Chosen Solution

Hi, I have an old G4 / DP 450 Mhz . A few days ago, the circuit breaker of my appartment went off a few times because of using too much power (Old installation). Afterwards i couldn’t turn on the computer anymore. I understand it might be the power supply. Can you advice me on what to do? Do you have those part available at the store, how much it would be?… I’m trying to see if it’s worth saving this old machine… Many thanks in advance for your precious advice and looking forward to hear from you

First i would check to see if you are getting power to the wall outlet. Also try to determine what other things are drawing power from the same circuit to see if you are overloading it. Try a different outlet that draws power from a different circuit than the current one. Do you smell anything burned? Does it blow the circuit as soon as it’s plugged in or when you turn the power on? Here is an exploded view of all the parts for your machine with the part numbers: http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/lovemacs_2113_37…

Try this link to see if your power supply is faulty : http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?… I have the same computer and my second power supply died in it this week. After opening up the power supplies I found some cracked resistors (actually the same in both power supplies). I’m waiting for parts right now… I’ll keep you posted when I’m done replacing them. I might as well write a guide to help other in that situation. Since this computer has gone vintage, it’s quite hard to find a power supply for it… You may want to try eBay or classified adds.

I bought my G4 summer of 2001 and am still using it ( 3/7/17) for desktop publishing, currently building a twice monthly community newspaper averaging 40 color pages. So, yes, vintage G4s are worth maintaining. Today, a nearby lightning strike took out my power supply and I was able to replace it using the instructions on this site. (Plus, I have a spare G4 I borrowed from!) I plan on using this G4 until it melts!

The power supplies are dead easy to fix.

  1. Due to their age, the fans normally seize up and cause all the caps to over heat
  2. The primary stage blows up. Do not forget that a flat PRAM battery can cause power on failures.