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jwblase · Feb 25, 2003, 03:12 PM

I'm having a problem lately with my B/W 400 G3: It's choking. It's not a kernel panic, it's not a shutdown. My mouse locks up, my keyboard is unresponsive, and I have to do a button reset to get things working. (I'm running 10.2.4)

I have a D-Link DFE-530TX+ card added, and the new Realtek drivers for 10.2.x This has never caused me problems in the past.

Could I be having a RAM problem? How would I know? My friend had RAM go bad on him once, and a similar thing happened, but I want to be sure before I return it all. I've had this RAM for over two years with nary a problem, but I have a lifetime warranty on it.

Are there any tools for OS X that will scan and test the RAM? or do I have to go into 9 with something like TechTool Deluxe/Pro.

Diskwarrior is fine, but I don't think that this is a disk problem.

I just did a backup/zero drive/reformat/reinstall on the machine on both hard drives I have, and it's still doing it.

Any suggestions?

Thanx.

JB

reader50 · Feb 25, 2003, 04:06 PM

Unplug the keyboard and the mouse. Plug them back in, one at a time, and see if they work separately. This sounds like a USB device problem.

Use the USB ports on the CPU if possible. I'd suggest unplugging any other USB devices while testing the keyboard and mouse.

jwblase · Feb 25, 2003, 04:20 PM

Hmmmmm... could be. I just thought of this one: Could it be my Canon LiDE 30 scanner software? I've heard nasty reports that it can clog up the system because of crappy drivers.

Any thoughts? I'll let you know if anything works the next time it ever happens.

JB

jwblase · Mar 29, 2003, 03:23 PM

I"ve been having this problem again lately, and It seems to happen only when I have large apps (Virtual PC or Photoshop) or many different apps open.

Could this be a RAM problem, or a caching problem?

Is there a way I can test the integrity of the RAM?

JB

Cipher13 · Mar 30, 2003, 02:48 AM

Is your mouse optical? Can you tell whether it loses power or not?

It's either a USB controller problem (hardware), or a driver conflict (software). Is it random? The "crash" intervals?

Can you still ssh into the box, or connect via timbuktu, or whatever?

It isn't RAM, I don't think.

Does the clock keep ticking? That's a good indicator...

jwblase · Mar 30, 2003, 03:05 AM

Hmmmm... It is an optical trackball (Logitech), but it's plugged directly into the CPU (not the keyboard or hub).

The crashes happen even after a fresh wipe/install.

The crash intervals are random. Sometimes, it'll be several weeks without a crash, sometimes it'll be a few minutes after a reboot.

I can't ssh into the box after the freeze, so it's not just the window manager locking up (I thought of that, too)

Just for giggles, I took out the last RAM chip i installed (about a year ago) just in case. Now I just have to wait for a freeze to happen, (but who knows how long that'll be)

Is there a way to test the USB bus for hardware/software problems?

JB