Member Avatar for dwdrummerman819

You see, I just recently purchased this mac, and when I got it, I plugged it in and nothing happened. Im used to the beginning of macintosh when you hear the "ahhhhhhhhhhhhh" but this one is just "beep". a fast beep and then nothing. The computer just sits there, its on, the light on the front is on.. however screen stays blank and the computer never finishes booting up.....


It is a Powermac g4 with dual 533mhz processors
40gb hardrive
cd rom
zip drive
512 mb ram
and "supposedly" mac os 9 and 10

however the computer does not even start up to get to the mac interface....


just thinking of taking it to MacMedia and letting them take a look at it... I am just trying to find a cheaper way around doing that.. I know alot about PC's just curious if I can troubleshoot it and save myself some money.. THX

Joey :cry:

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Revloflandisher

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A fast single beep with a blank screen usually means the machine halts very early in POST. Given 's symptom description and the replies from , and , here is a focused, practical checklist of additional steps that weren’t covered above and that can narrow the fault without immediately paying for shop diagnostics.

Before opening the case: verify the display and cabling. Try a known-good monitor and cable, confirm the monitor’s input, and remove all external peripherals (USB/FireWire/printers/zip drives) and try powering up again. Note audible/visible signs — do fans spin, do any drives start, and does the beep pattern change if you press keys at power-on. Write down the exact beep rhythm (single, repeating, groups) — that detail is useful when you do consult a repair shop.

If you can open the tower safely (unplug first and take ESD precautions), do a careful visual inspection: look for loose video card seating and loose motherboard power connectors, and scan the logic board and PSU for bulging or leaky capacitors. Reseat the video card and power plugs and test again. If you have access to a compatible spare video card, swapping it in is a low-cost way to rule out GPU/display hardware as the cause of “powered but no video.”

If the machine still won’t progress, try firmware-level entry: hold Option at power-up to invoke Startup Manager, or Command+Option+O+F to get Open Firmware. If the display remains blank and there’s only the beep, the failure is likely before firmware hands off to the OS. At that point consider removing the hard drive to recover data by connecting it to another computer, and weigh repair cost vs. replacement parts for a vintage G4.

Safety note: always unplug before working inside and avoid probing the PSU unless experienced. Document exactly what you see and hear; those details shorten diagnostics and reduce shop labor time.

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Member Avatar for yellow

Could be a couple of things. It could be that the processors aren't seated properly. It could be that the RAM is bad.

Member Avatar for malachy

Are you seeing the apple icon at the start-up or even better are you seeing the spinning ball below the apple icon?

Member Avatar for Revloflandisher

First - try a PMU reset. You need to open the machine and find the button for this.
Second - check the clock battery. The batteries degrade as a function of excessive startups. If this machine had a previous owner who used OS9.x for some time, there were probably daily shutdowns, or at least re-boots.
Third - I hope you have AppleCare coverage.

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