Troubleshooting the Power Mac G5: Firmware Update 5.1.4
Troubleshooting the Power Mac G5: Firmware Update 5.1.4
Positive reports One MacFixIt reader using his G5 for audio work noted that disabling the Nap feature (via the CHUD tools from Apple's Developer site) was necessary to prevent "chirping" noises from being transmitted to the audio outputs of the G5. However, disabling napping would cause a significant increase fan noise. After updating the firmware, the fans in his G5 operate at a "comfortable and reasonable noise level... I now have Midi modules that are noisier than the audio output of the G5 DP 2ghz."
Mariann Jelinek reports that since installing the update (on a dual 2GHz PPC G5 wtih 1GB RAM), "so far, no loud fan noise, and no 'excursions' where the fan doesn't shut down. The machine seems faster, too."
Reader George Snover notes that the update actually fixed two problems: (1) "My G5 1.6 especially after being on for several hours had this annoying quirk when it was awakened from sleep. It would spin up and spin down the fans every couple of seconds for several minutes. Kind of like someone standing at a stoplight and revving their engine repeatedly. This has appeared to stop."; and (2) "we have a Sony dv editing deck that connects via firewire. If you left it plugged in the computer would not restart but would hang with a blinking power light if the deck was plugged in. You could unplug and reboot and then plug it in after the system had started up but that was a pain and we often forgot to unplug it. With the update this no longer seems to be a problem."
Reader Russ Tolman noticed that the update "has improved the way the fans behave." However, he points out that the fan on the ATI Radeon 9800 fan is just as loud as it was before.
Michael Bean, our friend from AMUG, noted that after applying the firmware update, the G5's fans do not escalate as much as before when started into FireWire Target Disk Mode. (It's normal for the G5 fans to spin faster during Target Disk Mode and single-user mode, since the software used to control the fans based on temperature is not running at these times.) Michael stated that the hard drive area is operating at a slightly lower temperature, as well.
Finally, Jeff Talbert notes that before the udpate, installing AirPort Extreme cards in two different G5s resulted in the computers not being able to wake from sleep. Since installing the update, the problem has disappeared.
Neutral reports A number of readers who have been experiencing noise and/or fan problems have reported that the firmware update didn't fix their problems.
Negative reports As with every firmware update, we've received a few reports of problems. Some are serious issues, such as computers that can no longer start up. However, these are rare, and it's difficult to clearly blame the firmware update itself, as some users have found that reinstalling OS X fixed the problem -- implying that the problem wasn't the firmware update, but rather underlying problems with their installation of OS X.
That being said, we have received a couple of interesting problem reports. MacFixIt reader Wladi Turkewitsch reports that his G5 was quiet; however, installing the firmware update "has boosted the speed of the lower power supply fan!... The quietness is gone."
Drop us an email with your experiences at Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
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