[jbleisure]

Is this the signs of a hard drive failure.

For the past two days my PowerBook G4 randomly sloses down. Well more acurately gois to sleep an the middle of me working. I have to either close the lid and reopen it - this has worked once to bring is out of sleep mode...or hold down the start button this has also worked on a couple of occaisions so has pulling out a usb cable - but none of these methods have worked every time and moreover I'M WORRIED.

Is this the sign of a hard drive failure or am I missing something?

Advice much appreciated.

[jbleisure]

Sorry about the terrible typos in the first line above ....sloses = closes, gois = goes & an = in.

[Armen52]

I don't think this is an impending hard drive failure.

I am experiencing the same symptoms with my Power Mac G4. Right in the middle of working, the system goes to sleep. I looked at the console logs and found some curious entries. Apparently every time it went to sleep, it was a 'planned' event:
----------------------------
2006-05-21 13:24:01 EDT - Sleep Notification Occurred.
----------------------------

Some part of the OS told itself to go to sleep. I couldn't find anything on Apple Discussions that help explain the sleep notification, but I suspect it is software not hardware.

Things I did:
Repaired permissions via Disk Utility
Ran Apple Hardware Test --extended test (all tests passed)

Somethings I plan to try:
Zapping PRAM
Zapping energy preferences

Originally Posted by jbleisure

Is this the signs of a hard drive failure.

For the past two days my PowerBook G4 randomly sloses down. Well more acurately gois to sleep an the middle of me working. I have to either close the lid and reopen it - this has worked once to bring is out of sleep mode...or hold down the start button this has also worked on a couple of occaisions so has pulling out a usb cable - but none of these methods have worked every time and moreover I'M WORRIED.

Is this the sign of a hard drive failure or am I missing something?

Advice much appreciated.

[kick52]

it could be some kind of hardware problem. it might be your hard drive (do you hear clicking noises?) it could be overheating, or it might be your screen. to test if it is the screen or overheating: play some music. (really long music) wait for it to sleep. if it does and the music still plays, it might be the screen. if it stops (try this with sound muted in sleep mode. in energy prefs) it could be overheating.

[jbleisure]

it could be some kind of hardware problem. it might be your hard drive (do you hear clicking noises?) it could be overheating, or it might be your screen.

Negative - no noises and no overheating

Actually it stopped the day after I first posted and it hasn't happened since

Somethings I plan to try:
Zapping PRAM
Zapping energy preferences

I'd like to know what resetting the PRAM is but I haven't done this yet.

I looked at the console logs and found some curious entries. Apparently every time it went to sleep, it was a 'planned' event:
----------------------------
2006-05-21 13:24:01 EDT - Sleep Notification Occurred.
----------------------------

Some part of the OS told itself to go to sleep.

If I knew how to check out console log I would - Anyone reading this that can explain how to do that I would appreciate it. I like to build on my knowledge of OSX and improve my skills.

[DeputyDoofy]

To check the console log : Applications > Utilities > Console , there it will show you the console.log file.

Hmm, resetting the PRAM to do this you restart and then hold down Option + Apple + R + P, you will then hear the startup sound twice and your PRAM will be reset. It is worth a try at any rate.

[jbleisure]

Hmm, resetting the PRAM to do this you restart and then hold down Option + Apple + R + P, you will then hear the startup sound twice and your PRAM will be reset. It is worth a try at any rate.

Thanks for that.

What is PRAM and what will resetting it do?