[Link]

Right now if my g4 was sitting in my garage I'd run over it with my car....

then I'd put into reverse and run over it again.

Ok, the OS 'panther' that was supposed to introduce 'over 150 new features!' has also introduced 'over 150 new ways to make my computer crash!'

I admit this right now, for those who hold your opinions and put apple on a pedestal, there is probably nobody else on this planet who would have the same experience I have had, apple machines are good, but if you get a lemon, you get royally screwed... like I did.

About 6 months ago I took my g4 to apple store to get it fixed for crashing regularly (think every 5-6 days..)

They said there was nothing wrong, etc my claims must have been lies because they tested it 'extensively' and nothing was wrong.

11 days later, "This computer needs to be restarted" and all was back to normal.

G4 still regularly crashes. I've NEVER seen the uptime go above 12 days.. even when idle the entire time.

My guess? faulty power component on the CPU card.

So anyway, I decide to let it be, as with my classes right now, I'm both attending school and college at the same time, have 7 websites to work on and 4 I host, a chatserver and room I host, etc.

I don't have time for my g4 to be in some room fulla ***s for 3 weeks while they give me the runaround.

Until panther. Now my computer is spending most of it's time restarting because the OS crashed again... and the crashes keep getting weirder and weirder.

Earlier I was typing up an essay, usual comp use, I got a new email, unminimize mail program, the comp freezes, music dies (which I had playing in itunes) darn.

I go upstairs to see if I can ssh in from my bro's imac (which works perfectly).. as I get near the stairway my comp starts blasting music again.

I walk back, it's dead.. keyboard and mouse freeze this time, so I decide to see if SSH works, this time I sit at the imac, start to ssh in, no response, I figured it was finally dead.

Nope. Just as I started walking downstairs I hear the music start blasting AGAIN! I go to the machine, it's responsive (mouse moves) but nothing responds to it (widgets don't light up, can't touch any windows or the dock).

A moment later it freezes again, then comes back to life. Power button doesn't put it to sleep.

I go upstairs to check my IRC and webservers and whatnot, they're also dead. Come to think of it the imac can't get online since the internet sharing daemon is dead too.

****

Ever since panther my uptime has seldom got above 2 days. Ergh

And so I call apple. Maybe they can replace the CPU but as I said.. I don't really have the time to take it in besides I don't have a car anyway.

Hopefully the response is good. hehe

[Hydra]

I feel for you but installing a new OS on a computer that may have a hardware fault is not going to automagically fix the issue. If you have no time to take it in to be serviced that is a problem but your warranty is only coming closer and closer to expiration. It sucks to get a lemon, just call Apple, explain the situation and see if you can get the issue elevated and explain in a calm and civil way what has happened. Remember to be nice to Apple Support people as it's not their fault and being rude will only make your experience worse. I'm not accusing you of being rude or obnoxious just trying to give some advice

-Jerry C.

[Partisan01]

Originally posted by Link:


11 days later, "This computer needs to be restarted" and all was back to normal.

I used to get the "This computer needs to be restarted" bit with my B&W for a few weeks, took out a piece of ram i had added (32 meg small sacrifice for no crashes) and i has worked flawlessly since. Maybe take it down to exactly what it shipped with and build from there.

Nate

[Big Mac]

Gosh, for someone with so many posts, you'd think you would have some common sense about your Mac. There's something wrong with your system, Link. It's time to grow up and figure out what's going on, rather than crying on a forum about how angry you are. It's really silly to think a new .0 release of the OS is necessarily going to make your system more stable. Panther has problems of its own, and you're just introducing more variables by upgrading. Go back to a mature Jaguar release like 10.2.6 and then figure out why your machine is unstable. Then you can worry about Panther.

[DeathMan]

Maybe you could ask your mom to buy you a new computer. That might fix it.

[cambro]

Sounds like bad RAM...

Processor problem a possibility too, though more remote I would guess.

[-Q-]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. My first hunch is bad RAM. But why not borrow someone's video camera and start filming the problems? Take that to the Apple rep and show them the problems you're having. If it's happening as frequently as you say, should be easy to record.

[Link]

I actually did something like that once, I took a picture of every kernel panic I got (and ended up with about 30 in the course of 2 weeks)

then suddenly everything was fine. :shrug: Could definately be the ram and I still will check that before I put up my final verdict.

I have yet another year. Sorry for the venting but yeah lol

[CIA]

Dude, you're gettin' a Dell!

[ebuddy]

Dude, I can assure you getting a Dell will not necessarily solve your problems.

Did you run a Hardware Test? I can't believe what I'm reading with no information about what you've troubleshot. It seems, older OS's are more forgiving of bad RAM, but it's still bad RAM.

Run the Hardware Test. If a mac crashes this frequently I've found it to be one of two things, bad RAM or bad peripheral. Either way, should be relatively easy to diagnose.

