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l008com · Jul 13, 2007, 02:52 AM

I have a real pain in the ass server here. Its a G4 466 MHz. Up until recently, it has been a perfect machine. But for the past week or two, it's been crashing, a lot. It runs OS X Server with 'reboot if system crashes' enabled. It acts as a file server and router, among other things. So when it locks up, I know right away. I've gone over to it to take a peak. The whole machine beachballs, even if its at the login screen. Sometimes it comes back. And if it doesn't come back in time, the reboot timer flips the switch. Something is up with this machine, but what? I haven't made any changes. I've run techtool tests on repeat for long periods of time. I've run disk warrior and disk utility. There are often problems on the boot disk, but I'd say its more likely those are CAUSE BY the machine rebooting itself, rather than these problems BEING the cause of the problem. Everything tests out perfect, and so I'm not sure where I should go from here. Other than just replacing the whole machine, but I'd rather not do that.

seanc · Jul 13, 2007, 03:21 PM

You could try testing/changing the RAM, how old is the hard drive and whats the S.M.A.R.T status on it? It doesn't sound right for the GUI to be locking up as well, considering it's not really doing anything. Is it up to date with all the latest updates?

Waragainstsleep · Jul 13, 2007, 04:23 PM

You probably just need to reinstall the OS.

l008com · Jul 13, 2007, 04:27 PM

Updates are up to date, smart checks out find. I doubt its an OS issue. This server has been super reliable with no problems, no hacks, just running unix software for years.

seanc · Jul 13, 2007, 04:30 PM

Check the RAM.
Try cloning the HDD to another known good one to see if the problems go away.
Try leaving the case open with a desk fan pointing in.
If none of the above work, re-install the OS.

l008com · Jul 17, 2007, 12:59 AM

I seem to have solved the problem. The machine's boot drive seemed to be dying. Oddly enough it was the newest drive in the server. I mirrored the system to one of the good drives and all is well. It still checks out fine. But will randomly spin down and lock up the whole system. And if it doesn't spin up before the timer runs out, the machine reboots itself. I'm been thinking about upgrading all the hard drives anyway, to something like a 500 GB SATA mirror and maybe some other loose drives. I'm just glad that I don't have to give this machine the boot.