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The Power Macintosh G4 is series of personal desktop computers released by Apple in 1999, and sold through 2004. This page is for the M5183 designation.

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Power Mac G4 Tower Shut Itself Down, Won't Start Now

Power Macintosh G4 500 DP (Gigabit) M7893LL/A*

Wouldn't power up a couple of months ago. Randomly one day after several weeks I hit the power button and it was fine. Have used it 4-5 times over a couple of weeks since then. Tonight after about 3-4 minutes it shut down as if the power cord had been pulled. It will not power up. I was using a browser when it happened. I know the AC cord is live, I can hear the small electrical click when the contacts make a connection with the machine. The PRAM(?) battery reads 3.7v with a meter. I removed it for 10 minutes once and then an hour once, following reset procedure to no avail. All peripherals were disconnected during attempted reset. I do not see any lit LEDs on the motherboard although I don't recall ever seeing one but I have read that maybe there is one. (A few years ago I replaced the power supply after the tower would not power up following a neighborhood power outage due to lightning. We seem to have several outages each year in this area. Just background info, don't know if there's any relation to current problem.)

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What is the date printed on the 3.5 volt 1/2 AA lithium battery? Where do you live?

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It is a 3.6v Tadiran made in Israel. The only printing I see that might be a date is "D L G J 07 00". I live in the Nashville area in TN.

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That battery was made in July of 2000, 16 years ago. Unless you have a battery tester to how much of a charge it is retaining, it might be a good idea to replace it. You should be able to a new one for about $7.00 US. A cheap place to start. Then we can look at your power supply.

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As previously stated in my question the battery is reading 3.7v. I took the battery out and checked it with my Ideal model 61-746 meter set to measure DC voltage.

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That's the correct voltage but delivered at what level. A battery at 5% will still give the same voltage. Download and run Coconut Battery to see where it's really at. You'll need an older version. Get version 2.6.6 here: http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutba...

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As previously stated in my question, the computer won't power up. I can't download anything or use apps.

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Spend the $7.00 so you know!

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Someone on an Apple forum gave me instructions for testing the power supply with a volt meter. The battery is not part of the equation for that. I believe the power supply is not functional.

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James will be eternally grateful.
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