[The Placid Casual]

Link, still on the dp800?

If so, I have read loads of reports of them not liking Panther... May be worth taking out any 3rd Party RAM and running a Vanilla 10.2 for a while...

I also had crashing problems on my dual 800, all with out any apparent cause... I just sold the machine in the end. These days I have a Ti and until I installed 10.3 yesterday, had uptime of easily 40 days+.

If all else fails, unleash hell on Apple (again)...

Good luck with it,

Marc

[Switched2Mac]

Suggestion...

...that is true in Windows and OSX.

1. Remove any "extra" cards installed in your G4 (i.e. tv tuner, new graphics card, new memory, disconnect any third-party USB/Firewire devices, etc.)

2. Backup all your data.

3. Install Panther and use the installation option that WIPES the entire disk. Don't pick any other option!

I cannot tell you number of people that insist on taking the "OS Upgrade in Place" option when installing OSX or WinXP. They are being lazy and falsly assume that the new OS will have a good reaction to any and everything that was done to the old OS (patches, tweaks, crashes, file corruption, etc). "Saves Time" or so they tell me. When they are done crying about all the problems, I politely ask them just how much time did they really save.

Both are foolish choices that bring all your old problems along for the ride. Or cause new "unforseen in your situation" problems.

Perhaps you are truly having hardware problems, in which case, this won't help. However, if you are having software problems, you will know for sure.

You sound like a power user. Run the hardware test first and if there are no errors, try the method above.

Let me know how it goes.

[Link]

99% of the time I do archive + install. In cases like this where preference files are heavily updated I do that without moving my settings/home folder to the new OS.

End result: new install minus the file allocation table, all old files that were in the root are dumped into another folder.

It works very well. I then move my stuff back into place, and all is well, yet I avoid the backing up/restoring (believe me, sorting out 65gb of stuff, moving it onto dvds, and then back onto the HD takes HOURS) hehe.

So far all is well... as far as usage, it's the times the machine turns around and dies that stuff goes to heck.

But like I said, it's impossible to predict... in my case even the logs report nothing interesting: a good sign that it's a hardware and not a software problem.

It could definately be the memory stick, but since compusa replaced it at one point in time by apple's request, neither apple nor compusa are claiming responsibility. Of course, at the moment we're at a total crunch (think end of year property taxes --- ouch!!!)

So yeah, I'm kinda stuck.. thus it was mostly a rant, unfortunately. Hopefully all gets well and it's only a RAM problem... this I doubt as the kernel panics are before the RAM card was replaced

[derbs]

Originally posted by Switched2Mac:
Suggestion...

...that is true in Windows and OSX.

1. Remove any "extra" cards installed in your G4 (i.e. tv tuner, new graphics card, new memory, disconnect any third-party USB/Firewire devices, etc.)

2. Backup all your data.

3. Install Panther and use the installation option that WIPES the entire disk. Don't pick any other option!

I cannot tell you number of people that insist on taking the "OS Upgrade in Place" option when installing OSX or WinXP. They are being lazy and falsly assume that the new OS will have a good reaction to any and everything that was done to the old OS (patches, tweaks, crashes, file corruption, etc). "Saves Time" or so they tell me. When they are done crying about all the problems, I politely ask them just how much time did they really save.

Both are foolish choices that bring all your old problems along for the ride. Or cause new "unforseen in your situation" problems.

Perhaps you are truly having hardware problems, in which case, this won't help. However, if you are having software problems, you will know for sure.

You sound like a power user. Run the hardware test first and if there are no errors, try the method above.

Let me know how it goes.

Hallelujah!! Apple should print this in big writing on the box.

I just upgraded to Panther. But i did it on a brand new seagate HD, as my deathstar was on the way out. Damn, it's like having a brand new computer! I've used it quite heavily now (on a quicksilver DP800 btw) and not had a single problem.

[RGray02]

Ive had the same EXACT problem, with a B&W though.

I had two sticks of ram in the machine, and the first stick was good, so I'd only get a crash when I was doing some video work with AfterEffects that spilled onto the second stick.

My suggestion, throw the stick that came with the machine out, buy a new crucial stick, and see if that helps.

Its pretty sad that Apple always seems to have some sort of memory fault with every single one of their machines. Which is why you have to buy the best RAM everytime you upgrade.

The only suspicious thing is the idling bit, but I have a feeling that if your computer is sleeping, its most likely storing some stuff about system state into the RAM, which is corrupted when it gets out.

I think the easiest way to check if your RAM stick is the problem is to open applications one at a time, and check if after a certain number of applications (have them doing something, otherwise they dont page in), check if the machine freezes.

If the memory stick change doesnt solve the problem, its most likely a logic board. And that sucks.

PS - you can probably use a stick from a friend's PC, just make sure that its the correct PCxx00 memory according to your powermac specification