[brapper]

A friend of mine is having some pretty serious issues with her iMac. It's a 15 inch 800mhz 256ram. running 10.2.8
Here is the list of issues:
-The Volume/eject keys stop working after the computer has been on for awhile.
-disk utility wont open unless used from a disk.
-generally the computer runs fine for awhile, but if it's been on more than a half hour the it starts behaving badly. Like I said, the volume/eject keys stop working, the computer wont shut down/restart without forcing it to, and various other little issues.
-also, when running disk utility off the Jaguar CD, the permissions were out of whack (technical term....) each time i ran it
-Finally, when i ran disk repair i get to "checking catalog" when it starts giving me "Overlapped extent allocation" and lists files ranging from 417089d – 458036d, but not in that order.

I have no idea what that means, but after it's done listing those files it continues, eventually giving me Repair Completed. Though when i run disk repair again, it gives me the same messages.
I am at a loss for what the cause or fix could be. I've never encountered this before.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[wadesworld]

generally the computer runs fine for awhile, but if it's been on more than a half hour the it starts behaving badly. Like I said, the volume/eject keys stop working, the computer wont shut down/restart without forcing it to, and various other little issues.

This could be:

1) Corrupt hard drive and system files
2) Defective RAM
3) Defective motherboard

The easiest thing to try is to create a new user and see if the problems happen with the new user. However, that's not likely it.

The second thing to try is to reformat the drive and start over from scratch. Don't restore anything but data from backups. Install all applications fresh.

If that still doesn't fix it, it's time to swap the RAM. If that doesn't fix it, it's time to send it for repair.

Wade

[theolein]

It does sound like a hardware problem such as the disk probably, RAM would be noticed earlier. The likelihood is also that some component on the motherboard is overheating, I suppose.

But first try the following. Reboot and press "Command-s" (no quotes) at startup. You will boot into the single user mode commandline interface. Type the following "/sbin/fsck -y" (no quotes) and press enter. Wait until it finishes and see if it says the disk is ok. If it doesn't then repeat the last command until it does. After that type "reboot" (no quotes) and press enter.

If you still have problems, try a refromat of the harddrive. If you still have problems after that I would then go to a repair center, I think, because it's difficult to judge after that just where the problem lies (you could swap out the disk and RAM if you have extras lying around, but there's not much else you can do)

[Brass]

Great topic title. Very helpful.

EDIT: (original highly inflamatory post above left here in it's entirety for historical purposes).

Sorry, what I should have said was:

"Please endeavour to use more descriptive titles for your threads, as this not only attracts the right people to your thread, but makes browsing the list of threads much easier for all users."

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally posted by Brass:
Great topic title. Very helpful.

Great reply. Very helpful. Nobody's forcing you to post here. However, I will be forcing you not to post from now on.

[brapper]

Thanks for the help theolein and wadesworld. You've pretty much confirmed what I fearded I'd have to do. Unfortunately it's me who'll have to do it 'cause she the type that thinks it's okay to throw away the 10.2 install disks because it's already installed..


To Brass

sorry I'll edit it to: My friend's Imac is broken and i don't know what's wrong with it or how to fix it.
...most people answer based on the message not the title...
you can run along and find other places to boost your posts count now

and TO Horsepoo!!!:
cheers, my sentiments exactly.

[Brass]

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
Great reply. Very helpful. Nobody's forcing you to post here. However, I will be forcing you not to post from now on.

My humble appologies. I thought the point of my post was quite obvious, whereas the point of the topic title was not.

My aim was not to denegrate the poster, but to prompt him to use a more useful title next time.

Thanks for not forcing me to post to MacNN forums, but I actually like browsing and posting here. It gets a little frustrating, however, when the topic title gives no hint whatsoever as to the topic content, and I have to read the thread to determine if it is of interest to me, or if I can help or not. The whole point of topic titles is to avoid the need for this, surely?

Again, I'm sorry if I offended you.

[Brass]

Originally posted by brapper:
To Brass

sorry I'll edit it to: My friend's Imac is broken and i don't know what's wrong with it or how to fix it.
...most people answer based on the message not the title...
you can run along and find other places to boost your posts count now

and TO Horsepoo!!!:
cheers, my sentiments exactly.

I'm sorry if I offended you. That was not my intention. Please see my post to HP above.

Next time, please consider using a title such as, "Many intermittent problems with iMac". Not that difficult, surely?

Do you browse these forums often? Do you open and read every single thread to find out what it's about? I don't think most people do. I open about 1 in every 10 threads, because most of them do not interest me. However, if everyone used title's like on this thread, I would have to open every thead in order to know if they are relevant, or if I can be of assistance.

As you can see I have done so for this thread, but I'm just endeavouring to point out that more useful titles would make browsing these forums a lot easier for myself, and I'm sure many others (although not HP, by thte looks of things).

Again, I'm sorry if I offended. I'll have to be more verbose next time.

[brapper]

Originally posted by Brass:
Again, I'm sorry if I offended. I'll have to be more verbose next time.

Apology accepted. I think, however, that you'll agree that your reply was probably just as helpful to me as my title was to you. And, generally short answers along the line of yours can easily be interpreted the wrong way.
So we've both learned a lesson - help eachother!

....moving on.

[Brass]

Originally posted by brapper:
I think, however, that you'll agree that your reply was probably just as helpful to me as my title was to you.

That I do not agree with. My reply may have caused unintended offence, but I think it's meaning was quite clear, although not very sensitively articulated. It may not have given you the help you were asking for, but my hope was that it would help you get better responses in future threads by attracting the right readers, and help OTHERS, by making the forums easier to browse.

Never mind. I'll just run along and increase my post count elsewhere now.



(pssst... that's a joke).

[brapper]

Originally posted by Brass:
That I do not agree with. My reply may have caused unintended offence, but I think it's meaning was quite clear, although not very well articulated. It may not have given you the help you were asking for, but my hope was that it would help you get better responses in future threads by attracting the right readers, and help OTHERS, by making the forums easier to browse.

Never mind. I'll just run along and increase my post count elsewhere now.



(pssst... that's a joke).

Riiight.
also, I KNEW IT!