[Koto234]

Need help with a Mac G4 400mz that for the last 6 weeks crashes (will not start up and remains with a black screen) every other week and usually requires extensive recovery and in some instances a new system. The crash is usually preceded with a grayed out screen with cryptic, full screen, white text indicating that some error has occurred.
I believed that this was virus like activity and have run Norton Antivirus daily and only ran into files that had lost their resource forks and I have trashed them as instructed.

I don’t have Norton Firewall as I rely on Apples firewall that comes with the operating system 10.3.9 as well as checking every three days (scheduled). But as well I check for Norton updates regularly. In some instances, I use the internal backup drive as a startup to do maintenance on my main startup drive it also crashes. I have made a startup CD and the CD boots the Mac with no problems.

My Mac has lost applications that were used the day before; meaning they don’t appear on the Desk Top and when I search for the application, it is not found. Also if I use Norton Unerase to try to locate them the application is “not found”.

There are times (without installing a new system) the preference file appears corrupt in applications I frequently use. For instance, my bookmarks are lost in Firefox and “recent documents” are not in MS Word, Freehand, Photoshop, Sound Studio, Norton Systemworks and so on.

Also in more than one instance as I open Norton Systemworks to run weekly maintenance I get a dialogue box that says that” essential components are missing and I am instructed to reinstall Norton”.

On a recent run of Norton Disk Doctor when I was asked to determine where to put alias’ for corrupt files an Untitled drive appeared besides my three internal drives (non of them being partitioned) in the dialogue box. I tried to locate the untitled drive on my desktop and through Norton Disk Doctor and antivirus and Techtool to no avail. But before leaving the window displaying the untitled drive I was able to see on the drive and it had a folder titled Local.nidb, which I can no longer locate. Inside the folder I found 13 files: clean, config and (“store” files numbered: 64,96,128,160,192,224,256,280, 320.352,384)

I also have Techtool that I use when there are problems not discovered by Norton Disk Doctor, again there no items above what Norton discovered. As well, I use Techtool to check hardware and have never found a faulty component or drive.

/

[cgc]

I'd create a new user account and see if that one crashes. If it doesn't crash, I'd reinstall over the old account (retain settings...whatever it's called).

Did you recently add memory or make hardware/softwre modifications?

[discotronic]

You posted this yesterday in the OSX forum. Please don't cross post.

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/...-crash-screen/

I agree with the people who recommended not using Norton. It is a bad product and has been known to make OSX unusuable.

[chris v]

Get RID of Norton Systemworks, NOW. There are plenty of threads hereabouts where people have found that Norton was corrupting their system, rather than repairing it. What you need to do is back up your data, wipe your hard drive, re-install your system & apps, then purchase DiskWarrior. It will keep your directory clean & heathy, when applied once every month or two, and it will warn you if you've got hardware problems with your drive.

[nikon123]

Originally Posted by Koto234

Need help with a Mac G4 400mz that for the last 6 weeks crashes (will not start up and remains with a black screen) every other week and usually requires extensive recovery and in some instances a new system. The crash is usually preceded with a grayed out screen with cryptic, full screen, white text indicating that some error has occurred.
I believed that this was virus like activity and have run Norton Antivirus daily and only ran into files that had lost their resource forks and I have trashed them as instructed.

I don’t have Norton Firewall as I rely on Apples firewall that comes with the operating system 10.3.9 as well as checking every three days (scheduled). But as well I check for Norton updates regularly. In some instances, I use the internal backup drive as a startup to do maintenance on my main startup drive it also crashes. I have made a startup CD and the CD boots the Mac with no problems.

My Mac has lost applications that were used the day before; meaning they don’t appear on the Desk Top and when I search for the application, it is not found. Also if I use Norton Unerase to try to locate them the application is “not found”.

There are times (without installing a new system) the preference file appears corrupt in applications I frequently use. For instance, my bookmarks are lost in Firefox and “recent documents” are not in MS Word, Freehand, Photoshop, Sound Studio, Norton Systemworks and so on.

Also in more than one instance as I open Norton Systemworks to run weekly maintenance I get a dialogue box that says that” essential components are missing and I am instructed to reinstall Norton”.

On a recent run of Norton Disk Doctor when I was asked to determine where to put alias’ for corrupt files an Untitled drive appeared besides my three internal drives (non of them being partitioned) in the dialogue box. I tried to locate the untitled drive on my desktop and through Norton Disk Doctor and antivirus and Techtool to no avail. But before leaving the window displaying the untitled drive I was able to see on the drive and it had a folder titled Local.nidb, which I can no longer locate. Inside the folder I found 13 files: clean, config and (“store” files numbered: 64,96,128,160,192,224,256,280, 320.352,384)

I also have Techtool that I use when there are problems not discovered by Norton Disk Doctor, again there no items above what Norton discovered. As well, I use Techtool to check hardware and have never found a faulty component or drive.

/

That funny screen is a kernel panic, try swapping out the ram if you can.

Dana

[nikon123]

see:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html

[Koto234]

No new Hardware since 18 months ago, as well techtool finds no hardware problems but I still think that norton and techtool are not finding something