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Tiny-E · Dec 7, 2002, 05:59 PM

Maybe someone can help me here, this is my first mac. I have a 550 mhz powerbook and lately, it's been acting up. Sometimes, it just freezes and then I have to hold down the power button to reboot it. But when I do, it will sometimes get stuck at one of the start up pages (the grey page with the little computer in the middle and the spinning beach ball in the corner, but it's not spinning).
Other times, when I'm rebooting the computer, at the very beginning, when the powerbook makes that "bing" note/sound, there is also a staticy sound that comes from the speakers (?), kinda as if I was connecting to a dial up connection.
Other times (this doesn happen much), the computer will just freeze and then a bunch of computer typing comes on the screen (something about kernal?) and then I have to totally shut it down by holding the power button again.
And just now, before rebooting, my screen was flickering as if it was a dodgy old tv screen, and there was nothing plugged to my powerbook.

The only thing that could be suspect is that I've been downloading some songs from limewire.

Any help is much appreciated. I thought apples weren't supposed to crash this much!!

iDORK · Dec 7, 2002, 07:56 PM

I'm having similiar problems with my 1Ghz Super Drive PB. It loads up to the grey screen and just freezes. This started to happen after I started to install Quake 3 while that froze during teh installation in "classic mode" while in OSX. Turned off my power button and since then, it has froze up constantly. Now I can't even boot up to OSX because it locks up in that grey startup screen.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

freebird · Dec 7, 2002, 10:54 PM

What you are seeing is a kernel panic. Boot from the OSX CD and choose Disk Utility from the menu bar. Use it to repair your disk and then repair permissions. Run the repair permissions again to make sure it got them all. You may have to go back to the available disks and select another disk and go back to your OSX disk to repair permissions after running the disk repair.

Sometime in January Disk Warrior for OSX is to be released. Disk Warrior is THE disk utility to have for OS9 and we expect that to also be true for OSX. http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html

iDORK · Dec 8, 2002, 12:16 AM

Originally posted by freebird:
What you are seeing is a kernel panic. Boot from the OSX CD and choose Disk Utility from the menu bar. Use it to repair your disk and then repair permissions. Run the repair permissions again to make sure it got them all. You may have to go back to the available disks and select another disk and go back to your OSX disk to repair permissions after running the disk repair.

Sometime in January Disk Warrior for OSX is to be released. Disk Warrior is THE disk utility to have for OS9 and we expect that to also be true for OSX. http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html

Many thanks for your post. I will try that and report back. What is weird is it randomly freezes - sometimes I can boot to OS X and within minutes it will freeze; while other times it will just freeze at the grey screen when it attempts to load OSX. I even tried to run the hardware test using the CD-ROM and it froze during one of the tests. Again, I will let you know if I can get it to work. I'd hate to send it back to Apple since I just had this laptop for 2 days.

Tomster · Dec 8, 2002, 02:59 AM

Try an archive and install of Jaguar. All programs and settings are saved but a brand new system is installed.

freebird · Dec 8, 2002, 09:51 AM

iDork, have you installed ram recently? If you have remove the new modules and see if the problem persists. The ram checks in OSX and on the hardware CD often fail to catch bad ram. In some cases the computer will still boot but will have problems with crashes or freezes. In other cases the computer won't even boot up.

Perform the disk repair and permissions repair first. I just felt the need to add the above as your problems hint toward a ram problem although could just be a disk in need of repair.

iDORK · Dec 8, 2002, 12:13 PM

Originally posted by freebird:
iDork, have you installed ram recently? If you have remove the new modules and see if the problem persists. The ram checks in OSX and on the hardware CD often fail to catch bad ram. In some cases the computer will still boot but will have problems with crashes or freezes. In other cases the computer won't even boot up.

Perform the disk repair and permissions repair first. I just felt the need to add the above as your problems hint toward a ram problem although could just be a disk in need of repair.

Freebird, I didn't install any new ram. The only thing I installed prior to running into these freezing problems was the Logitech MX500 USB mouse and Quake 3 Arena. I was able to get it up and running into OSX once last night (I noticed it took much longer to load/boot) and used it for a couple of minutes before it froze again.

