iMac G5 power froze this morning

[AriRashkae]

By that, I mean wouldn't wake up, and I had to unplug it because I couldn't force a shut down by holding the power button down. When I first tried to restart, I got a little "ping" sound and then nothing. Walked away and an hour later it started up and has been working like normal since

Now, this thing hasn't been rebooted in about a week, and is more than several years old. Everything's backed up either way, but how likely is this to be a last plea for help, or just something that can be cleared with a reformat? Am I more likely looking at a few hours wiping, reinstalling, and updating, or a possibly expensive replace/repair (not that I'd mind a new toy, but the last time I built a fantasy box it cost more than our brand new car )

[lordlundar]

If it only happened once, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Most likely it was just a small hiccup during boot up. It happens.

[Dave1982]

I'll see if I can get AdamAnt316's attention on this one. He's something of an expert on iMac G5s, having rebuilt a few.

[AriRashkae]

If it only happened once, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Most likely it was just a small hiccup during boot up. It happens.

Sadly, it happened again this morning. Everything is either backed up, or was originally on disc. (I still want a 1TB external though. )

I wouldn't be overly concerned except my DH isn't quite back to work yet (he's waiting for date/time on Interview #3) and while we are surviving quite nicely between unemployment and the tax return, I'm watching pennies when I can.

[AdamAnt316]

Ah, iMac G5s...

What series of iMac G5 is this? If it doesn't have the iSight camera on top of the screen (and maybe even if it does...), the power supply itself, or possibly the logic board, may be on it's way out; fortunately, these were covered under recall. Bring the unit to the Genius Bar at an Apple Store, and they should be able to tell you if it's still covered.

These models had some problems with defective capacitors; our revision A iMac G5 had to have it's power supply replaced once, and the logic board three times. If you remove the back cover, look for some small soda can-shaped components near the center of the large circuit board; if any of them look swollen near the top, and/or are leaking gunk, that's likely your problem. Hope this helps.
-Adam

[AriRashkae]

This one's very old (no camera). We already had to take it in once shortly after we bought it, probably around Feb '05, because the board died. And, apparently, so did every other 20" in the country. I'll crack it open in the next few days and see what the problem looks like. Thanks, guys.

[AdamAnt316]

Yep, my 20" iMac G5 is on it's third motherboard, and looks to be in need of a second or third power supply. It was a $30 find at a flea market, but so far, I've spent $300 fixing it, only to end up with the power supply dying on me two days after installing the replacement motherboard, and two months after the recall on said P(O)S ended. To say the iMac G5s were lemons would be a vast understatement, IMO.
-Adam