[julien_djerzinski]

Managed to purchase a G4 350mhz AGP graphics with 512 ram (kingston 128mb pc100 x4), 40gb HDD (Panther 10.3.9 pre-installed)

This machine was primary going to be used for playing music with iTunes and a little surfing for my daughter/wife.... but I've ran into a brick wall after 1/2 hour.

The machine Freezes for no apprant reason. I've checked the rams with Memtest 413. Re-installed Panther (erase/partition/format etc) and it still hangs for no reason. I'm stumped !!!



Could this be an OS issue? Should i move on to Tiger 10.4.x instead ? ( but that would mean getting a firmware which I can't cos' it does not include OSX 9.x in it, the seller only included OSX 10.3.9 panther :/ ) , tried Repair disk permissions every now an then as well.

I've even tried leaving the G4 on for 24 hours (with Bittorrent running and downloading) and IT DOES NOT HANG. the minute i start Safari or firefox or do any thing else, it will hang (usage time from one minute to one hour, it differs time to time)

[reader50]

If the freeze is a kernel panic (usually the screen darkens and tells you to reboot), then you will find a logfile at:

/Library/Logs/panic.log

Posting the contents of this file (if it exists) would be helpful. If the freeze does not produce this file, then I'd suspect overheating of the GPU next. What video card is installed in your machine? With the computer on, open the side door and see if the fan is spinning on the video card. If there is a fan, it should be spinning all the time.

Also, open Disk Utility, select the hard drive's icon (the hardware icon, not the partition icon), and check the bottom pane of Disk Utility. It will show the SMART status for your drive. Let us know what the status is. Note: this is probably not the problem, since BitTorrent will excercise the HD a lot. But it's easy to check.

About the firmware, the latest version if 4.2.8f1 - you can find out what your firmware version is by checking Apple System Profiler. If you have an earlier version, then yes, you need OS9 to update the firmware on this Mac. On the other hand, I'm not certain if Tiger requires the latest firmware. You usually need to update the firmware before a CPU upgrade, not an OS upgrade.

An OS upgrade is unlikely to fix the freeze anyway, unless your Panther install disk is damaged. Your machine should be perfectly stable in Panther.

[ned1]

Originally Posted by g4lvan

...but that would mean getting a firmware which I can't cos' it does not include OSX 9.x...

Well, the last Firmware Update for that machine came out around 10.1s time. It should have been updated a very long time ago. I would make that priority.

I don't trust Ram tests. I had a machine that passed every Ram test Apple and myself threw at it. It was still bad/wrong Ram causing that particular problem. You need to start pulling/testing Ram sticks independently. You need more anyway, I'd suggest buying a 512MB stick from OWC (reasonable price) and testing that first...by itself. I have OWC Ram in my Sawtooth, works fine.

You might want to check the setup on the HD. Make sure it's set to Master and it's using the connection that's on the end of the cable.

As a 'cure all' one of my tricks is to manually reset Open Firmware. Restart holding down the 4 keys and typing reset-nvram, reset-all on the Open Firmware screen. I think that happens automatically when you update the Firmware though.

Good luck.

[kick52]

you should remove all unnessasary stuff. (eg. cd drive, keyboard, some ram, even the speaker) if it doesnt freeze then, eliminate parts. try taking out the pram battery for 20/30 minutes. try using it with a different mouse.

[ned1]

It would have been nice to have seen this first;
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....9&tstart=0
So, I'm thinking, non-Apple keyboard, MS wireless mouse...
Did it come with these when the owner said it was working fine or are these your add-ons?
You keep saying Panther CD instead of cdS. Retail Panther came on three CDs and did not contain a Classic Disc Image. But you say you're given the option to install Classic. This leads me to believe that you have a Panther OEM DVD. An OEM DVD probably does have an OS9 Disc Image on it. Mine does. So... What System Disc(s) do you have?

You might want to go to the Applications/Utilities folder and launch Console, check the system logs for any suspect errors concerning USB devices....

BTW, a non functioning USB keyboard/mouse will appear to be a system freeze. One way to tell the difference is if the clock keeps working, Web pages keep auto updating, etc.

[Zubir]

It may be a heat issue. Blow the machine out thoroughly, and leave the case cracked open slightly. If that fixes your problem, you may want to look into better cooling, or case placement.

[Kifwalu]

A dieing, bad, or overclocked/over-heated video card can also cause this problem.
Try another just to rule it out if you can.