G5 shuts down while playing video in FCP

[Peter]

BACKUP IMMEDIATLEY!!!!! Sounds like your motherboard is about to go. If you’re able to clone your HD I’d do it right away. The next time you need to reboot the computer it may not start up. Sorry for the doomsday scenerio but a similar thing happened to me.

[Chris Borjis]

Is it plugged into a surge protector or battery backup?

unplug it and the problem will likely be solved.

We had random shutdowns on our G5 quad. They’re REALY picky when it comes to the power source and unless you have a really expensive high load rated battery ups or surge protector, it will shutdown out of the blue.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Borjis] “We had random shutdowns on our G5 quad. They’re REALY picky when it comes to the power source and unless you have a really expensive high load rated battery ups or surge protector, it will shutdown out of the blue.”

I’m running all our computers on $100 / 1000 Watt backups purchased from Costco. Two are APC’s and two are no-names with no issues. Two G5 Dual 2.0’s and the Quad with Fibre channel arrays, monitors, decks, etc… all running on them. No random shutdowns whatsoever and I’ve honestly never heard of anything like that.

It seems the UPS would have to shutdown and cause the issue, not the G5 itself. I would tend to go with what Peter says because that is definitely not normal behavior for a system. Backup everything on the machine and take it in to an Apple Authorized repair shop immediately.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Danny Dodge]

Thank you so much. I’ve got two more days on my warranty so I guess it’s time to get it into the shop.
Danny

[Danny Dodge]

Thanks Walter! I cloned the system last night before I reinstalled everything. The computer is hardly a year old. Just my luck I guess.
Danny

[Danny Dodge]

Boris,
I’m going to give that a last ditch effort. Thanks for the tip. I’ll let you know what happens.
Danny

[Ron James]

[Borjis] “They’re REALY picky when it comes to the power source and unless you have a really expensive high load rated battery ups or surge protector”

I just worked on an G5 running off an APC $100 unit and had no problems. In fact, it saved me a couple of times. The office is in a 100 year old building and the electrical can be unpredictable. One night, the power dropped three times for about a minute or two each time and the G4 (and all attached FW drives and lights) kept chugging without missing a beat.

I went out and bought myself a smaller APC unit for home and it’s worked great, too. I’m going to get one for every computer from now on!

[Walter Biscardi]

[Danny D] “Thank you so much. I’ve got two more days on my warranty so I guess it’s time to get it into the shop.”

This is why I recommend the three year AppleCare plan for anything you purchase, especially if it’s a laptop, but also for desktops. It pays for itself the first time you use it and generally over a three year period, something will go wrong with the machine.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Chris Borjis]

If you’ve never had the problem or heard of it, thats great,

but it is an issue on some G5 quad systems. The apple community
has had its share of this very issue. VERY cheap like less than 20 dollars cheap UPS in particular can cause this problem.

We had a ups I later found out was not a good brand.

The G5 would randomly shut down.

I looked it up on the web, saw that it could be the ups, removed it from the loop….problem solved.

🙂

[Walter Biscardi]

[Borjis] “If you’ve never had the problem or heard of it, thats great,

but it is an issue on some G5 quad systems. The apple community
has had its share of this very issue. VERY cheap like less than 20 dollars cheap UPS in particular can cause this problem.”

That sounds to me like an under-powered UPS. The Quad draws a lot of power and if you don’t have a unit with enough rated wattage, that will cause a problem with any computer. It’ll over-draw and shut down.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters