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OCS1 · Sep 9, 2005, 09:00 AM

Hello all,

I am without a doubt a Mac noob. A client of mine has a G5 and has requested I take a look at it given that the only company in town that services Macs is operated by a complete a-hole.

So:

It is a G5 running Mac OS X 10.3.9. She was beginning to have problems a few weeks ago, backed up all of her data and decided to reload the OS. After doing so, some of the problems were fixed, but some remained. For instance, Safari locks up when trying to load. She can still surf the web, as Internet Explorer does work. Several other 3rd party programs also lock up. When I tried to go to applications/utilities/application viewer, it locks up as well. She also claims that network printers/drives also will frequently dissapear. The G5 she has is the only Mac on a PC based network.
What can be done to troubleshoot the issues she is having? Could it possibly be hardware related?

Also, she says that some of the problems she was having began when she installed a backup program from Maxtor. I believe it is called Retrospect. I could be wrong, but I think the way you uninstall a program in OS X is just to drag the programs folder to the trash can. Am I worng? If so, please tell me the proper way to uninstall a program in OS X.

thank you in advance for any advice you have...

tkmd · Sep 9, 2005, 09:47 AM

Welcome. I would trash the retrospect and see if the problems disappear. Yes, it is as simple as dragging the program to the trash. If that does not solve the problem I would create a new user on her computer. System pref->Acct-> press the "+" button. Once she does this, have her log in to the new user and see if the problems still exists. This is done because if the problems disappear with the new user then her original problem must exist on her user account NOT withing the core OS. If OTOH, if the problems with Safari crashing and driver issues are still occurring with the new user then there is a problem with the core OS. If the latter is suspect then I would just reinstall the Panther. Tell her to use the archive and install mode.

Hope this helps

only120xs · Sep 9, 2005, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by tkmd

... Tell her to use the archive and install mode...

If you re-install the OS with "archive and install" you *could* copy the problem right back into the new system, if the problem is software related. A complete fresh install would be best. But if she already did that, then the problem could be somewhere else.
Could it possibly be bad RAM? Was any recently added? I'm not an expert in this area, so maybe someone else could say if it sounds like it could be a RAM issue or not.

CaptainHaddock · Sep 9, 2005, 12:41 PM

Sounds a lot like a hardware problem. She might be in line for a replacement machine from Apple.

Barry · Sep 9, 2005, 05:32 PM

You could have a bad plist file or a corrupt font causing the troubles. I would run fontbook and see if it flags any of the fonts as bad. download any of the plist validators and see if they pick up anything.

Since she has a backup, I would do an erase and install of the Hard Drive, run Apple Hardware Test from the disk that came with the computer (tests the hardware), run software updater and install all the needed updates. Boot from the install CD 1 run disk first aid, and also repair permissions. If all this works OK, one at a time, reinstall all non apple applications.

bowwowman · Sep 11, 2005, 04:41 PM

1st of all, when you say she backed up her data and "reloaded the OS" do you mean she:

A) restored the HD from the back-up OR
B) did an archive & install, OR
C) Erased the HD and re-installed the OS from the Panther installer disks

If A or B, then as already stated, the problems could have gotten duplicated if they were true software-only issues...

BTW, why oh why did she install IE ? (she should be bitch-slapped for that alone) There are many other browsers available for OS X that are much, much better and cause way few problems, so get rid of it and all of it's assorted crap NOW.......

Anyway, the best thing to do now is to create a new user account, log in as that user, trash Retrospect completely, preference files, panes and all, then see if the problems go away or persist. If they go away, then you will know that the probelms are isolated to the other account, and can be narrowed down while using the new account. If the problems continue, then obviously the problems are deeper......

you're just gonna have to do a bit of work to see whats up

tooki · Sep 11, 2005, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by CaptainHaddock

Sounds a lot like a hardware problem. She might be in line for a replacement machine from Apple.

None of the symptoms is a strong indicator of hardware failure. I strongly believe it's a software problem. If it is hardware, by FAR the most likely bad component is RAM.

tooki

analogika · Sep 11, 2005, 08:04 PM

what's interesting is that I've seen machines with bad ram do very strange stuff - like not mounting an iPod that worked fine on another machine - and continue to do so after the bad ram was removed.

The answer was that the guy had installed his OS while already running with bad RAM, so the RAM had apparently corrupted his install.

Threw out the RAM, and after a reinstall, everything was right as rain.

The weirdest things happen with these computer gadget thingies...

SMacTech · Sep 11, 2005, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

None of the symptoms is a strong indicator of hardware failure. I strongly believe it's a software problem. If it is hardware, by FAR the most likely bad component is RAM.

tooki

And don't think RAM won't go bad either. My PowerMac ran for 4 years without but 2 or 3 Kernel Panics. Then 3 or 4 times a day it would KP or not wake from sleep and do all kinds of odd things. i replaced one 256mb SDRAM and my uptime is what it used to be.

What analogika said about installing with bad RAM is interesting, as that never occurred to me and may answer some of the more odd problems I have seen.

tkmd · Sep 11, 2005, 08:36 PM

I agree with tooki, I really feel its software. Besides software is easier to fix (pb stays in one piece) - worst case scenario reinstall the OS. Its just that simple.

Big Mac · Sep 13, 2005, 02:39 AM

Originally Posted by SMacTech

And don't think RAM won't go bad either. My PowerMac ran for 4 years without but 2 or 3 Kernel Panics. Then 3 or 4 times a day it would KP or not wake from sleep and do all kinds of odd things. i replaced one 256mb SDRAM and my uptime is what it used to be.

What analogika said about installing with bad RAM is interesting, as that never occurred to me and may answer some of the more odd problems I have seen.

Yeah, the DIMM in my iBook was fine for years, but suddenly it slowed my Mac to a literal crawl (1 to 2% processor utilization). And Detrius has stated that a lot of software corruption is the result of installations that occur while defective RAM is in place.