[boxworthy]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could help me out here. My G4 Quicksilver has been freezing up ever since my brother tried installing a 9600 Video card (with pins covered). We couldn't get the monitor to get a signal from the computer and promptly put the original GeForce2 back into the slot. The computer has failed to start up properly since. Unfortunately, I don't even know if the two events are related.

What we usually get is the grey screen with the Mac Icon and spinning wheel. Either it stays on that screen forever or it proceeds to the actual blue startup screen where it will freeze. It simply doesn't proceed to the desktop.

We've tried safe booting (which has been successful), we ran Disk Repair and fsck repairs. Those tests yielded an invalid directory count (I forget the exact wording) and the computer said that repairs were made. However, when we tested to verify, the same problems popped up again. I don't know if this is related either.

Can someone please help?

[reader50]

Sounds like disk damage. See if you can boot from CD.

Assuming it's disk damage that DriveUtility doesn't know how to correct, try DiskWarrior. If that fails (or you're in a hurry), do an OS archive & install, while preserving user data.

[boxworthy]

Thanks Reader.

After exercising some patience, I realized that the grey screen (with the spinning wheel) eventually goes to the desktop. However, everything seems slow. The moment I try to start up Safari or another program like Explorer, the computer will freeze.

Still the same problem? Or could it be somehing else? A friend suggested that one of the RAM sticks might have been jogged when they were trying to install the video card. Could this be it?

I'm running out of ideas.

[rjenkinson]

pull the RAM and test again.

-r.

[reader50]

Physically damaged or dislodged RAM sticks tend to either work perfectly or not at all. A problem RAM stick should not cause a slowdown.

Boot from the install CD/DVD, go to Disk Utility, and do a permissions repair. If you're lucky, that will fix the slowdown. Otherwise, do the OS reinstall.

DiskWarrior still sounds like a good idea. And check the SMART status of the hard drive to see if the drive is failing - that could cause all your symptoms. If you're in OSX 10.2 or earlier, you'll need DW to check the SMART status of the drives. In 10.3 or 10.4, you can get the SMART status from Disk Utility.

[rjenkinson]

Originally Posted by reader50

Physically damaged or dislodged RAM sticks tend to either work perfectly or not at all. A problem RAM stick should not cause a slowdown.

no, but it will cause the machine to freeze and it doesn't take more than a minute or two to pull the RAM and test the machine. give it a try.

-r.

[reader50]

Agreed, it's easy to test. Sorry rjenkinson, I wasn't intentionally stomping on your suggestion. My reply was started before your post appeared, I didn't see it until afterwards.

note: pull the sticks one at a time and test boot. If you pull all the sticks at once, the computer will not boot. Guaranteed.

[boxworthy]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll give both things a shot tomorrow (depending on if I buy Disk Warrior). If anything else comes to mind, please please please let me know!