[Alaskamac]

I have a Pismo G3 running Tiger 10.4.3 for a long time--runs great. All of the sudden a kernel panic screen yesterday beginning "System Failure:..."

Turned it off and on, everything fine. Today had a freeze up, turned the machine off, then on, and now it won't boot past the apple startup screen, i.e. it chimes, the grey screen comes up, the grey apple comes up, the little disc thing below the apple comes up and turns, and turns, and turns...

Suggestions?

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by Alaskamac 

I have a Pismo G3 running Tiger 10.4.3 for a long time--runs great. All of the sudden a kernel panic screen yesterday beginning "System Failure:..."

Turned it off and on, everything fine. Today had a freeze up, turned the machine off, then on, and now it won't boot past the apple startup screen, i.e. it chimes, the grey screen comes up, the grey apple comes up, the little disc thing below the apple comes up and turns, and turns, and turns...

Suggestions?

Try to boot from Tiger CD and run disk utility. OS or hard drive may be hosed. If Disk Utility says all is well reinstall Tiger

[Alaskamac]

Okay, booted from Tiger DVD, ran disk utility, looks bad. It says (in red font)
"Invalid node structure
Volume check failed.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit

1 volume could not be repaired because of an error"

Would this be equivalent to your "hard drive may be hosed"?

Next step, replace hard drive? Can I recover unbacked up data, i.e. recent work?

[rjt1000]

Originally Posted by Alaskamac 

Can I recover unbacked up data, i.e. recent work?

Maybe. Try booting from the Tiger DVD and trying to access the hard drive. If you can, copy important data to a Firewire or USB drive.

If that doesnt work, you can try to resurrect the hard drive with Disk Warrior or other disk utilities.

If that fails, swapping out the hard drive is easy in the Pismo. That should solve the problem, but if it doesnt, suspect a logic board issue.

[Alaskamac]

The only Tiger disc I have is the install DVD from which I can't launch Disk Warrior (I am waiting for the Disc Warrior CD to arrive). In the mean time my Apple disc utility indicates bad memory, "Error Code mem_/2/4"

Does that mean I have a bad memory chip?

If so, what is the next step?

[romeosc]

Turn it off, Lift keyboard releases and reseat Ram. Reboot. If that fails, repeat by removing one ram chip at a time.

[rjt1000]

Originally Posted by Alaskamac 

"Invalid node structure Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error"

Originally Posted by Alaskamac 

In the mean time my Apple disc utility indicates bad memory, "Error Code mem_/2/4"

Strange to have 2 different problems appear at the same time. Wondering if they are somehow related.

But I would agree to try your memory modules one at a time to see if you can isolate the problem. Hopefully diskwarrior will help you repair the hard drive.

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by rjt1000 

Strange to have 2 different problems appear at the same time. Wondering if they are somehow related.

But I would agree to try your memory modules one at a time to see if you can isolate the problem. Hopefully diskwarrior will help you repair the hard drive.

If a kernel panic happened while writing to drive, it could have hosed the OS

[Alaskamac]

Yeah, the other weird thing is that right now it will not allow me to reload the OS. When I try to I just get a blank gray screen.

To test memory modules what do I do, just pull out one at a time? Can I run the machine with just one module in place?

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by Alaskamac 

Yeah, the other weird thing is that right now it will not allow me to reload the OS. When I try to I just get a blank gray screen.

To test memory modules what do I do, just pull out one at a time? Can I run the machine with just one module in place?

Yeah, Make sure Power is off .

Reseat Processor daughter board. (could be unseated)

Remove and reseat ram.

Reboot

[Alaskamac]

Okay!

It appears to have been a combination of a bad memory chip and a hosed OS. I was able to boot into 9.2.2 and run Norton Utilities (I don't have Disk Warrior but will get it). After having that fix some bad directories, and replacing my bad memory chip with the previous one which I had saved (a serious downgrade from 512 to 128), I was able to boot back onto the OS X install and this time it allowed it to reload.

Looks like I am back up and running, thanks for the help.

Still, I think I will replace the hard drive since I am still using the original 10 GB which is now six years old...it may be living on borrowed time. I'll be back for help when I do that.

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by Alaskamac 

Okay!

It appears to have been a combination of a bad memory chip and a hosed OS. I was able to boot into 9.2.2 and run Norton Utilities (I don't have Disk Warrior but will get it). After having that fix some bad directories, and replacing my bad memory chip with the previous one which I had saved (a serious downgrade from 512 to 128), I was able to boot back onto the OS X install and this time it allowed it to reload.

Looks like I am back up and running, thanks for the help.

Still, I think I will replace the hard drive since I am still using the original 10 GB which is now six years old...it may be living on borrowed time. I'll be back for help when I do that.

Good News!

It only takes 10 minutes to replace hard drive in a Pismo, look for a cheap 2.5 inch external drive and swap them and you will have a firewire backup drive almost for free! You can usually find an external 60 GB usb/firewire for about $50

[Alaskamac]

Thanks for all of the help romeosc.

Let me get this straight: You are saying purchase a firewire external HD, and then swap the two hard drives, removing the the newly purchased external HD from its case and placing it into the Pismo, and taking the internal HD out of the Pismo and placing it in the now empty external case, correct? Do I have to be careful that the external HD I purchase is appropriate for the Pismo, or will any external HD (2.5 inch) that will work with the Pismo externally, be appropriate to install internally as well?

Also, once done, I will install system software on the new HD so that it becomes my boot drive, but how do I get all of the correct personal data files, e.g. data for my address books, calendar dates, etc. onto the new HD?

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by Alaskamac 

Thanks for all of the help romeosc.

Let me get this straight: You are saying purchase a firewire external HD, and then swap the two hard drives, removing the the newly purchased external HD from its case and placing it into the Pismo, and taking the internal HD out of the Pismo and placing it in the now empty external case, correct? Do I have to be careful that the external HD I purchase is appropriate for the Pismo, or will any external HD (2.5 inch) that will work with the Pismo externally, be appropriate to install internally as well?

Also, once done, I will install system software on the new HD so that it becomes my boot drive, but how do I get all of the correct personal data files, e.g. data for my address books, calendar dates, etc. onto the new HD?

You don't have to worry, since Pismo will take most 2.5" drives. Costco and Sam's carry cheap 60 GB WD drives.

1. Connect drive to Firewire, and install Tiger on external drive.

2. Select external as Startup drive and run MIgration Assistant to copy users folder, applications etc.

3. Turn off computer, disconnect power and battery and swap drives (10 minutes)

4. Restart computer using new drive. You external now is a backup and is bootable in case of emergency, etc.

[Alaskamac]

That looks simple enough, thanks again for the assistance. It may be a little while until I get to give it a try...Costco and Sams are a 200 mile trip...one way.