My PowerMac G4 Dual 1.25 GHz MDD Won't Boot Up Properly

[cybermacman1959]

My PowerMac G4 Dual 1.25 GHz MDD won't boot up properly anymore. I keep getting the black message window telling me that I must restart the computer. I'm currently running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 with a faulty ATI Radeon 9600 Pro Mac AGP 256 MB Video Card. There was a fair amount of screen distortion (vertical lines flashing) occurring prior to the computer not booting up. I have purchased a new replacement video card (ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac AGP 256 MB) with the intention to replace the faulty one. Can anyone help me with this problem? I've tried just about everything... Safe Mode Boot Up, Install Disk Boot Up, Unplugging power cable and trying the VGA port. Your suggestions would be welcomed!

 

[SnapMan]

Did the video card change the situation or has it yet to arrive?

The G4s and G5s are getting a bit old and it could be a hardware failure, you can try re-seating the RAM and video card and pushing the CMOS reset switch to see if either fixes the problem. If you have a second startup drive, try using the OS on that one.

You might try starting up with the original Leopard disk in the drive and see if you can run disk utilities from the DVD and see if it reports any issues. If the same issues exist when you start from the DVD, it is quite likely a hardware issue.

 

[cybermacman1959]

Thanks for your suggestions. I will give them a try and see what happens...

Cheers,

 

[cybermacman1959]

Finally diagnosed the source of the problem. It turned out to be the fan on the video card was defective. Installment of replacement fan fixed the cause of the problem.