Chosen Solution
Hello, I’ve recently been given a PowerMac G5 for free, and I’d like to get this thing running again. Due to how old this machine is, I cannot find many information online for the errors experienced. Here’s what I’ve collected so far: During ALL Startups: Green(?), Yellow/Orange and Red light are always visible from when the computer is turned on to when it’s turned off. No clue what this means, though. The chime is there. On Startup, an error messagee recieved when OF started: Invalid Memory Access at %SRR0:00000000.ff84604c %SSR1:10000000.0200b030 Apple PowerMac 11,2 5.2.7f1 BootROM I got to OF by removing the USB while the screen was black. That was the only way I was able to get into OF. Typing shut-down in OF: Invalid Memory Access at %SRR0: 00000000.ff848988 %SRR1: 10000000.0200b030 Things tried: Booting to a USB (Seem to get no display when a USB is plugged in, fans get faster after a while) Resetting PRAM - Still leads to the flashing question mark folder. Holding Command + V to boot to Verbose mode - leads to flashing question mark folder. Apparently seems to be a hardware failure? Holding Command R to go to macOS Recovery - assuming there is no OS anyways? Booting straight to OF from CMD-OPT-O-F leads to flashing question mark Booting to the boot selector via holding Option on startup: leads to the refresh arrow and and an arrow pointing right (exit?). I’ve put in a Win.7 CD but the mac did not seem to read it. I’ve put in a linux CD as well, to no avail. CD and USB seem to fail at this point. (I’ve put the USB in after i’ve gotten into Boot Selector as well- Nothing.) Windows CD: By somewhat forcing the CD Drive open, (have to manually open the door for it, then press the button thats inside the case), i’ve put the CD in and can hear the CD drive running, however after a point of time you can hear it stop, or at least slow down. While booting to the Boot selector with a mouse plugged in, I pressed the left arrow and it seemed to crash to OF, though pressing any key does this. While in Open Firmware from the above way^: typing in ANYTHING (mac-boot, sync, test-all, any random letters, etc) leads to the error: “[Commandhere], unknown word, HERE= ffa3aa98 typing in help leads to “help help on is not available” ok Booting to boot selector with no mouse: Seems to hang the machine after the watch on the corner is gone. Return, any key command is unavailable at this point. Fans start to go faster, only way to shut down is by holding the power button. Possibly Important Information: 1GB RAM, 320GB HDD Western Digital, Not sure of GPU But 90% sure it’s the factory GPU. No clue who the previous owner(s) were. Any possible clues? Thanks in Advance!
The flashing question mark folder means that it’s not detecting any bootable device. You could try finding a dmg of MacOS X Leopard (not Snow Leopard as that’s Intel Only) and burning it to a Dual Layer DVD disc. Then you should be able to boot and install from that by holding down the option key while starting up (gives you a list of available bootable drives). I had two PowerMac G5s a while back and they both were pretty stubborn when it came to bootable USB, but bootable CDs and DVDs were no problem. Regarding the Invalid Memory Access error, have you tried swapping out the RAM? It may be that you have a bad stick of RAM. Depending on the model you have, you’ve either got DDR or DDR2 RAM which are fairly common and cheap when bought second hand (there’s at least a pair rattling around in every man-drawer out there). Again, depending on your model, you could install up to 16GB of ram! Also, If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you could install a flavour of Linux instead of OS X. Debian and Ubuntu spring to mind: https://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/ins… https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCDownloads
Try a different ram stick(s). Sound like a ram error, or just take each one out one by one until the error disappears.
