USB's not working on G5 (Hard one)

jvoress1 · #1 February 26th, 2008, 02:10 PM

This is like a four part question and I'm no stephan king so please have a little patience.

So I have a powermac g5 daul 2.5's had it for years never had a problem... I love that computer. Recently my usb's got fried I think it was a short in my treo synce cable. Here's the funny thing my treo still works in the usb port I could synce, use it as a modem via usb tether and charge it. Besides that my usb ports are completely dead.

I buy a usb card thinking problem solved. Of course this was after unplugging over night, taking out ram, battery harddrives and pushing that little black button. You name it and I did it. So I have this new card but it doesnt come on untill after start-up.... Oh no that means I cant choose boot disk, start in safe mode or even reset my pram.

Jump to 3 days ago I install leopard and of course I have ape installed now my computer is stuck on the blue screen of death and theres nothing I could do about it. I cant start in safe mode I can't even boot from dvd/ There has to be a way around this. I'm I really going to have to buy another mother board becouse of my usb ports..... Please help. Sorry for the longest post ever I just wanted you guys to have the whole story.
Josh

Satcomer · #2 February 26th, 2008, 03:21 PM

To get the well known APE Leopard install bug so just read this Apple document.

To fix your USB problem (hopefully) just disconnect all USB connections (except the USB keyboard and mouse) and reset your Pram. This might help.

Now if you are installing Leopard trust me when I say BACKUP first. Then do an Archive & Install of Leopard.. This will do fresh install and put you old data in a folder called something like Previous System Files or something. IMHO this is a much better way going from one OS X to the next OS X short of an fresh install. The Upgrade path just brings along all the old files needed to run the applications from the old OS X, even if those applications won't work in the new OS X.

jvoress1 · #3 February 26th, 2008, 04:32 PM

Well can't reset pram Usb doesn't work so no keyboard to hold down buttons. Can't start in safe mode so I can't remove the ape.. Because no usb = no keyboard. I've been I mac guy for 8 years I've always updated despite hundreds of warnings and never have had a problem untill now and if it wasnt for my usb bieng fried I still wouldnt have this problem.

So if anyone knows of a usb card or work around that ables me to preform boot funtions on my g5 with fried usb ports... I would love to hear it...
Thanks

Satcomer · #4 February 26th, 2008, 05:32 PM

See if you reset the SMU might help.

jvoress1 · #5 February 26th, 2008, 06:41 PM

Thank you so much for the help... But again I had allready tried that... I wrote about two paragraphs about what I had allready tried. I'm pretty good at this stuff.. I just don't know if theres a usb card that will power up before the os boots... you see I need to be able to reset my pram or start in safe mode, I can't even chose my install disk becouse the usb card I have powers my keyboard after my os boots...

So again I'm stuck... Anyone have experiance with usb cards....
J

mal_uk · #6 March 3rd, 2008, 10:39 AM

Hi we seem to be stuck in the same mire. I haven't physically killed the usb ports but they are well and trully screwed up. I have a cheap casio midi keyboard i thought I could use as a controller for and old copy of reason.
I'm running 10.5.2 Mac X and the installer said it was compatible I installed it and it appeared in the midi and audio drivers, then I went for a coffee, came back to the sound of a harrier jump jet landing on my kitchen roof. Yep it was the G5. Since then I it takes constant starts and re-starts to get it partly up. As with you its all USB............ so it that gets a glitch your in trouble. I've managed over two solid days to get it up briefly but it hangs with 5 min, most of the time it does get past the white Ghost Apple screen. On the few occasions it gets past the ghosts it starts spinning up but then the mouse light goes out and it back to jet engines. I've even managed to get it as a firewire drive for an old machine and to boot and run boot disk on the old powerbook with ni hiccups, but the G5 won't get passed its USB troubles. I tried all the battery and button pressing stuff and those option command O F but nothing fixes it. I need to somehow force it into doing a firmware setup of some sort as did a firmware install to run the 10 license 10.5 upgrade. Wish I hadn't bothered. I'll keep trying and keep you informed.

Cheers Malcolm

jvoress1 · #7 March 3rd, 2008, 12:56 PM

Malcolm,
So My usb ports are still toast, However our update problem(blue screen od death) is easly fixed. Take your drive out put it in a enclosure hook it up to another mac and erase all file related to the ape application inhancer. if you google you could find more info about it. The important one to remove is in the system library. Apple warns developers not install files there but they did.
Stll need a way around my usb problems though.
Josh