Checking in briefly with a fun story…
Got an email from a loyal reader who had a lead on a ~$40 (canadian) quad G5 which would boot with fans at full speed and then shut down.
The seller was somewhat certain it was related to the cooling system in the G5. But remember – if a computer overheats, it’s not typically in the first few minutes after boot. This G5 was shutting down minutes after being turned on.
In the end, it was (partially the RAM. The G5 had an odd number of RAM. Take out the extra stick, and wallah, the system booted, looking for a startup disk. Keep this in mind as you dig around and check out used systems out and about. The fix may be simpler than you think.
Stay tuned for a special update and potential interview later this week.
Update: Liam wrote back with some success after popping out the extra stick of RAM, but the G5 continued to have issues, especially when CPU was set to anything but “reduced” mode. He flushed the quad cooling system, and things seem to be better. So, keep in mind, it could be more than one thing going on. See the comments for a picture of the beauty.
— Nathan