Hi all! Let me start by saying I have owned and used Macs for over 10 years, and I am an experienced Mac/PC technician and also programmer. I have a Rev a iMac 233 which I upgraded to 6 mb vram and 96 mb ram. This machine worked great with OS 8.1, 8.5 and 8.6. OS 9 didn't install well, so I reinitialized and did a clean install, which worked fine. I am not using any third party extensions except OSA Menu Lite. I periodically lock up, generally when doing things on-line, sometimes I can force quit but many times I have to hit the "big switch". Sometimes IE 4.5 is the cause, in the middle of drawing a page it locks up. Other times it's FTPing files using the Network Browser, or uploading pages with Claris Home Page. I know I'll probably have to live with it but just wondered if anyone else has had these same experiences and was able to do something about it. BTW, I have done all the usual, desktop rebuild, zapping pram, disk first aid, etc. Thanks for listening!

SteveW

[Misha]

I've noticed that a lot of older apps can bring OS 9 down, even if they're not doing anything in the background. Do you run any older apps while IE 4.5, Network Browser, etc. locks up?

It's a strange problem, I must admit.

OS 9's crashing frustrated me to the point where I reformatted and installed OS 8.6 on my PowerBook G3 a few days ago. I've since done a simple upgrade to OS 9, backing up the OS 8.6 folder (and all my prefs/add-ons) so that I can switch back at a moments notice of the crashing ensues again...

Misha,

Thanks for the reply! I usually am running current apps, sometimes the problem seems to manifest itself when running several apps at once, but not nearly enough to take up all the memory available. A typical session may include:

CodeWarrior Pro 5
Script Editor
FaceSpan
IE & OE
AppleWorks

I've often found the Script Editor seems to be the culprit. Yes, very perplexing, and frustrating, I once had a stable system. *Sigh*

[billybob]

That is weird problem, especially since you did a clean install and a newly formated drive, and you dont use any third party extensions except the one you mentioned. I have an imac dvse currently, but before I had a rev a as well. I noticed serious problems when I installed os9. My harddrive was kind of fragmented (i had replaced the 4gig with an 11gig), but de-fragging it seemed to have helped a lot. But you did a clean install on a reformated drive. I have no idea what your problem could be.

I would just go back to 8.6. HOnestly I was hoping that my new imac would come with 8.6 because it was sucha better system in terms of stability and that kind of thing. But os9 seems to be much more rock solid on this computer than my last one. But if you bought os9, then thats a waste of 100 bucks, so that sucks, but you could always try selling it on ebay or something.

I have been having the exact same problems with 0S9 when using IE4.5 So I switched to Netscape 4.7 PPC and Bingo! (knock on wood) I can now surf the net without lockups and reboots etc. But other conflicts at desktop level have been occuring and I'm growing tried... Hope this helps anyone. Replies very welcome. AlSO can anyone recommend a GREAT Mac web security product?

[Gregory]

IE can clobber the Internet Prefs so that keeping a "good" backup and trashing current one helps.

Could it be modem related?

Adding the numbers you are likely maxing out RAM, or need to allocate more.

Have you upgraded OT to 2.6?

[Damien]

If you've eliminated all the software issues, then it's time to look at hardware. I've experienced the freezing problem on Rev. A iMacs and been able to narrow it down to a fautly processor. Unfortunately the only way to test a faulty processor is to put in a known-good one and see if it solves the issue.

If this iMac is still under warranty (unlikely but possible), take it to an Apple Authorized Service Technician and they'll help you.

Because it's only freezing during Internet connections, it's also possible you've got a modem that went bad. Try replacing the modem.

Damien Barrett http://www.mrbarrett.com

Well, I've tried everything I can think of. I doubt hardware, under 8.6 everything ran smooth as silk. It sure is frustrating being a die hard Mac addict and not being able to have a stable system. I've estimated I've put no less than 30 hours into trying to fix all the problems. Thanks a lot Apple, way to rush that system upgrade out the door. I've converted several people to Macs from PCs recently, they all have iMacs now, and I'm afraid I'm going to wind up with egg on my face.

[wlonh]

salient point: if you reinitialise your HD and install MacOS on that HD you are not doing a 'clean install'.

a 'clean install' is done on an HD with an existing MacOS System Folder resident upon it which gets renamed 'Previous System Folder' during the clean install and the new MacOS is installed into a new System Folder.

Further, I did a clean install of MacOS 9 (upgrading from 8.6) on my beige G3 minitower and it is a rock, stable, fast...

I do not have NewWorld ROM, I notice that many of the folks having very unusual problems own Macs with NewWorld ROM... funny how I never have any of the troubles that seem so very prevalent... and IE positively NEVER crashes on me.

Well, I initially did a clean install as you described, that went very poorly. Reinitializing and installing from scratch has been much better, but still not good.