Major issue with Powermac G5

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pr0pensity

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 2, 2003
Messages
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My G5 goes to sleep seemingly at random times, during work. This disconnects me from all internet servers. When I wake the machine, it will immediately sleep again. This can continue for a while.
I don't believe heat or power are causing this.
 
You might want to download ThermographX or something like that so that if you want you can check your CPU temps, just to make sure that's not the problem. Chances are pretty slim that that is what is causing your machine to sleep all the time. Is your power source faulty? I mean, do you think it's creating voltage drops and the machine is dropping into sleep to protect itself? Did you take out all of the expansion cards? Unlpug unnecessary drives? I'd say that if it keeps giving you problems, maybe you could call up Apple and see what they have to say about it / if they will repair it under warranty. Do you have another identical machine that you could mix/match parts with to see what's actually not working?
Also, i know it may sound stupid, but when i first got a Dell machine a few years back the power/sleep button was stuck in the pushed in position. The machine would restart or standby at the weirdest times. You might want to have a look at that.
 
If your warranty is still good, call Apple and explain what is happening.
If you don't we can try some more stuff online

edit:
Do your fans run up before it goes to sleep?
Check your logs, looking for something like "Thermal Runaway", or "Thermal Manager".
If your logs do say something similar to above and you are out of warranty, sorry dude, you need a new processor module
I am not totally sure what PowerMac G5 you have (The naming scheme Apple uses is fucking retarded), so if you could PM me with your serial it would help. I totally understand if you don't want to, as I am some random person on the internets.
 
Jun 15 22:12:18 takas-Computer mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface en0 (FE80:0000:0000:0000:020A:95FF:FEA6:64E2); delaying packets by 5 seconds

Jun 15 22:12:18 takas-Computer mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface lo0 (127.0.0.1); delaying packets by 5 seconds

Jun 15 22:12:21 takas-Computer configd[34]: arp_client_transmit(en0) failed, Network is down (50)


This is probably from my network going down.

Is there any way I can force the machine never to sleep, such as with a hardware hack?
 
no hack required...just go into system preferecens and energy saver and there is an option to disable sleep (set to never) but I agree with sigmend and try to find anything saying thermal runaway anywhere in your console logs because if that is the case the CPUs need to be replaced

 
gigglebyte said:
no hack required...just go into system preferecens and energy saver and there is an option to disable sleep (set to never) but I agree with sigmend and try to find anything saying thermal runaway anywhere in your console logs because if that is the case the CPUs need to be replaced

Click to expand...

That isn't the problem. I'm not ordering the machine to sleep. See first post.
 
Change the sleep setting to Never, but if it still sleeps, then you got a thermal problem on your hands.

Yours is probably a revision A or something close, which means AppleCare is probably out of the question (June 2003 or so, right?)

I would make sure that the computer is in a well ventilated area that lets the air pass through the grill of the G5. Check the fan cables to see if they are still indeed hooked up. Listen to it to see if the fans run to cool it before it sleeps. Sleeping is probably designed to let it cool.

I am thinking thermal problem that is telling the OS to shut down.
 
Have you checked the logs? If there is any listing for Thermal Runaway or Thermal Manager, it's overheating, but if you don't check the logs, you won't be able to find out easily. That's why giggle and sigmend suggested you check there.

Also giggle was telling you how to disable sleep mode in OS X like you asked.
pr0pensity said:
Is there any way I can force the machine never to sleep, such as with a hardware hack?
Click to expand...

Doing giggle's steps to disable sleep in the OS is a step to determine if it's software or hardware making the sleep call. It's also another test to see if the machine is overheating. You cannot disable sleep hardware-wise unless you go and build your own motherboard. The only times a hardware sleep call will be made is low power (faulty power supply or AC going to said power supply) or thermal overheat.

pr0pensity said:
That isn't the problem. I'm not ordering the machine to sleep. See first post.
Click to expand...
One more thing and I'll step off my soapbox, how about not getting a bit snippy with people who are trying to help you? That's a quick way to get no help. Personally, nothing offends me more than someone asking for help then getting rude with me after I suggest what to do to fix the problem. :mad:
 
The_Mage18 said:
Have you checked the logs? If there is any listing for Thermal Runaway or Thermal Manager, it's overheating, but if you don't check the logs, you won't be able to find out easily. That's why giggle and sigmend suggested you check there.
Click to expand...
I posted what I saw in the logs.

You cannot disable sleep hardware-wise unless you go and build your own motherboard.
Click to expand...
What section of the motherboard is forcing the machine to sleep?

One more thing and I'll step off my soapbox, how about not getting a bit snippy with people who are trying to help you? That's a quick way to get no help. Personally, nothing offends me more than someone asking for help then getting rude with me after I suggest what to do to fix the problem. :mad:
Click to expand...
I fail to see how I was getting snippy.
 
pr0pensity said:
I posted what I saw in the logs.
Click to expand...
It looked liked a snippit, thanks for clarifying that.

pr0pensity said:
What section of the motherboard is forcing the machine to sleep?
Click to expand...
Any decently engineered motherboard will have a thermal sensor that will detect heat and/or read the internal thermister in the CPU (or CPUs) and shut the system down to prevent thermal damage.


pr0pensity said:
I fail to see how I was getting snippy.
Click to expand...
Look at your reply to gigglebyte's post, the italics on ordering and the phrase "See first post" don't exactly have the most positive conotation when read together. My apologies if the wrong impression came across.


Back to the problem at hand, since there's no thermal listings in the log but it's still going to sleep, there's still three causes.
1. Bad power but you're certain this isn't an issue so I'm going to agree with you.
2. CPU overheating. Still a possibility. Does it go to sleep sooner and sooner after you wake it up? That would be a sure sign of overheating as the chip hasn't cooled off enough yet when you wake it back up.
3. OS is corrupt and sending a sleep signal.

Do you have a spare hard drive perchance? If you do I'd recommend swapping your main drive with it and reinstall X and see if it continues to misbehave. If not, you found your culprit.
 
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