[awcopus]

I'm running into this bizarre behavior for the last week with a dual 2.5GHZ G5 (6GB RAM) that has worked reliably for a while now. I'm running 10.4.6. The only thing preventing me from upgrading to 10.4.7 is a number of FCP projects I'm working on right now.

I'll be doing something in one or another application (Safari, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, DVDSP4, Mail, Word, etc. doesn't seem software specific and yes, I own all of my software) and then I'll notice that the screen has literally frozen in place. No spinning ball of death, no cursor movement, no kernel panic message, and I can hear from my machine a soft high pitched sound that lasts for a couple of seconds. I'm left with a machine that needs to be forced to shutdown. When I restart, everything is fine.

I've run Diskwarrior and Drive Genius. My SMART equipped HD checks out as fine.

Then, yesterday evening, my 23" monitor (which I'm running using an ATI X800XT) turned off all on its own and the Power button started flashing, not like in sleep mode, but rather in bursts of 3. And the machine was unresponsive again.

So, whatever's going on seems to be getting worse. I'm going to call AppleCare but I also thought I'd tap into the knowledge pool here and see what you guys think I'm dealing with. Faulty logic board?

[seanc]

I'm inclined to blame the graphics card.

[awcopus]

Brought it into the 5th Avenue Apple Store for repairs. They're working on it.

Applecare to the rescue... I hope!

[awcopus]

An update. My logic board and hard drive are being replaced, and possibly my power supply.

Total cost without AppleCare: $873 for Logic Board, $373 for hard drive, and $156 for 600w Power Supply.

ETA on repaired and returned computer: 7-10 business days from now. D'oh.

Just hope that this really does solve my problem. I've read nightmares involving parts being replaced by Apple and machines never behaving reliably again. Most of those stories end with people getting replacement computers but I just want my computer back in working order asap.