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Koto234 · Oct 12, 2006, 02:48 PM

Need help with a Mac G4 400mz that for the last 6 weeks crashes (will not start up and remains with a black screen) every other week and usually requires extensive recovery and in some instances a new system. The crash is usually preceded with a grayed out screen with cryptic, full screen, white text indicating that some error has occurred.
I believed that this was virus like activity and have run Norton Antivirus daily and only ran into files that had lost their resource forks and I have trashed them as instructed.

I don’t have Norton Firewall as I rely on Apples firewall that comes with the operating system 10.3.9 as well as checking every three days (scheduled). But as well I check for Norton updates regularly. In some instances, I use the internal backup drive as a startup to do maintenance on my main startup drive it also crashes. I have made a startup CD and the CD boots the Mac with no problems.

My Mac has lost applications that were used the day before; meaning they don’t appear on the Desk Top and when I search for the application, it is not found. Also if I use Norton Unerase to try to locate them the application is “not found”.

There are times (without installing a new system) the preference file appears corrupt in applications I frequently use. For instance, my bookmarks are lost in Firefox and “recent documents” are not in MS Word, Freehand, Photoshop, Sound Studio, Norton Systemworks and so on.

Also in more than one instance as I open Norton Systemworks to run weekly maintenance I get a dialogue box that says that” essential components are missing and I am instructed to reinstall Norton”.

On a recent run of Norton Disk Doctor when I was asked to determine where to put alias’ for corrupt files an Untitled drive appeared besides my three internal drives (non of them being partitioned) in the dialogue box. I tried to locate the untitled drive on my desktop and through Norton Disk Doctor and antivirus and Techtool to no avail. But before leaving the window displaying the untitled drive I was able to see on the drive and it had a folder titled Local.nidb, which I can no longer locate. Inside the folder I found 13 files: clean, config and (“store” files numbered: 64,96,128,160,192,224,256,280, 320.352,384)

I also have Techtool that I use when there are problems not discovered by Norton Disk Doctor, again there no items above what Norton discovered. As well, I use Techtool to check hardware and have never found a faulty component or drive.

rickey939 · Oct 12, 2006, 02:56 PM

How big is the HD that has OS X on it? How much space is available?

P · Oct 12, 2006, 03:13 PM

Well, if Techtool and Norton can't find the fault, it's one of three things:

* Tricky intemittent hardware fault. Could be bad RAM.
* HD is slowly failing.
* File directory is corrupt in some wierd manner.

If I had to bet, I'd say it's the middle one - that your HD is failing. You can get an internal IDE drive of 120 gigs or less (larger won't work in your Mac) cheap - about $50. Then install the OS on that one and copy your files over to the new drive.

If the OS now works, you'll be in much better shape and can try experimenting with the old drive. Just don't trust it for important files, but a reformat could bring it back. If you have problems after a reformat, trash it. With a sledgehammer. Drives that almost work are a crime against humanity.

If you still have problems, it's something more troubling wrong with the Mac. You could try pulling RAM chips and see if the problem goes away.

OF course, if you don't want to bother with it, a Mac mini is cheap, and the used G4-based minis are even cheaper while still being way faster than your G4.

kick52 · Oct 12, 2006, 11:36 PM

try reformating your hard drive and then if it sttill happens, take a clear picture of the kernel panic(the white writing) and post it here.

JKT · Oct 13, 2006, 01:50 AM

Personally, the first thing I would do is uninstall the Norton applications. They have a bad reputation for causing far more problems than they solve, and system instability is one of them. However, if that doesn't turn out to be the problem, then a failing hard drive is definitely next in the line of suspects.

himself · Oct 13, 2006, 02:09 AM

Seconded. Remove all Norton applications and do not run them again. It was never truly updated to properly diagnose and repair OS X, and it will probably cause more damage, especially if it is recommending to delete certain system files. If you have the Apple Hardware Test CD, you should boot from that and run the tests to figure out what may be the problem. I would also recommend re-installing the OS, or at least download and install the latest Combo Updater for your system (10.3.9 in your case).

bowwowman · Oct 13, 2006, 03:24 PM

Step 1: Trash anything & everything even remotely associated with Norton's crapapps. Don't forget preference, plists, app support, and receipt/updater files. Use finder's find command and make all files visible so you dont miss anything !

Step 2: Reformat your HD and & reinstall OS X

Step 3: Be happy & enjoy your mac like is was meant to be

Catfish_Man · Oct 13, 2006, 04:12 PM

*boggles*

So first you recommend trashing specific things, most of them harmless... and then erasing the entire disk? O_o

Koto234 · Oct 19, 2006, 01:45 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

How big is the HD that has OS X on it? How much space is available?

Size 127GB and 82GB Free

Koto234 · Oct 19, 2006, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by P

Well, if Techtool and Norton can't find the fault, it's one of three things:

* Tricky intemittent hardware fault. Could be bad RAM.
* HD is slowly failing.
* File directory is corrupt in some wierd manner.

If I had to bet, I'd say it's the middle one - that your HD is failing. You can get an internal IDE drive of 120 gigs or less (larger won't work in your Mac) cheap - about $50. Then install the OS on that one and copy your files over to the new drive.

If the OS now works, you'll be in much better shape and can try experimenting with the old drive. Just don't trust it for important files, but a reformat could bring it back. If you have problems after a reformat, trash it. With a sledgehammer. Drives that almost work are a crime against humanity.

If you still have problems, it's something more troubling wrong with the Mac. You could try pulling RAM chips and see if the problem goes away.

OF course, if you don't want to bother with it, a Mac mini is cheap, and the used G4-based minis are even cheaper while still being way faster than your G4.

Well, I also suspected the Hardrive so I installed a second internal HD and made the transfer to the second HD and the problem moved onto the second. Then I installed a third drive, backed up the second HD (main drive) to the third to use as storage. Then I reformatted the original and started over again ( reinstalled all applications). Using the second HD as a backup drive but within days files and applications would disappear and a couple weeks, white text on greyed out screen.