I was finally able to boot it up to the OSX CD-ROM menu and ran the disk repair. After that I ran the permissions repair and it froze near the beginning of the process.
I tried to reinstall Jaguar but it froze during the process menu.

Do you think this is hardware related?

Thanks for your help.

freebird · Dec 8, 2002, 01:52 PM

It very well could be a hardware problem. Did you ask for a clean install of Jag where it wipes the drive? Just remember if you do that you won't have Classic. I haven't checked out the DVD that came with the superdrive powerbooks but wiping the drive and starting with a clean install of OS9 then Jag is worth a go. I assume both are on the DVD.

If you can't do the above or still have problems call Apple tech support. It's a free phone call for the first 90 days.

iDORK · Dec 8, 2002, 09:10 PM

Originally posted by freebird:
It very well could be a hardware problem. Did you ask for a clean install of Jag where it wipes the drive? Just remember if you do that you won't have Classic. I haven't checked out the DVD that came with the superdrive powerbooks but wiping the drive and starting with a clean install of OS9 then Jag is worth a go. I assume both are on the DVD.

If you can't do the above or still have problems call Apple tech support. It's a free phone call for the first 90 days.

Thanks for your help. Yes, I have tried to wipe out the drive too but it freezes during the process too. It appears to be hardware related - kind of interesting this happens after I installed my MX500 and Quake 3 Gold.

I will contact Apple tomorrow and report back.

Thanks again for all your suggestions!

RMXO · Dec 8, 2002, 11:12 PM

Originally posted by iDORK:
kind of interesting this happens after I installed my MX500 and Quake 3 Gold.

hmmmm. that should answer your problem there. since u said, it happens after u install your mouse & quake 3.

does it freeze after installing the mouse? jsut the mouse drivers. or after quake 3? maybe its the drivers or the game.

this sounds like either your mouse or quake 3 is causing your freeze problem...

Art Vandelay · Dec 9, 2002, 12:12 AM

You definitely have a hardware issue if your Mac is freezing while running the Hardware Test CD and OS X CD.

iDORK · Dec 9, 2002, 01:18 AM

Originally posted by RMXO:

hmmmm. that should answer your problem there. since u said, it happens after u install your mouse & quake 3.

does it freeze after installing the mouse? jsut the mouse drivers. or after quake 3? maybe its the drivers or the game.

this sounds like either your mouse or quake 3 is causing your freeze problem...

I think after installing the mouse and Quake 3 lead to some hardware problem. Kind of weird but I think that's the case since it even freezes when I boot from the OSX trying to reinstall OSX.

RMXO · Dec 9, 2002, 02:31 AM

Originally posted by iDORK:

I think after installing the mouse and Quake 3 lead to some hardware problem. Kind of weird but I think that's the case since it even freezes when I boot from the OSX trying to reinstall OSX.

have your tried uninstalling the mouse & quake 3?

iDORK · Dec 9, 2002, 06:52 PM

Originally posted by RMXO:

have your tried uninstalling the mouse & quake 3?

I uninstalled Quake 3 but same problem persist. I contacted Apple tech support and we went through numerous things. He had me open up the keyboard to reset the computer and it still froze when we tried to install OS X again. I even took out one of the stick of RAM out to make sure it's not a RAM issue, which it wasn't.

I'm sending it back to Apple for repair/service tomorrow. But again, thanks for you help!

Art Vandelay · Dec 9, 2002, 09:34 PM

If it was freezing while booted from the Hardware Test CD or the OS X Install CD, then it is a HARDWARE issue like I said before.

Uninstalling Quake or the mouse drivers would have no effect since they aren't installed when booted from those CDs.

At least the Apple tech recognized the real issue.

iDORK · Dec 14, 2002, 07:47 PM

Apple repair was fast! I just received my repaired Powerbook 1Ghz SD today and it has been working flawlessly! The notebook was repaired the same day it was received and shipped out the same evening!

According to the repair sheet, Apple replaced the 1Ghz CPU. That reminded me the system ran slower and much warmer before the repair. It is running cooler and faster now. Thanks for all your help and suggestions!