[kentuckyfried]

Currently, I'm running OS 10.2.6 on a 733 mhz quicksilver I picked up pre-owned last month. This G4 keyboard has no "power on" button like I've seen on my old g3 or the latest g4's.

Here's the problem:

I'll start Bit Torrent or maybe Acquisition to run downloads overnight. In energy saver, I set the hard drive to "never go to sleep",
I set the display sleep to something like 15 minutes.

When I wake up, the computer will be sleeping, flat panel monitor will be sleeping, but no matter what I press on the keyboard, whatever mouse presses I do, it will not wake up. Even pressing the power button on the tower doesn't do anything...I only have the option of just unplugging it.
Not exactly a great thing for the computer.

Any idea what the problem is? The only thing similar I've run into is when I accidentally closed the lid on my iBook as it was logging out. It'd be stuck on sleep and I'd have to force restart it (the keyboard combo to force restart however works fine in this case as opposed to the g4 tower).

[Art Vandelay]

Originally posted by kentuckyfried:
Currently, I'm running OS 10.2.6 on a 733 mhz quicksilver I picked up pre-owned last month. This G4 keyboard has no "power on" button like I've seen on my old g3 or the latest g4's.

Here's the problem:

I'll start Bit Torrent or maybe Acquisition to run downloads overnight. In energy saver, I set the hard drive to "never go to sleep",
I set the display sleep to something like 15 minutes.

When I wake up, the computer will be sleeping, flat panel monitor will be sleeping, but no matter what I press on the keyboard, whatever mouse presses I do, it will not wake up. Even pressing the power button on the tower doesn't do anything...I only have the option of just unplugging it.
Not exactly a great thing for the computer.

Any idea what the problem is? The only thing similar I've run into is when I accidentally closed the lid on my iBook as it was logging out. It'd be stuck on sleep and I'd have to force restart it (the keyboard combo to force restart however works fine in this case as opposed to the g4 tower).

To avoid sleeping, make sure you also disable computer sleeping in the Energy Saver pref pane.

Also, the keyboard power button has been removed since the Pro keyboards started shipping several years ago. The reason the keyboard combo to force reboot works on the iBooks and PowerBooks is because they still use ADB keyboards which supports that function. USB keyboards do not support it.

[kentuckyfried]

OK.

Yes, I already set computer to "never sleep" and unchecked the "put the hard disk to sleep when possible" button. But again, for whatever reason, it freezes at some point in the middle of the night and won't wake up.

[Mac007]

I had a problem like you describe that occurred after I upgraded the video card on a G4 400mhz Sawtooth. The solution was to order another new video card which worked. The other possiblility is something else is bad like the ram or the motherboard. You should check the video board and ram first. If those are ok and it turns out to be a bad motherboard you may be better off getting your money back if possible. If that's not possible be prepared to either write it off as a loss or get ready to spend some big bucks getting it fixed. You said it was used so the sleep problem was probably why they sold it to you in the first place. That's the risk you take buying used goods. So far I've been fortunate in that regard. Both used Macs I've owned have worked just fine.

[littlegreenspud]

Press and hold the power button on the front of the tower for about 6 seconds. This will shut it down.

Still not a good way to shut it down but better than pulling the plug.

[kentuckyfried]

^ actually I tried that too....maybe I'm not holding it down long enough. *shrugs*

thanks.

[bighill]

I think the 733 is the same as my dual 800, if so, there should be a re-set button right under the power button. (much smaller button) No?

[kentuckyfried]

^ The hold down thing works, I'll try the little button next time it crashes.


My guess is that the computer probably got a random kernel panic during the sleeping period...I had two of them happen today alone for some unexplained reason.

Has anybody had more kernel panic problems with 10.2.6? I sure hope this used 733 I got doesn't have any major problems I haven't found yet.

[Guy Incognito 2]

Originally posted by kentuckyfried:
^ The hold down thing works, I'll try the little button next time it crashes.


My guess is that the computer probably got a random kernel panic during the sleeping period...I had two of them happen today alone for some unexplained reason.

Has anybody had more kernel panic problems with 10.2.6? I sure hope this used 733 I got doesn't have any major problems I haven't found yet.

I've had similar problems in the past few weeks.

I know iTunes is responsible for some nasty kernel panics. I'm not sure if iTunes is the only problem though. All I know is that sometimes my screensaver freezes, or the old school kernel panic (text) spews all over the screen, or the computer screen never wants to go out of stand-by mode (probably due to a kernel panic that happened while the screen was in stand-by)...I think iTunes or Acquisition were two apps that were launched when these incidents happened.

[kentuckyfried]

^ Thanks.

Correction: the computer does not even
go into sleep when this happens. The display just has no image on it, it's black, the power is on on both, but there's none of that slow pulsating indicating sleep.

I guess a good test is to leave the mac on without anything running as a control case, vs one where only acquisition is left on all night.

[euphras]

Do you run Virtual PC? The symptoms you describe are EXACTLY the same as on my machine. After some time beeing left alone the machine freezes and has to be "cold restarted" to get back to live. This only occurs when VPC is running.

Pat

[kentuckyfried]

^ I am not running VPC right now.


hehe...haven't quite nailed down the problem yet. Maybe I'll run a poll and see what kind of group responses I get on kernal panics.

My dad ran into another random panic when using word yesterday afternoon. *shrugs* So far I've had almost one per day while downloading heavily (started last thursday?), last night was the first time it didn't happen.

[[APi]TheMan]

Originally posted by kentuckyfried:
Here's the problem:

I'll start Bit Torrent or maybe Acquisition to run downloads overnight. In energy saver, I set the hard drive to "never go to sleep",

I've had problems with BitTorrent in the past where I, similarly, set the computer to never go to sleep (except the display at 5 or 10 minutes), then leave my computer for the night with BitTorrent downloading.

I usually return to my computer to find it very lagged. When I move the mouse to wake the screen up the computer is very unresponsive and lagged. BitTorrent seems to have a few memory leaks or is just a memory hog when left to sit for long periods of time.

I have never had to pull the plug or force restart, though... my system always comes to grips after about 10 seconds.

edit: I'm using a Pismo 400, by the way. I haven't used BitTorrent in a month or so, and I have since upgraded my Pismo to a 900mhz G3, so I can't say if the behavior still persists.

[kentuckyfried]

Kudos goes out to the guy who insisted I hold down the power button a yah bit longer....

[bbales]

My computer upon occasion does exactly the same thing (actually, the computer goes to sleep almost every night, even though I have it set not to). But sometimes it won't wake up and the only recourse is a reset. I'm not running Virtual PC and only use Itunes infrequently. I have absolutely no connections, in terms of what's on and what's not running when this happens. There's no rhyme or reason. But it's frustrating...

[israces]

same thing gets me too every once in a while. No pattern that I can discern.