Troubleshooting the Power Mac G5: Cold start issue

Over the past week we've been reporting an issue where starting up a Power Mac G5 "cold" (from a powered-off state) results in a black screen; forcing the computer to restart allows the display to function. We've received a couple of interesting notes that appear to identify the culprit. Reader Shane Williams, an Apple Authorized Service Provider, reports:

"As an Apple Service Provider, we have seen about 5-6 of the DP 2GHz machines that have come in with that problem. The first time around we had tried 3 separate parts (under Apple's guidance), then finally solved it with the video card. It appears to only happen with the Radeon 9600 (ships standard in the DP 2GHz). Have been replacing the cards under Apple warranty for the customers and no-one has been back in with them."

Reader Brian Matthew confirms this fix, stating " Working with Apple support we reset RAM and NVRAM using firmware but to no avail. I reseated the video card which did not work. Apple replaced the 9600 video card which seems to have fixed the problem."

We should note that not all Power Mac G5 computers with the Radeon 9600 video card exhibit this problem?our own G5 has this card and has never been afflicted (knock on wood). However, if your G5 is having this problem, talk to Apple or an Authorized Service Provider about getting the video card replaced -- all Power Mac G5 computers are still under warranty.

Resources

More from Late-Breakers