[driversseat06]

I was online chatting when my G4 froze up and I can't get it back on. The power comes on, I get the little ching thing and the Apple icon appears, the little spinny thing spins and then bam frozen. I can't get it past that point. I'm useless on a mac. Could someone help me?

[reader50]

We need a bit more info.

Hold down command-v during boot to force a verbose startup. It will show where it hangs at, in plain text. Photograph or type in the last dozen lines or so.

[driversseat06]

Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily(1.3.4)@0x5f7000
com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocalTransport(1.3.1)@0x 3c0000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily(1.5.5f1)@0x394000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily(1.3. 9)@0x3a5000
com.apple.BootCache(17.5.4)@0x75d000
Exception state (sv=0x1F9DD000)
PC=0x9000ED4C; MSR=0x0000F030; DAR=0x00101C70; DSISR=0x0A000000; LR=0x90D55088; R1=0xF0080790; XCP=0x00000038 (0xC00 - System call)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel verision 7.9.0:
Wed Mar 30 20:11:17 PST 2005; root:xnu/xnu-517.12.7.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC

panic: We are hanging here...

ABOVE ARE THE LAST DOZEN LINES. SERIOUSLY, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THIS MEANS? I TYPED IT BECAUSE I'M USING MY PC AND COULDNT JUST COPY AND PASTE THE TEXT.

[imitchellg5]

Sounds like possibly a bad PRAM battery, but I'm not sure. mduell, help!

[Lateralus]

Try repairing your disk permissions by booting from your OS X CD.

Originally Posted by imitchellg5

Sounds like possibly a bad PRAM battery, but I'm not sure. mduell, help!

A bad PRAM battery wouldn't cause a kernel panic...
And mduell doesn't use a Mac...

[reader50]

Originally Posted by driversseat06

Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily ... (In/Out Storage Drivers)
com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocalTransport ... (Optical Disk Drivers)
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily ... (Hard Disk Drivers)
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily ... (SCSI Drivers)
com.apple.BootCache ... (HD cache to accelerate bootup, if HD configuration doesn't change)
...

I've annotated the above lines to point out the important details. The bootup is failing because it's not getting what it needs from the hard drive. Disk damage is possible, or damage to the system files, or a failing HD - that last would explain the initial crash.

I'm assuming that you are running from the internal PATA hard drive, attached to the motherboard ATA bus. If you are running from a PCI ATA card, or booting from a SCSI card, or a FireWire external hard drive, then the following answers will be suspect. We could use your system specs, in order to make more accurate guesses.

Boot from the OSX Install disk, and go to Disk Utility. It's in the menus, exact location varies depending on which version of OSX you have. Select the internal HD, and see what DU says at the bottom of the window. You are looking for the SMART status. If it says "verified" or words to that effect, then the HD is presumably ok physically. Something else, like "failure imminent" or "purchase life insurance right now" means you need to buy another HD and copy everything across ASAP. Shut down, and leave the system alone until you can plug a new HD in. Boot up, format & install on the new HD, then boot from it and copy everything important across from the old HD. Finally, remove the old HD, gift-wrap it, and mail to the inlaws.

Assuming the SMART status doesn't give any warnings, try to repair the disk, followed by a permissions repair of the disk. Problems in either area can prevent a bootup. If DU finds anything off with the disk repair, try to note down what it fixed. Don't bother noting down any permissions that it fixed, it doesn't matter as long as the permissions got fixed.

If Disk Utility finds something it can't fix, then you need 3rd party repair software such as DiskWarrior. Otherwise, the only answer would be to reformat the drive, preferably after copying all the important data off first.

Assuming DU finished it's runs ok, try booting up from the HD again, preferably in verbose mode. If it hangs again, then it's time to do an OS reinstall. During the install process, it will offer several options. Choose the option to "preserve users and groups", that will save your user folder and settings wherever possible. It would still be prudent to backup your data first.

If you run into any surprises along the way, something not covered here, like problems booting from the install disk ... stop and let us know what happened. If all goes well, let us know then too. Success stories are as useful as failure reports.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Try repairing your disk permissions by booting from your OS X CD.



A bad PRAM battery wouldn't cause a kernel panic...
And mduell doesn't use a Mac...

Someone had a problem much like this not long ago, and it turned out a PRAM battery fixed it. mduell might not use a Mac, but he sure knows a lot about everything

[Lateralus]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5

Someone had a problem much like this not long ago, and it turned out a PRAM battery fixed it. mduell might not use a Mac, but he sure knows a lot about everything

I'd like to see where a kernel panic was caused by a PRAM battery. Link please.

And mduell knows hardware. Not using OS X means he doesn't have any expertise on kernel panics.

[chefpastry]

I don't believe a bad PRAM battery can cause a kernel panic either. I've run machines without any PRAM battery at all without problems before.