fernkorn Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Greetings, in 2006 I bought a PowerMac G5 Quad (Costs: About 3500 $). Now in 2009, I suddenly experienced severe problems using the machine. When I turned it on, after 4-5 minutes the OVERTEMP LED came up and 2-3 minutes later the whole computer would go nuts and crash. After endless calls with Apple "Care" (funniest thing I've ever experienced. They wanted me to pay 1500 USD to get a replacement kit. Sorry, but they seem to be nuts - I could have bought a whole new quad or even a used Mac Pro for that money) I decided to disamble the quad myself. It really takes some time to disamble this CPU beast, you just have to loosen about a zillion screws to get it out of its cage. After several tests without luck I noticed that the CPU B cores get really hot in IDLE Mode (about 85°C). When the complete disambly of the CPU Unit didn't bring any luck, I decided to completly remove the unit. And guess what? Overtemp LED was gone - everything worked fine again. Now I have a Dual G5 2.5 GHz. Before I removed CPU B, I touched the radiator i noticed that the lower end of it (where CPU Core B is located) isn't even handwarm, while the top end is really hot. (I think those are two separated circuits). My conclusion: The cooling pump of CPU B bit the dust. No circulation equals very hot CPU equals OVERTEMP equals LED806 Checkstop (CPU hang) As I don't want to pay 1500 USD for a thing that may cost about 20 $ in production, I tried to find that pump on the Internet. And guess what? Success! I found this pump that looks very similiar to that on the quad: http://www.laing.de/produkte/pumpen/...rompumpen_ddc/ (Sorry, the page is in German - I'm from Austria) I think I'll give this thing a try, since it costs about 70 euros which is A LOT cheaper than a new CPU Unit or even a Mac Pro. My questions is now: Has anybody ever done such a repair? I know it won't be easy, but i think it would be nice if my quad could be back to full power. Does anybody know what cooling liquid Apple is using? I think during the repair I won't be able to recover all of the liquid, so I may be forced to refill the unit. Is the radiator divided into two sections or is there only one? (Two or one circuits?) Thanks, I'll let you know if I make any progress by updating this thread. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/166889-powermac-g5-quad-replacing-the-waterpump/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyropat73 Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Any update? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/166889-powermac-g5-quad-replacing-the-waterpump/#findComment-1199020 Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouCioccio Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Check out this site on those pumps and if you talk nice to Apple you may be surprised. http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ He has a lot of info on those failures and repairs; some have done it themselves. The G5 I have is 2GHz dual plus I have it stuffed with 5 hard drives. I also have a hackintosh I had to replace the mobo P5W some caps over heated so I replaced it with an Intel DG35EC. Good luck, Lou Cioccio Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/166889-powermac-g5-quad-replacing-the-waterpump/#findComment-1201535 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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