Ok so I'm very very new to this modding thing. I just recently purchased 2 light kits from Logisis Computer. Not realizing that they were both going to be dual 4" kits I now sit with 4 blue cold cathodes to place into my G5. Ok so I started to install them. Placed them in desirable locations and what not. Connected all the wires and settled everything down. Both of these cathodes included a PCI on/off switch and an inverted with a little "speaker" looking thing on them. While I assumed that I did not purchase a sound activated unit, I still questioned it. Anyway so I power my computer on and attempt to turn on one of the dual cathode units. All of a sudden the entire computer turns off and reboots. I repeated this test about 3 times when I realized that this constant mess of cold boots would not be good idea. What I did learn was that I can start my machine with the cathodes on and turn them off safely. However upon turning them back on the machine restarts. What seems to me is that the cathodes are pulling additional power, which the Mac does not compensate for. Or maybe the molex cable is just a bad one? I honestly don't know and my college major is not electrical engineering . Basically my main question to everyone is how can I power these cathodes on and off freely without having to cold boot my machine each time? I have their molex cables plugged into my superdrive currently. Oh my second question is where is a good spot for the cathodes as well? When I installed two of them the blue glow seemed a little... weak... so to say. I installed the second kit to increase this glow but it still feels dim for some reason. I don't want the bat signal shining out of this thing.. although that would be a sweet mod... but I would like a nice strong blue glow. Any suggestions on a good location as well? Or are my cathodes just weak? Well thanks everyone for your time. Even if you don't have an answer I do appreciate you taking the time to read this. Thanks all!

-iAndyIsGoku

it sounds like a power issue to me. I am not sure there is much you can do asside from getting another PSU. I have 2 in my G5 and I can turn them on and off just fine. The two that I have feel plenty bright as well. Also, my kit sounds exactly like the one you have.

here is my rig...




I placed electrical tape on the side of one of the cathodes and stuck it right up front on the right hand side if you were looking at the box from the front. I put the tape on the cathode so that it didn't shine with direct light, losing the lumination effect. I stuck the second one on the top running down the case length-wise. This required a little dremmel action on the top of the fan assembly, but its not noticable really.

edit: o yea there is a video too. Click me --> :evil:

Post edited by: oojacoboo, at: 2005/08/16 23:59

Thats odd. Which g5 do you have? The lower end models have a lower power supply. Did you
run the power off of the optical drive? I have never heard of this sort of problem, but we can
help you sort it out. Lets start with those two questions first.
-maestro

ok well to begin i am using a dual 2.5 model g5. i purchased this one as soon as they announced the dual 2.5's so it's an early model of it. i talked to some guy at compusa and he was baffled by the situation. but his simple take on it was a low power supply. the notion of a low power supply does seem odd to me because this is a high end system, i at least figured it would have an ample supply of power. either way like i said, i have 2 cold cathodes plugged into the back of my optical drive. as i've mentioned before i noticed that with inverters on the system, one of the inverters seems to freely turn on and off without a system restart, so by theory i purchased a third "y" cable to see if it could bump the two cathode kits up and allow them to freely opperate. contrary to my beliefe it did not solve the problem. another thing i noticed was that the free cathode kit that was able to turn on and off would still short the whole systme out, this was only caused by rappid on/off switching, which either way i would expect to be bad but i had to try it. it's odd though, sometimes the system will run fine and allow me to switch on and off without issues. other times both kits will cause a crash. and finally sometimes only one will work with the other fine. but to illustrate my setup the cathodes and inverters are mounted in secure locations and cooled by the build in system fans... the two pci switches sit in between a radeon x800 and a pci-x ethernet card... both their wires are bound together and slightly pulled rigid to float between the two cards to avoid any heat issues. lastly the molex cable setup is as follows. the extra "y" cable plugs first into the back of the superdrive. next comes the pci card that sits in slot 3 and it's inverter and cathodes sit in the middle section of the computer where the pci/agp housing is. this molex is followed by the pci card that sits in slot 2 and it's inverter and cathodes sit in the lower housing where the dual cores are kept. now the power to the optical drive is plugged into the second part of the "y" molex cable along with the kit that is sitting in the middle thermal zone. i'm beginning to wonder if the brand of cathodes is just junk. i really wanted to avoid getting a huge 12" cathode kit to mount but maybe i'll try the maddogs stuff they have at compusa. i'm honestly a little lost/baffled by this. oh my last question deals with the actual power supply in the g5... where is the unit? is it that little circular looking thing that sits behind the fan to the hard drives?... seems small for a power supply. anyway i appologise for such a late responce but i've been tinkering with the inside of the g5 recently to get the cables to these kits sitting out of the way and what not. anyway i hope that someone can help me. all help is appreciated and any advice is welcome. oh and lastly thanks for your time reading this... even if you don't have an answer.. heh. thanks guys! oh yeah, if you want to see pictures of the setup just let me know and i'll put the digital to good use.

-Andy

I believe the PSU is under the plate in the main section. You will notice by looking at where the power cable is plugged in. As for the shorting, I think its the PSU. Maybe you can rig up some sort of battery in the power main to the cathodes to handle the sudden influx in demanded power.

Sounds to me not to be a power supply issue, but rather a short somewhere. I would check for a crimped cable or a cable that might have been cut opened slightly and is touching metal. So when you turn them on, it causes the whole system to go down. The power supply is 600w, so I am sure a couple of lights is not going to cause a power issue.

I think skizot is right. Alot of times, I find the power connectors on aftermarket stuff is sub-par. It could be a loose wire. It could be a sliced wire too. It could also be that the invertor is just bad. See if you can return them. By the way, you can save a ton of cash by
purchasing your parts on line. Try http://www.newegg.com. Good luck and let us know.
-maestro