So far I haven't done anything besides disconnect all peripherals but the monitor, because I don't know where to start.

The patient:

Dual 1 gig MDD
768MB RAM
2 - 80GB drives
10.3.8 (9?)

The symptom:

After pressing the power button, the computer starts, I hear the chime, it runs for roughly 10 seconds and then shuts down. The monitor stays dark.

I bought it from PowerMax in February 2004 - Apple Refurb. It's always been a steady machine, even though too loud for my taste.

Is it totally dead?

Open the side panel, look for a black button on a small silver box - should be over on the right near the IDE connectors on the mobo, press the button for 2 seconds, close the panel and boot your computer.

PMU reset. Just tried it. No joy. Same symptom. Chime, then off after about 10 seconds. I'd thought of that, although I hadn't tried it until just now. Thanks anyway, PeterW.

Next idea?

Unplug anything that isn't needed.

(non-essential IDE, video card, PCI, second RAM)
Then PMU Reset, try again.

I'm going to guess it's the CPUs though the motherboard is another possibility.

Is there a trick to getting the video card out? Yes, the screw is out; I can get it to start to pull up on the end that's by the case, but the end toward the center of the computer doesn't want to loosen.

(I took apart my old B & W several times, but I've never done anything to the MDD besides add a hard drive.)

That $1,479 iMac at Costco is sounding better and better.

There's a retention tab thing at the bottom rear of the AGP slot. It sucks and I hate it. Be careful removing the card. Use one hand to move the tab and pull up on that end, another hand to pull up on the other end of the card.

Dang! That retention tab is just a thin piece of springy metal, right? I can't get it to let go, and I'm afraid to pull too hard.

It's looking more and more like this is not going to be a DIY project for the likes me.

No, it should just be plastic. I HATE those tabs.

I was changing the video card in a DA G4. The tab was too difficult to easily move and lift the card with one hand, so I used one hand to move it, another to pull that end of the card up.. Bad idea. Once it finally got free of the tab, the card lifted right out of the slot, the metal slot plate came up, too, but since I was only lifting one one end of the card, the slot plate came inward toward the slot. Well, in DA G4s, there's a surface mount capacitor right there. It knocked it loose enough to make the connection unreliable.

Oh, and that capacitor? It's the "Don't kill the video card" capacitor. Killed a Radeon 9600 card.

I managed to eventually resolder the cap and get the original Radeon 9000 card working well. I still need to test the 9600 in my MDD to see if it's revivable.

I cut the retention clip off the motherboard after that.

That plastic piece was the first thing I thought might be the tab, but I couldn't get it to budge. I was hoping I was onto something when I found the metal piece. Wrong again. By now I'm trying to figure out how to find a decent Mac service tech around here. I suppose, if I get desperate enough, CompUSA will do, but that'll be my last resort. Thanks for your help, but I think I better turn this project over to somebody else before I screw it up worse than it already is. At the rate this is going, I may have an MDD to part out. Cheap.

MDD Parts fetch a good price (if you know they're working)

Power supply: $125
Video card: $50-90
Motherboard: $75-125
Processors: $300 or so for Dual 1 Ghz
Case: $75-100

You might want to consider contacting C(-)ris to see if he'd help with the testing/selling, if you go that route. Though we both have MDD macs, he's much more willing to rip his apart to do testing. Dual 1 Ghz processors are worthless if they're not known good, so that alone may be worth enlisting his help, if you're interested.

I've been helping to advise/diagnose many MDD problems recently, have seen quite a few new ones. C(-)ris and Blusubaru both bought MDDs from the Small Dog garage sale, so we all worked together to get them up and running. Two of them came with dead CPUs, one with a fried video card that prevented startup. If you get some time this evening, and want to give it another shot, consider stopping by the Hotline Server. I believe I've seen you there before, so you should know the way.

isnt there a small 3v battery
you can change out? my memory
is fading on the guts of my MDD..

0. Try disconnecting the internal drive cables, and start from a bootable firewire drive. Cross fingers. Restart.

1. Pull PRAM battery, and unplug. Let sit overnight. Put in new PRAM battery, plug in. Reset PMU. Cross fingers. Restart.

2. Reseat CPU. Cross fingers, Restart.

Good luck.

Thank you for the additional responses. Right now I'm in seclusion, sulking, and trying to decide if I even want to fool around with this anymore myself; it might be time to break down and pay money to either fix it or give it an official declaration of being dead.

It was suggested that you take out all but the ram that came with the machine - that's worth a try. But you may want to try resetting the ram first. And if that doesn't work, you can take out all but the original ram. And then if *that* doesn't work you can try booting with each ram stick individually (no other ram in any slots).

I'd be interested in it for parts, or I would be more than happy to do the repair work/testing for you. I am an Apple Technician(not Apple certified, that costs $4k) by trade.

It's not the ram. He gets normal startup chime at boot. Definitely try booting from a fw drive if you can. That will tell a lot.