Author Topic: Power Supply G4 MDD has died (Read 9264 times)

chriskleeman · « **on:** January 07, 2007, 10:21:06 PM »

Well,

My G4 MDD just died...

no big explosion, no smoke, no smell, just quit working. I suspect it could be something as simple as an internal fuse, but the power supply looks like it might be harder to get out than I might have thought before I opened up the case.

Any of you have any experience taking one of these out? I'll be looking in the usual places tonight to see if I can find out what it might take, but I'd sure like to try to do it myself, no Applecare, etc... I tried another power cord, but everything else works... it's definitely power related

Any info anyone can pass on would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris K

kelly · « **Reply #1 on:** January 07, 2007, 10:38:01 PM »

Does it do anything at all?

If it's dead as a doornail it could be the Front Panel Board.

http://www.allmac.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=3827

http://forums.macresource.com/read/1/195825

PDFs for replacing both here.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=26259

chriskleeman · « **Reply #2 on:** January 07, 2007, 10:49:15 PM »

QUOTE(kelly @ Jan 7 2007, 11:38 PM) [snapback]115364[/snapback]

Does it do anything at all?

If it's dead as a doornail it could be the Front Panel Board.

http://www.allmac.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=3827

http://forums.macresource.com/read/1/195825

PDFs for replacing both here.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=26259

It's definitely dead as a doornail at the moment. I've just pressed the PMU button, but I'm not holding my breath... It just quit while I was writing an e-mail, just stopped working.

Usually, when a piece of electronic equipment dies, it's much more dramatic

Sounds like it could be either. I can figure out how to jump the power switch so maybe I'll give that a try when re-setting the PMU doesn't work.

Great videos, very helpful, I can do this!!!

Thanks Kelly. I'll take a stab at it in the morning for a little while.

Chris K

sandbox · « **Reply #3 on:** January 07, 2007, 10:57:16 PM »

Chris, Power supply's are pretty much plug and play on both PC and Mac. A few screws and connectors and your back in business. No splicing, dicing or software issues.

chriskleeman · « **Reply #4 on:** January 07, 2007, 11:07:01 PM »

QUOTE(sandbox @ Jan 7 2007, 11:57 PM) [snapback]115366[/snapback]

Chris, Power supply's are pretty much plug and play on both PC and Mac. A few screws and connectors and your back in business. No splicing, dicing or software issues.

Yeah, after $250 for the power supply!

I'll definitely jump the power switch on the front before I cash out for that... Edit:Oh no I won't, too many places to fry the power supply

I did read a thread where the front power switch was the issue, not the power supply.

Don't these machines have fuses somewhere???

Yeah, all that fancy plastic on the back had me bamboozled for a few minutes, but when I put on stronger glasses, no problem, I can wreck it with the best of 'em!!!

Kelly, probably that switch, usually power supplies are much more dramatic...

Thanks,

CK

sandbox · « **Reply #5 on:** January 08, 2007, 12:09:54 AM »

I just swamped a PW on an HP for $35 so $250 is a rip!

chriskleeman · « **Reply #6 on:** January 08, 2007, 12:22:50 AM »

QUOTE(sandbox @ Jan 8 2007, 01:09 AM) [snapback]115370[/snapback]

I just swamped a PW on an HP for $35 so $250 is a rip!

Well, then, any ideas where the cheap ones might live?

CK

krissel · « **Reply #7 on:** January 08, 2007, 06:13:03 AM »

Here is a site that sells power supplies. You would have to know exactly what your Mac needs re wattage.

http://www.powersupplydepot.com/listitems....t=36&main=1

More expensive but for your MDD:

http://www.dttservice.com/appledesktops/po...mdd.html#mddpws

Here is a way to test your power supply if you have a volt meter (and guts).

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58561

One thing you would have to consider if you go the ebay way to find one, is that they may be selling one of the 'noisy' power supplies that were replaced by Apple. Then again maybe it doesn't matter if you can get it to work again.

gunug · « **Reply #8 on:** January 08, 2007, 08:22:19 AM »

Assuming the part is 661-2816 in the Mirrored Door G4:

A little cheaper ($209 new):

http://www.dvwarehouse.com/products/10028....CFRlmWAodXEhepw

These guys will repair your P/S ($129) or sell you a refurb ($189):

http://www.galaxyhp.com/PMG4/pwr_pmg4xs.html

Allmac ($199 and they don't say new or used):

http://www.allmac.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1506

I haven't order from any of these except Allmac! If you really dig and/or are willing to do eBay you could do better maybe!

