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lakota85 · Oct 30, 2001, 09:56 PM

When I start up my PowerBook G3 Lombard,333MHz 193 Mb ram and OS 9.0 I get the following message. The built in memory test has detected a problem with the cache memory. Please contact a service technician for assistance." Would someone please help me out with this? What to do? Why the message? Fixes? I did a system profile and it says "External L2 cache: Not installed" To be honest, I don't know what the External L2 cache is. I took it to the Apple Dealer today and when we started it up, all was fine and dandy. We could not get the message to come up. He told me to keep track and see what happens. He thinks it may be an over charged battery, but it happens when starting up using the powercord and no battery in the slot. I have noticed that sometimes when waking the computer up, that it won't wake up and sometimes on restart, it won't restart unless I push the reset button in the back. You can hear it start up, but no monitor. This does not happen 100% of the time, but pretty close to it. I am just at a total loss.

lakota85 · Oct 30, 2001, 10:52 PM

I forgot to mention in my original message that when I do a system profiler with RAM DISK on, it reads that BACKSLIDE L2 Cache is 512K. I don't know if this means anything as I don't know anything about cache, or for that matter, Backslide. :-( Although I am trying to learn. Thanks again.

seanyepez · Oct 31, 2001, 12:26 AM

G3's have backside L2 cache, not external L2 cache. The 0k is alright, but a problem with the cache memory isn't. Hardly ever do motherboards and processors themselves fail. It's usually something like the hard drive failing. Watch out!

Oct 31, 2001, 07:02 AM

I've had exactly the same issue this week with my PowerBook G3 333.

proceedNeXT · Oct 31, 2001, 07:37 AM

The same since yesterday on my G3 400

:..(

lakota85 · Oct 31, 2001, 11:09 PM

Originally posted by <unregistered>:
<STRONG>I've had exactly the same issue this week with my PowerBook G3 333.</STRONG>

You said that you "had" the same issue. Do you resolve the problem and if so, how? Also, when I did a system profile again tonight, it did read ExternalL2 cache not installed, but now I do a system profile, it reads BacksideL2 is 512k. I don't know why it came up reading ExternalL2 cache.

Nov 2, 2001, 07:04 AM

Originally posted by lakota85:
<STRONG>

You said that you "had" the same issue. Do you resolve the problem and if so, how? Also, when I did a system profile again tonight, it did read ExternalL2 cache not installed, but now I do a system profile, it reads BacksideL2 is 512k. I don't know why it came up reading ExternalL2 cache.</STRONG>

No. the problem isn't resolved. I would have to send the PowerBook in Holland (I'm in Europa) and acording to my AASP tech. I would have to pay "damage 1" which is around $1000. I won't beause the computer still works, in a way. When booting in OS 9, the message appears, I say "OK" and the boot goes on normally. The computer is still usable, but will have strange crashes. It boots fine in OS X but may not wake up from sleep everytime, needing a reset to be able to reboot. I can use it for basic tasks such as web and email for some days more, until my PBG4 667 / 48Go / CDRW / 1GB RAM arrives :-)

lakota85 · Nov 2, 2001, 09:02 AM

Ja, my PB works fine once up and running. The hard part is getting it to boot up. As long as it is still under warranty I think a trip to the local Apple tech is justified. I dn't know if the problem will get worse, but I might as well get it fixed before it does. Dank je voor je hulp.