This sucks. Any help appreciated.

[beach tribe]

I came home yesterday, and my computer seems to have taken a shit on me. Not really surprising though. What's surprising is that it lasted this long. I bought a portable HD already, and backed up all my files about a month ago.

The computer is a 2003 Powermac G4 with mirror doors, and a superdrive. When I push the power button, the light comes on only while I have my finger on it.

Does anyone have any suggestions about what might be wrong?

How about any suggestions about a new CPU. How about building my own? Can I build one cheaply? I have the know how, but don't know much about available products.

Any info, about any avenue will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

BTW. I'm geting a new CPU either way, but would like to fix this one to keep as an extra if possible. I think I'm gonna start with the power supply. No?

[Coach]

One thing I can confidently refer to you is do not think about getting anything from Ibuypower.com.

[beach tribe]

One thing I can confidently refer to you is do not think about getting anything from Ibuypower.com.


I'm aware of them already. My GFs little brother bought one of their piece of shit CPUs. I would really like to buy the pieces, and build my own if that's possible, and cheap.

Still wanna fix this G4 too.

[Smed1065]

Any new hardware?

Changes in last week?

[beach tribe]

Any new hardware?

Changes in last week?

Nothing. It's all original. Crazy too. The thing didn't have shit for ram , but ran as smoothly as some of the PCs at work with as much as 3 gigs.

[BigRichard]

I would start with the power supply as you thought. If not that it very well could be the motherboard. Being as it is an old PC, if you look on Ebay you could probably find the exact same model motherboard for cheap. If you put another type of motherboard in you will probably need to wipe the HD and start over fresh.

[Pioli Zombie]

Its all the porn you downloaded
Posted via Mobile Device

[beach tribe]

Its all the porn you downloaded
Posted via Mobile Device

0 porn downloaded on it.

[MIAdragon]

Hey Beach a good friend owns an Apple store down here, Im sure he could help.

[wutamess]

But it's a mac.
Trash the damn thing and be done with it already.

[beach tribe]

I'm really intrigued by the building your own deal, but can it really compete with this.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/indexus.asp?SRCCODE=LINKSHARE&cm_mmc_o=-ddCjC1bELltzywCjC-d2CjCdwwp&AffiliateID=AzVX5iXg5Ts-bJyoZwJWDyUD4MpFyGBsZg

Check out the Acer. Is Acer worth a crap. I know I'm not big on them, but $350?

[beach tribe]

Hey Beach a good friend owns an Apple store down here, Im sure he could help.

Really? Very interested. I would like another Mac(new), but for the first time in along time, I'm in tight spot. I broke my ankle, AND had hernia surgery, missed a bunch of work, paid a lot of Doc bills, and am pretty tight on cash. So a new mac is out, but I would reall like to check out this apple store.
Sounds very promising in getting this one fixed. Thanks bro. Let me know where it's at, and maybe a referral.

[phisherman]

paging kcfish..............

kcfish, you're needed at customer service..................

[kepp]

Mac, huh? I'm pretty sure that if it's glowing with a brilliant neon hue, it's okay. Anything else and you'll have to buy a new one.

[Crush]

I'm really intrigued by the building your own deal, but can it really compete with this.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/indexus.asp?SRCCODE=LINKSHARE&cm_mmc_o=-ddCjC1bELltzywCjC-d2CjCdwwp&AffiliateID=AzVX5iXg5Ts-bJyoZwJWDyUD4MpFyGBsZg

Check out the Acer. Is Acer worth a crap. I know I'm not big on them, but $350?


In my experience, Acer is the biggest pile crap ever in the crappy history of crap. Do not buy that Acer. They tend to break down very easily.

[MIAdragon]

Really? Very interested. I would like another Mac(new), but for the first time in along time, I'm in tight spot. I broke my ankle, AND had hernia surgery, missed a bunch of work, paid a lot of Doc bills, and am pretty tight on cash. So a new mac is out, but I would reall like to check out this apple store.
Sounds very promising in getting this one fixed. Thanks bro. Let me know where it's at, and maybe a referral.

PM me your # and Ill call you later on today.

[beach tribe]

I don't know why people have a problem with Macs. I work strictly on PCs. Play around on them too. Macs just seem to be able to do more with less. The G4 powerbook in question has something like 386mb of ram, and I swear it runs faster than the Dells at work with two gigs. Not to mention I've had it for almost 7 years, I've never had a problem, or virus. Kind of hard to compete with that, and that's why I want to fix it.

But MY PC at work has 8gigs. Not to mention 2 32" monitors. I want to run much bigger programs at home now, and I'm gonna need at lest 4 gigs to do it. That's why I want to build one.

[beach tribe]

In my experience, Acer is the biggest pile crap ever in the crappy history of crap. Do not buy that Acer. They tend to break down very easily.

That's what I thought. Thanks.

[beach tribe]

PM me your # and Ill call you later on today.

Will do. Thanks again.

[wutamess]

They're great for the point and clicker... but working with networks or tweaking them they're not that easy to get a long with as compared to PC's.

[Jethopper]

Im typing on a 4 year old acer laptop right now. Acer is not the same brand it was 8 years ago.

[Jethopper]

Acer sucks even more now

[Fish]

This could be several different things. First things first, turn it off and remove the power cord. Open up the G4, and find a little button on the logic board that looks like this:

http://www.macinstruct.com/new/images/columns/g4ram/g4ram6.jpg

Hold that button down for 10 seconds. Plug the power cord back in. Then start the machine up while holding down the Command(Apple key) + Option + P + R keys. It's a bit of a pain to hold all 4 buttons down at once. Keep holding that key combination down until you hear the startup chime twice, then let go and see if it starts up.

If that doesn't fix it, it's likely a power supply or logic board issue. If it's just a power supply, I've got some extras laying around that I'd be happy to donate to you. If it's the logic board, you're better off getting a new machine.

Let me know if you have any luck......

[Groves]

You should be able to find virtually free power supplies. And it's already been mentioned, I think, that machines this old can be had for a song. Don't spend any (or much) money on a power supply when you can just get a used machine for the same price.