[jay3ld]

I think my Built-in-Ethernet port on my PowerMac G4 just died/is dieing.

I can only get Apipa addresses with it (169.254.x.x). I even plugged it into a different router (going from a Airport Extreme to a Linksys) and used a different Ethernet cable. Same results. That leads me to believe it is the port itself.
It was actually just working fine hours ago, it just now (I would say 2-3 hours ago) stopped working.

This is a PowerMac G4 MDD. I looked up the specs and when it was given to us (January 15th 2003), It appears to use a PCI slot for its addons.

I wanted to check with others on what may possibly be the issue before I went and bought a new network card for it.
Am I right about it being a PCI slot that is in the computer, which means I am buying a PCI network card.

I am not to worried if I have to buy a new network card, I could always hope that they have a pci compatible network card that has 1 gib capabilities, so I can finally use my networks full potential from that machine.

[reader50]

Reboot first, and check again. If the network problems persist, boot from a different OS install on another partition / HD / Flashdrive. See if normal network access is restored.

Unless you really want to buy the new hardware, you should complete the diagnostic process. If it's something other than the port, the problem will likely still be there when the new card is plugged in.

[jay3ld]

I did reboot the thing about 3 or 4 times.
I had to search and dig through my stuff to find my Leopard upgrade Disk. I used Network Utility on it, and it was able to obtain an IP address and ping ip addresses other than its own.

So, that just means its the Operating System. Any Suggestions there? A Archive and Reinstall would be a pita because I have the operating system Hard drive over half full, I don't know if it could get all the data archived. As well I have some users folders symlinked to a second hard drive. So my fear is that it wouldn't be able to Archive it.

As for the new hardware, it would of been something I wouldn't of cried over really if I had to get one. Would be a nice chance to get it to 1gib so I can transfer files to and from it at a faster rate than 100mib (Since my macbook pro gets 153mib wireless )

[jay3ld]

Alright,

I just went ahead and did the reinstall.
It took me forever to get Time Machine to backup data. I had 115 gb and only a 80 gb external drive. I had to cut out a lot of stuff and dumped some data to a second internal hard drive.

To my surprise though, since I couldn't access the network, the time reverted to the 1970s. This made the Time Machine backups dated for the 1970s. I couldn't use it during the install process to bring back user files. I don't know if this was the actual cause or not or lack of some data in the backup.

I wasn't even able to do a Archive and install to maintain my user settings. Why Apple doesn't have a setting just to keep users and forget the applications/system data, I don't know. I had to resort to a clean install.
Then the annoying 3 or 4 restarts I went through to complete all updates (I guess that is better than windows).
Then I ran some terminal commands to quickly copy all the user files from the backup to the hard drive again. Once that completed, I was able to just create users again and click ok when it complained about the home folder existing.

To my surprise again, iMove and iDVD don't exist. Come to figure out that isn't included in Leopard (For what ever reason Apple does this). I almost couldn't get it installed again, I have a cd that has iLife 3 on it, I tried to install it but it said some error about not having a super drive. I come to find out, I have two iLife Dvds. One that is for computers with super drives, and one without (Apple you amaze me yet again). So I was able to install

Now just for the fine tuning again to get it back to where I exactly had it.

[seanc]

Sounds like network access has been restored, right? It also sounds like you could do with replacing your PRAM battery - the time should ALWAYS stick, could be the cause of these weird issues
.

[jay3ld]

Yes, I was able to access the network, which means after I got it online. I went upstairs and sat down with my laptop to finish up the rest of it (Thank you screen sharing).

I always thought the loss of time was due to the fact I have it setup to adjust off the current time zone (I have had it happen before, but nothing that caused a loss of network access), and when no response came through it went back to the earliest date it could. If that is the case though, I guess I need to find a PRAM battery for this thing.

[tooki]

Network time is used to periodically set the system clock. It should still keep running when no network is connected. Either the PRAM battery is dead, and/or the PMU is confused and needs to be reset. (Search "PRAM reset" in Apple Support.)

[jay3ld]

I attempted a PRAM reset before I did the reinstall, I forgot to mention that.
I held Option+command+P+R during bootup (after the first bong) and got another bong.

I guess that means the PRAM battery. Now to add to that, I don't believe the pram battery is really specific to any computer. So buying one off newegg should be fine? Or would I need to be looking for Power Mac G4 MDD specific ones?

[seanc]

You're looking for a PRAM battery for a Mac - pretty sure they were all the same. Not to be confused with the CMOS battery in PCs.

[jay3ld]

Thats the feeling I had. I don't know mac hardware as well as PC hardware though to know if their might of been some slight different ones for the different models (iMacs, Mac Pros, MacBooks, Mac Mini, etc).

Thats good to know.

[tooki]

A G4 used a 3.6V 2/3AA lithium battery. I don't think any PCs used those, but they're readily available from Mac parts dealers like Other World Computing.

Intel Macs don't use those batteries, they use button cells like most PCs. Also a handful of mid-90's Performas used a 4.5V block battery.