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pennelldj · Jun 27, 2007, 01:04 PM

Hi guys, wonder if you can help me. My boss in work has a G5 Power mac desktop which has crashed and now only displays a black screen with lines of code - and possible something similar to 'houston were still hanging?', I have only been told this, I havent seen it myself.

Well ill get to the point, she has bought a replacement G5 and is about to throw the old one out, do you have any idea what could be wrong with it? As I have asked her if I can have to to hopefully sort it out for myself, (Icant afford to buya replacement mac at the drop of a hat).

Are there any logical steps I should go through to try and sort the problem. Im no techie by any means but I'm not totally in the dark either.

I will take it home and try and work on it there, please guys any help woul dbe grately appreciated. At home I have a G4 iBook.

Thanks
Darren

P · Jun 27, 2007, 01:17 PM

That sounds like a kernel panic - if they happen early enough in the boot sequence, they look like that. The last line reads "panic: we're hanging here" - I think that that's what you're referring to.

Kernel panics can happen for any reason. It's a good chance that it is due to the drive directory being corrupt or one of the essential boot-up files being corrupt. If you want to fix it, make sure that you get all of the disks that came with the machine. Find the one that includes the application "Apple Hardware Test", insert it into the drive and start up the machine holding down the button C on the keyboard. Run the main test - it takes along time, so just let the machine do it and go watch TV or something. Check back to see if it found anything wrong. If yes, you can try to replace it if it's something easily replaceable like the HD or a RAM chip. If it's the motherboard or the CPU, you're in trouble and will need to have Apple repair it for you.

Most likely the test will find nothing though, in which case you'll just have to reformat and reinstall. Find another disk - the one that includes the operating system - and start from that one. Go to the Disk Utility (it's in one of the menus) and wipe the main HD clean. Then reinstall the operating system.

pennelldj · Jun 27, 2007, 01:32 PM

Hi P
THANK YOU for that reply, just to be awkward my boss is taking her old hard drive from the computer so my next question is: If she takes her hard drive, can I easily insert a new one? and if so what type to do I need to get and how do I go about installing maOS on it and making sure the syystem is all OK?

Thanks again
Darren

chris v · Jun 27, 2007, 03:26 PM

It's likely her new machine will inherit the problem, as whatever is causing the kernel panic may be a software problem on the drive she wants to put in her new Mac.

But yeah, stuffing a new drive in it is trivial, and you can buy a copy of Mac OX 10.4 for $129.00, and you're all set, if there's not a hardware prob. with the machine. But follow P's advice and run the Apple Hardware Test CD on it before you invest in a new drive or OS. If it's a memory problem, RAM modules are also relatively cheap, and easy to replace.

edit: THROW IT OUT?!? Even broken, it's likely got hundreds of dollars worth of spare parts in it that could be sold off. What is it with people?

olePigeon · Jun 27, 2007, 03:45 PM

I'd suggest running the hardware test CD as mentioned. If nothing comes up, then boot off the install CD and run Disk Utility. Select the Drive Partition and "Repair Permissions."

If that still doesn't work, then you might have to reinstall. Kernel Panics are pretty darn rare, they're usually associated with bad RAM.

pennelldj · Jun 27, 2007, 03:46 PM

Hi chris
Thanks for that, yes my senitements exactly...
If I inherit the mac with a hard drive could you give me some advice as to the order or sequence I would need to do things as the new hard drive I install wont have any OS at all on it, will the system boot up from the CD? I have the system discs fof my ibook can i use these?

Also, (sorry to be a pain in the ass) any suggestions of a reliable make serial ATA hard drive to buy? seagate maybe?

Thanks again, ill let you know how if goes should I eventually get my paws on my bosses cast off

olePigeon · Jun 27, 2007, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by pennelldj

Hi chris
Thanks for that, yes my senitements exactly...
If I inherit the mac with a hard drive could you give me some advice as to the order or sequence I would need to do things as the new hard drive I install wont have any OS at all on it, will the system boot up from the CD? I have the system discs fof my ibook can i use these?

Also, (sorry to be a pain in the ass) any suggestions of a reliable make serial ATA hard drive to buy? seagate maybe?

Thanks again, ill let you know how if goes should I eventually get my paws on my bosses cast off

Just plug the HDD in, then boot from the DVD (hold down the C key when you turn on the computer until you see the Apple logo.) Click OK, then click the Advanced button. Select the one that formats the HDD (HFS+ Journaled).

Just before you install, you might want to click Configure. Depending on what you do with it, you can save quite a bit of space by not installing a thousand printer drivers and 30 different languages that your OS can run in.

I have no comment on HDD brands, maybe someone else can comment.

pennelldj · Jun 27, 2007, 03:58 PM

Thanks for the help, Ill get to it...

Cheers
Darren

P · Jun 28, 2007, 03:44 AM

Originally Posted by pennelldj

Also, (sorry to be a pain in the ass) any suggestions of a reliable make serial ATA hard drive to buy? seagate maybe?

I've always had good luck with the Seagate Barracuda line of HDs. I know that a lot of people like the latest Samsung Spinpoint series and are saying that Seagate is just living off its brand these days, but they've been very good to me. The next HD that I'll buy will be less critical, so I might try Samsung that time.

Repairing permissions will not work - "broken" permissions will never cause an error that early in the boot process. Repairing the drive directory might do it - in fact did it on one of my machines a while back, for an almost identical issue - but if you're inheriting a machine, that's just wasted time. I'd wipe the drive anyway, even if it wasn't broken.

OS X, like many other UNIXen, is sensitive to the boot drive becoming very full. That tends to corrupt the directory, and the automatic disk optimization routines can really mess up the installation on such drives. If I had to guess, that's what I think has happened. Bad RAM is probably second, but bad RAM tends to show up even earlier in the process (at POST, the startup beep).