This weekend already I've had more than my normal share of surprises. There was the GCC bug I found, and then late yesterday as I was taking a break from that I realized that my iMac G5 was frozen. I mean like a poster frozen. So I power-cycled it and it came back - for about 5 mins.
Crud. I can't have this guy die! This is important stuff to me.
So I took off the back and reseated the memory. Tried it again... same thing. Uh oh... not good.
I was thinking last night "Disk drive - it's the only mechanical thing to wear out. I'll get another tomorrow and put it in." And I left my office for the night.
But as I thought more about it that evening, I was convinced that it couldn't possibly be the disk drive. If it were, there would be a normal message on the boot-up about a "sad mac" and a bad disk. I've had this before on other models, so I know what it looks like. No, this appeared to be something far more insidious. Like the system board.
So I put the drive in, and closed it up and took it to the Apple Store at Oak Brook. Because I had an appointment with the Genius Bar I only waited about 15 mins. Not bad, really. They hooked up a keyboard and mouse and did a dump of the machine to their diagnostics site there - whatever it is and looked at the report.
"Well... how long have you had the memory?" he asked.
"Since I got the machine." I said - wondering what was up.
"Well, it's the memory or the System Board. I have a new System Board in stock, but let's see... the cost for that will be $900 plus tax."
Crud. Well, it's less than a new iMac, and I mentioned that to him.
"Not by much", he shot back.
So I looked around the store, and he was right. For basically $1200 I could get a new dual-core iMac and have a faster, better machine.
Double Crud. I loved my G5 and planned on keeping it for years. But it was clear that the smart thing to do was to get a new iMac.
And so I did.
It's basically the same machine - a 20" iMac with 2GB RAM and a 320GB drive. It's got all the same standard things my G5 did, but updated to the latest from Apple. It's got the nice display, and boy is it really nice, but the nicest thing about this machine was something I wasn't expecting - the new keyboard.
Basically, this is a laptop keyboard for a desktop machine. It's thin and sleek and feels wonderful. Really, I knew they were out, but I hadn't played with them for any length of time, but when I started working with it, I was floored how nice it was. Smooth as glass... wonderful feel... I'm a very picky keyboard-kind-of-guy and this was stunning. Amazing.
So I got everything back on the machine based on my TimeMachine backup, and that was a very pleasant surprise, and in less than half a day I was back in business. I think I'll still try to make the G5 work - maybe with another G5 from eBay or something with a good logic board. But I can't imagine giving it up - not just yet.
[3/7/08] UPDATE: I worked on this guy today and I'm convinced that it's a thermal problem. The machine will run fine for about 1 to 5 mins (depending on the temperature of the box) and then it'll lock up. Video is fine, all LEDs inside the box are fine, tried new memory and hard disk - no difference. It's the logic board for sure, and it's a drag that it's thermal in nature. It's not a cold solder joint as that would not allow the start... it's something that's 'in spec' at lower temps, and the fans don't kick on fast enough to keep the temp in the box below that level. I think it's the CPU to be sure, but can't be 100% positive without a swap. Bummer. Don't know what I'll be able to do with this guy - if anything.