on this G5 s

I have an update on this G5 system. I have it working. I bought a brand new power supply for it, but it still wouldn't boot, so at this point I figured the problem was either with the motherboard or the front switch. So I unplugged the front switch and shorted its pins together, and the computer started right up! I went into System Preferences and set it to power on automatically each morning and to restart after power failures. I then forgot about the system for a month or so. Last week, I found the RAM I'd pulled over the summer, and reinstalled that. From all appearances, the RAM (for a total of 1.5 GB) is working fine. No crashes yet, as I write this. I've had it on now for a couple days straight with no problems.

I have some corrections on the specs:

1.8 GHz G5 processor (got the speed wrong earlier)
1.5 GB RAM
GeForce FX 5200 video card
ships in original box and packaging
150 GB SATA HD (now included)
SuperDrive (the owner said he had trouble either reading or playing DVDs. I haven't looked into this and have no idea if it's a hardware, software, or user issue.)
Brand new power supply installed
Used possibly-working power supply included as a spare (these are expensive and a common failure point)

$675 + shipping

Sold as-is.

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Im very interested in it, cou

Im very interested in it, could you send some pics to my email:
tomrinny@hotmail.com
Thanks

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Sold

The system is sold.

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