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ThisGuy · Oct 4, 2004, 01:31 PM

It has been bad for the past 3 days and I have no idea how to decipher the logs. It is only happening on my G5 Dual 2.0 rev. b. I have been working with some video pulled from a commercial DVD. I have used Handbrake, OpenShiiva, Mac The Ripper, etc. to get these files.
(please know that the movie that I have been chopping up is The Other Sister and it is for a presentation I am giving involving Generalization and Maintenance when teaching children with severe disabilities. I am not pirating these for mass distribution or anything like that. Please don't judge me. Cheers.)
I have also been having problems installing some software. The most recent one is DVD Studio Pro. I get an error that says something like, "There were errors installing the software. Please quit and try installing it again." I have no idea what to do besides calling Apple and they really didn't give me any useful advice the last time these errors appeared. The last time I had something like this happen it was while doing a complete reinsall of 10.3 from my install dvd and they basically sat on the phone while I described what was going wrong. They offered no more advice than to initialize the drive and reinstall. I did that multiple times before it finally worked.
While playing the .vob files using VLC I have gotten 2 panics that look identical.
I also got another one while transferring files to my PowerBook when it was in target mode. I would be happy to post any logs or anything else that might help to end these panics.
1 more thing. In the panic logs does it matter what CPU it shows be involved?

Code:
panic(cpu 1): DART entry exception: HyperTransport read logical page 0x00FC0

Also, is there a magical place that may exist that can teach me how to read/decipher these panic logs? Any help or advice you can give me is appreciated.
Thanks

SSharon · Oct 4, 2004, 01:41 PM

I wish I could offer more help but it seems like you know what you are doing. My first guess when I hear about a lot of KP's is bad RAM, and since you didn't mention any what is the story with it? Any new third party RAM? Can you reproduce the KP, as in does it only happen when you are trying to manipulate the video but not when you are surfing the web or using Word?

You mention that the problem has been bad for the past three days . . . how often did it happen before then? Did you move the computer recently (is this a heat issue that only comes up during proc. intensive video stuff?)?

Keep posting with more details as I'm sure someone here knows how to read the logs. Unfortunately it seems like you may have to talk to Apple a bit more and the sooner the better.
Good Luck.

OreoCookie · Oct 4, 2004, 02:13 PM

Hypertransport is the interface between your CPUs and the rest of your system (graphics card, hard drives, etc.). In the best case it's faulty RAM, but if I were you, I would call AppleCare and tell them about it.

ThisGuy · Oct 4, 2004, 02:17 PM

Originally posted by SSharon:
I wish I could offer more help but it seems like you know what you are doing. My first guess when I hear about a lot of KP's is bad RAM, and since you didn't mention any what is the story with it? Any new third party RAM? Can you reproduce the KP, as in does it only happen when you are trying to manipulate the video but not when you are surfing the web or using Word?

You mention that the problem has been bad for the past three days . . . how often did it happen before then? Did you move the computer recently (is this a heat issue that only comes up during proc. intensive video stuff?)?

Keep posting with more details as I'm sure someone here knows how to read the logs. Unfortunately it seems like you may have to talk to Apple a bit more and the sooner the better.
Good Luck.

Thanks for the reply. I have 1 GB of RAM in there and it is all Apple RAM (4x256MB). I have not added anything new to the machine and it sits sideways on my desk hutch so there are no obstructions of airflow. I should add that I have run all the tests using Drive 10 and it all comes back okay. It has been happening mostly when working with video, but during the data transfer now is a new one. I checked the logs and it has happened 8 times since July 8th of this year and 4 times in the past 3 days. I guess it seems to happen mostly when the processors are going full or close to full blast.

SSharon · Oct 4, 2004, 02:20 PM

After reading some of the other threads I have new advice. I think one proc. is loose. Someone here said they got a DOA machine but the only problem was that all 8 screws were loose and once they were tightened it was fine. If somehow when the proc start running at 100% and the fans kick in the fan might loosen the connection enough for a KP.

So open it up, tighten it up (carefully), and lets see what happens.

ThisGuy · Oct 4, 2004, 02:28 PM

Originally posted by SSharon:
After reading some of the other threads I have new advice. I think one proc. is loose. Someone here said they got a DOA machine but the only problem was that all 8 screws were loose and once they were tightened it was fine. If somehow when the proc start running at 100% and the fans kick in the fan might loosen the connection enough for a KP.

So open it up, tighten it up (carefully), and lets see what happens.

hmmmm odd. i will definitely try that when i get home tonight. i wonder if the DVD Studio Pro, 10.3.x installer DVD checks, etc. checks them out during the install process.

3.1416 · Oct 4, 2004, 08:09 PM

Originally posted by ThisGuy:
1 more thing. In the panic logs does it matter what CPU it shows be involved?

Code:
panic(cpu 1): DART entry exception: HyperTransport read logical page 0x00FC0

When my dual G5 at work was getting lots of kernel panics, it was always the same CPU number in the logs. Got the processor replaced at the Apple Store and all has been well since.

SSharon · Oct 4, 2004, 08:48 PM

This sounds more and more like this issue.

ThisGuy · Oct 4, 2004, 11:29 PM

Well I just opened it up and the new G5's have a small pop-up thing that needs to be popped up and removed before one can take the heatsink shield off. If I mess with it I will void the warranty. I did get my fingers under the heatsinks a bit and it did not feel loose at all when I pulled on it. I am going to wait a bit and see if I have the same problems with the panics and such. Here is a desktop I made after playing around with it.

Anybody know how to read the panic logs?

OreoCookie · Oct 5, 2004, 05:41 AM

It's probably either your CPU or your mobo as indicated by hypertransport errors (hypertransport is used to connect the CPU to the rest). I wouldn't tinker with the system anymore, but call Apple and ask them to fix it.

There's no way you can.

Ω · Oct 5, 2004, 05:53 AM

Originally posted by SSharon:
After reading some of the other threads I have new advice. I think one proc. is loose. Someone here said they got a DOA machine but the only problem was that all 8 screws were loose and once they were tightened it was fine. If somehow when the proc start running at 100% and the fans kick in the fan might loosen the connection enough for a KP.

So open it up, tighten it up (carefully), and lets see what happens.

Reference to this thread:

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=230546

ThisGuy · Oct 5, 2004, 02:35 PM

I contacted somebody at Apple and he sent me this link:
http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2002/tn2063.html

Now it is time to sit down and do some learnin'.

::edit:: here is a PDF of the article.
http://developer.apple.com/technotes...pdf/tn2063.pdf

simonjames · Oct 6, 2004, 08:07 PM

kernal panics can be caused by any number of hardware faults. OS X is not as forgiving as 9 when it comes to bad h/ware. If your machine is still under AppleCare I'd return it to them.