[Goldie]

My friend uses 9.22 on an older Mac in her school. Her computer keeps freezing. I am not familiar with 9. I have only used X. Is there a repair permissions like X or any other utilities that she can try. I am not allowed to to help her and the school geek is no help.

[bradoesch]

What kind of freeze? Startup freezes are likely conflicting extensions. Random freezes could be faulty RAM.
I'd try zapping the PRAM. Hold Command+Option+P+R at startup and release the keys when you hear 3 chimes. If that doesn't work, I'd run the machine with only the RAM that shipped with the computer (if that's possible).

[Goldie]

Zapping the pram was the only thing I could think of doing. She says it randomly freezes. There is no way she's opening up the comp. Where are the utilities located in 9? Are there any like X?

[bradoesch]

The utilities that come with OS 9 are located in Applications:Utilities. I'd give Disk First Aid a whirl, but I don't think it will help freezes. The other major utilities for OS 9 were Norton Utilities, TechTool and DiskWarrior.

[Ra]

Originally posted by Goldie:
My friend uses 9.22 on an older Mac in her school. Her computer keeps freezing. I am not familiar with 9. I have only used X. Is there a repair permissions like X or any other utilities that she can try. I am not allowed to to help her and the school geek is no help.

Use an older version of Norton Utilities, and run "Disk Doctor."

[Big Mac]

Diskwarrior is the best disk utility by far - I highly recommend it. Other than that, the source of random freezes in OS 9 could be extension conflicts, or it could be a corrupted system file. Boot while holding down the shift key in to determine whether or not it is an extension conflict.

[SVass]

For old Macs only without OSX, rebuild the desktop.

First, empty the trash.
Second, restart holding down the Shift, Apple, and Option keys until you receive a message asking if you want to rebuild the desktop.
Say YES
Have a cup of coffee until it is through.
Then restart the computer

Sam

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by SVass:
For old Macs only without OSX, rebuild the desktop.

First, empty the trash.
Second, restart holding down the Shift, Apple, and Option keys until you receive a message asking if you want to rebuild the desktop.
Say YES
Have a cup of coffee until it is through.
Then restart the computer

Sam

I've only used Command+Option for rebuilding the desktop file. Does shift do a rebuild on all connected disks?

[Langdon]

Originally posted by Ra:
Use an older version of Norton Utilities, and run "Disk Doctor."

No, do not use Nortons. Only bad things can come from that.
If what has been recommended does not work back up her files and erase the hard drive. Then just reinstall the OS. Its not a pretty fix but it should take care of any system related problem. This does not sound like a hardware or extension problem so a lean install should take care of it.

[Ra]

Originally posted by Langdon:
No, do not use Nortons. Only bad things can come from that.
If what has been recommended does not work back up her files and erase the hard drive. Then just reinstall the OS. Its not a pretty fix but it should take care of any system related problem. This does not sound like a hardware or extension problem so a lean install should take care of it.

I have been using Norton Utilities in Macs with Mac OS 9.1 through 9.2.2 to repair software for years now. So far I haven't had any problems. Startup problems (computer starts, then stops loading the extensions) could be caused by extension conflicts, but screen freeze ups could be caused by not enough RAM space left during use, as well as other reasons. Thats what I have found so far when repairing OS's.

This is what I do with my older Macs: Every few weeks I run Norton's Disk Doctor, every few weeks I rebuild the desktop, and twice per year I run Norton's Speed Disk (or defrag. the hard drives).