Roasting my Power Mac G5 motherboard this weekend

This page is a wiki. Please login or create an account to begin editing.

9 posts / 0 new

Last post

2012, July 5 - 11:53am

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

Roasting my Power Mac G5 motherboard this weekend

In an effort to fix this hopelessly broken 2003 Dual-G5, I am going to 'oven' the motherboard this weekend. This may help reseat any surface-mounted chips.

I have a couple of YouTube videos saved, which outline the procedure, and should have all the tools and skills to complete the task. If this doesn't work, but I don't DESTROY the mobo, I am going to attempt installing an ATX power supply.

If anyone has better links to this procedure than the lame slideshow on YouTube, could you please post URLs in a reply. I am an absolute beginner with electronics, so an easier step-by-step guide would be preferable.

Many thanks...

Comments

2012, July 5 - 1:00pm

max1zzz

Offline

Joined: 2010 Oct 3

i have one bit of advice. don't. the people who post those video's on youtube don't know what they are doing and just get crazy lucky, you will melt any plastic parts on the board (connectors, ram slots, cpu sockets etc.) you will only end up doing more damage, assuming you have no intention of buying the professional kit i recommend you try a paint stripper heat gun, although you still have a slim chance of melting the solder under the chip (to test if you have achieved this you need to take a tooth pick and tap the edge of the chip, if it moves your good, if not keep heating). I also recommend as you won't have a bottom heater that you rap the hole board in several layers of aluminum foil with just holes for the chips you want to reflow (as this will stop heat escaping from the board, which without a prehater is just one big heatsink pulling heat away from the chip you are trying to reflow)

Reflowing these bga chips if a fine art, took me weeks of practice and killing several boards to succeed (along with the absolute cheapest professional kit i could get, about £120 of it in the end)

2012, July 6 - 2:53am

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

GAck!

sorry, not an option for me... only other heat source I have is a soldering gun, and I wouldn't attempt it with THAT. As far as I'm concerned, if it works it works. If it doesn't, I will use the case for a hackintosh conversion, and use the 250GB SATA HDD for something else

I have done a graphics card like this before (unsuccessfully), but it is only for about 6 min at 150c.

I'll be watching and smelling the whole time.

Personally, I believe it is the power supply anyway. I'll try that second.

Thanks for the info!

2012, July 6 - 3:40pm

Balrog

Offline

Joined: 2009 Apr 24

I suggest testing the power supply with a voltmeter first. The BGA soldering on the G5 is fairly reliable compared to others, and I've had G4 power supplies fail on me.

2012, July 8 - 6:12am

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

Gack, it didn't work, but I managed to reassemble the machine to a point where it works the same as it did before (ie: didn't work).

I have a 450W ATX power supply, so I will try the fixes online (rewiring).

Cheers for any help etc.

thanx

EDIT: Double-GACK, original was 600W unit. I don't think I will ever use the custom Apple video connector (just regular DVI), also, I don't absolutely require LED lights on the front panel, with that 25V guff. This could get messy.

2012, July 8 - 10:38am

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

I tried single-processor mode, wondering if the lack of a processor would give me the 'oomph' I needed to start up. Still complaining about marginal RAM. The process of installing an ATX PSU is so messy, and so involved, I fear I would never be able to do it. I might just salvage the hard drive and dump the rest

Also, my 450W power supply is not nearly enough.

2012, July 8 - 11:22am

max1zzz

Offline

Joined: 2010 Oct 3

test the voltages from the psu, if somethings off replace the psu, if not it is probably the logicboard

2012, July 8 - 6:26pm

bertyboy

Offline

Joined: 2009 Jun 14

Of course, you mean that you're going to salvage the video card, the AirPort Extreme, the optical drive and anything else that can help another G5.

2012, July 9 - 2:47am

themacmeister

Offline

Joined: 2009 Oct 26

OK bertyboy, that's what I really meant

There is no Airport, no Bluetooth, tiny amount of RAM, Apple DVD that will not fit in a modern case (long). I am going to hold onto the case, as I want to do a Hackintosh project some time in the future.

Actually, I wouldn't mind putting my Inspiron 580 in there... I don't like the idea of only two hard drives tho... my current Inspiron has 3 ATM.