We had 2 of the Dual-Proc Mirrored door models in the school district and I've had to change out the P/S on both and both just failed with a whimper and not a bang!

chriskleeman · « **Reply #9 on:** January 08, 2007, 10:56:07 AM »

QUOTE(gunug @ Jan 8 2007, 09:22 AM) [snapback]115402[/snapback]

Assuming the part is 661-2816 in the Mirrored Door G4:

A little cheaper ($209 new):

http://www.dvwarehouse.com/products/10028....CFRlmWAodXEhepw

These guys will repair your P/S ($129) or sell you a refurb ($189):

http://www.galaxyhp.com/PMG4/pwr_pmg4xs.html

Allmac ($199 and they don't say new or used):

http://www.allmac.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1506

I haven't order from any of these except Allmac! If you really dig and/or are willing to do eBay you could do better maybe!

We had 2 of the Dual-Proc Mirrored door models in the school district and I've had to change out the P/S on both and both just failed with a whimper and not a bang!

Well, gnug, Kris,

I took the power supply connector off the logic board to test to see if anything was coming through, even though Apple wants you to test it with the logic board in place, but I should be getting something, and I'm gettin' zip

bad, bad power supply more than likely. I have a digital volt meter, I'm armed and dangerous!

Apple Part # on the supply itself (made by Samsung) is 614-0224

I powered up the 9600 only to find that I had updated to 9.2.2, which, of course won't run, and I have no idea where my OS 9 install discs are... I probably loaned tthem out or they are here somewhere, buried... I'm going to pull another drive out that came from the 9600, but I think I'd better get busy getting this fixed!

So later on today when I get back, I'll follow up on these links and see what I can find out about getting that part replaced.

Thanks for all the help.

Best,

Chris k

chriskleeman · « **Reply #10 on:** January 10, 2007, 10:40:27 PM »

So thanks to links from Kelly, info from gnug, and info from Krissel,(not a very shocking experience with my volt meter) my MDD power supply is off to Galaxy in CA for a rebuild.

I also now have a new 250 GB drive and a Firewire/USB 2 case to keep everything backed up quite a bit more often than I have in the past

Moral of the story: Back-up, back-up again... I am very lucky I had as much as I did backed up to the iBook, or I would be in real trouble.

I'll let you know how Galaxy's rebuild works out.

And Happy Birthday to Sokudo, Al, and Diana, I have been a little pre-occupied!

Chris K

gunug · « **Reply #11 on:** January 11, 2007, 05:21:48 AM »

Let us know how the process is working! I have fixed a power supply occasionally (fuses and fusible links mainly) but a company that does it all the time should know where the dead parts are buried! I can remember fooling around with a DEC PDP-11 power supply that had caps the size of tomato paste cans and I managed to vaporize the tip of my screwdriver; lots of fun!

chriskleeman · « **Reply #12 on:** January 19, 2007, 08:51:22 AM »

gnug,

Since you asked, an update:

I sent out the power supply to Galaxyhp for diagnosis and repair. The power supply was bad, and it has been repaired and is being shipped back now. Total turn-around looks to be around 16 days since it first died. That could have been chopped by a few days as I couldn't get the time to tear it down until last week.

Total cost with shipping both ways and the repair looks to be about $162. The cheapest other option I could find (from you and Kelly) would have cost just a bit more, as it would have been an exchange, and there would have been shipping both ways as well.

So when it gets back here, I'll install it and see if it smokes, and post again.

David, who handles the customer interface at Galaxyhp seems to feel that the power supplies on these machines are their "Achilles Heel" by the way, without any recourse to make them any beefier on the rebuild. He suggests that repeated drive sleep, which I have done in the past, may be one of the main culprits here in that every time the drives start up, they pu† strain on the power supply...

So much for energy efficiency!

Best,

Chris K

jcarter · « **Reply #13 on:** January 19, 2007, 09:02:08 AM »

Hi Chris,
Gee, sorry I didnt see your post earlier, but dont you live near Small Dog Electronics?
http://www.smalldog.com/
When my power supply and logic board died, I called them and they were going to send me the parts, and guide me thru the process.
But they asked me if I had AppleCare, which I still did, so they told me to take it to my local Mac store and it would be fixed for free. They would fix it for free too, but it meant a drive up to Vermont which I would have loved to do, but we had just returned from Vermont from a huge family wedding/reunion
From my experiance, Small Dog is great!
Jane

gunug · « **Reply #14 on:** January 19, 2007, 12:15:02 PM »

Chris - Thanks for the followup; it's good to hear they agree on the "Achilles Heel" as I only had a statisical sample of 2 units!

News:

Author Topic: Power Supply G4 MDD has died (Read 9264 times)