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noka · Oct 10, 2003, 04:31 PM

I am the lucky owner of a brand new Dual 2 ghz PowerMac G5. I am also the only owner of any sort of Mac system in this office (the rest are ALL Dells... A LOT of Dells).

I took it out of the pretty box as our network admin walked by and childishly commented, "mac's suck."

I replied, "no way dude, check it out..."

I have had the machine on for about 3 hours...

So far, I have experienced an amazing 4 kernal panics and 2 hard crashes.... one of which happened during new product registration!!!!

This computer is setting a horrible example for Apple in this office... and makin me look bad.

Anyone have any advice? It's making my old Dell look nicer and nicer...

Hydra · Oct 10, 2003, 04:46 PM

We need more info. What config do you have running? Any RAM added or anything plugged into the G5. Any drivers installed? Unlplug anything not OEM and if that is not an issue run the hardware test disc and check the hardware and if that shows nothing re-install the OS and work from there.

-Jerry C.

daydreamer · Oct 10, 2003, 05:40 PM

if your serial number is lower than CK339 and your machine is european then you have the bad ram G5, take out the stock hying (samsung) ram and replace it with other 3rd party ram.. demand an exchange...

noka · Oct 10, 2003, 06:25 PM

PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 Ghz
512mb RAM (+512 added - Kingston KTA-G5400/512)
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro

Before I installed the RAM or any applications, I booted the computer and went right into the cool Apple Registration thingy (with the Kruder and Dorfmeister track playing... i love that). I went through registration okay, but in the end, when it said "disconnecting, this may take a moment..." it hung for about 15 mintutes, until I rebooted the computer from the powerbutton on the front.

I then tried to install Flash MX 2004 & Dreamweaver MX 2004. Flash installed without a hitch. Dreamweaver kernal paniced in the installation process. I restarded, ran the installer again and it worked fine.

I then shut the machine down and installed the third party RAM. This is the correct type and should work fine with the machine... It booted, worked fine for a while and proceeded to kernal panic while using Safari and Mail.app at the same time, while the finder was read/writing random old files to the disk.

Reboot. Run Flash, run Dreamweaver... kernal panic!!!

Reboot. System runs fine for a while. I install the photoshop 30 day trial... two kernal panics (NOTE: these were my stupid fault... I didn't run the G5 update....) but wait, I can't run the G5 update, because it won't update the 30-day trial. I have a full windows license for the Adobe Publishing Collection. I called Adobe. They won't ship me a Photoshop 7 for Mac installer because they are "sold out" and I *must* purchase Adobe CS now and wait a month!!!! Limewire seems to run great on this machine!

Oh, back to the crashes, while I'm on the phone waiting for the Adobe support (that didn't help me in the end, since I need photoshop TODAY), I download a .sit file and stuffit launches, prompts me to download Stuffit 7.... ANOTHER JERKIN KERNAL PANIC.

Dude... *sigh*

The machine seems to have chilled out and hasn't crashed since my initial post.... it's been a few hours. I'm still working on my Dell until things get straightened out.

BTW: The serial number is: YM3398.... etc etc

Thanks for your input..

Originally posted by Hydra:
We need more info. What config do you have running? Any RAM added or anything plugged into the G5. Any drivers installed? Unlplug anything not OEM and if that is not an issue run the hardware test disc and check the hardware and if that shows nothing re-install the OS and work from there.

-Jerry C.

Hydra · Oct 10, 2003, 06:42 PM

That Kingston RAM is 2x256MB sticks like the Apple RAM, not 1x512MB stick right? - They have to be added in pairs or it's a big no no. The odds of having bad OEM RAM and bad after market RAM as pretty slim but not impossible. Try running with one set of 512MB RAM and then the other. This may help determine if one set is bad - I wouldn't mix and match them, though.

PS will run fine w/o the G5 updtate but it could be any number of problems going on here but KP's are usually hardware related but not always. Try the hardware test disc that came with your G5 and let it run the extended test (it may take 40 minutes- 1 hour) and see if it comes up with anything - if a fan shows up as a hardware error note what it says and check to see if that fan is spinning. If the fan passes visual inspection it is a known issue with the hardware test and the fan may be OK.

-Jerry C.

aaanorton · Oct 10, 2003, 06:45 PM

I'd try pulling the original RAM and see if that works.

noka · Oct 10, 2003, 07:00 PM

2 more kernal panics...

running limewire, mail.app, safari both times. maybe limewire doesn't run too well... going to run the apple hardware test.

noka · Oct 10, 2003, 07:47 PM

ran hardware test....

what do you know... bad RAM!!!

I'm soooo happy I found a problem and it's not just this system!

I'm removing the 3rd party RAM and running the Hardware Test again.

wish me luck.

olePigeon · Oct 11, 2003, 05:19 PM

What happened to the good ol' days with the Bad RAM chime that would freak you out?

RVW · Oct 12, 2003, 08:10 AM

The good old bad ram chime only sounded when you had seriously faulty RAM, not when it was sorta-working (like in this case).

eddiecatflap · Oct 12, 2003, 02:22 PM

..so , what happened??

moki · Oct 12, 2003, 04:45 PM

Originally posted by noka:
2 more kernal panics...

running limewire, mail.app, safari both times. maybe limewire doesn't run too well... going to run the apple hardware test.

No, something is wrong with the machine. It simply should not kernel panic in the manner you've described.

As people have mentioned, make sure the RAM is installed in equal pairs. This tech info article describes the RAM, and how to install it:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86414

My guess is that this is an issue with the RAM. Random weird kernel panics are usually a result of faulty RAM, RAM that isn't the right spec, or is improperly installed. If it isn't that, there's likely some other kind of hardware problem with the machine.

Before you send it back (after checking the RAM out), you can try doing a clean (erase the hard drive) install of OS X 10.2.7 that comes with your machine.

Good luck. As for your sysadmin, I'm surprised. Most techy folks love OS X because of the nice GUI, wide array of commercial-quality software, and the Unix layer that geeks love. Perhaps his bias comes from OS 9.

noka · Oct 12, 2003, 05:45 PM

Thanks everyone for your input. I yanked that third party RAM, ran the hardware test dvd and found that the machine is now healthy. She seems to be running VERY well now!

I am going to order more RAM, making sure that it's the correct type (this is what MacMall sent us... not sure if it's right, I'll check tomorrow) this time.

Moki-
Our sys admin is a narrowminded msce jackass.... don't get me started on a rant here.

thanks again everyone! great community support!

cambro · Oct 12, 2003, 06:12 PM

Originally posted by noka:

Our sys admin is a narrowminded msce jackass.... don't get me started on a rant here.

As soon as I read your post, the first thing I thought of was bad RAM. This is the classic symptom. I'm glad you got it sorted out.

Now that you have you G5 humming, be sure to tell your sys admin that the problem was THIRD PARTY RAM (tell him you got if from Dell!). After that, NEVER shut down or restart your machine. Put sticky notes on his door every week updating him with your uptime and productivity

eddiecatflap · Oct 13, 2003, 01:10 PM

..haha!

NICE ONE!

Spliff · Oct 13, 2003, 04:34 PM

If you continue to get kernel panics after removing the RAM, it may be possible that you have a defective logic board or processor.

noka · Oct 13, 2003, 04:50 PM

It's 2:00pm.... I've been using her since 8:30am with absolutely NO problems!

!!!

Now if I could just get our sys admin to shut his mouth...

olePigeon · Oct 13, 2003, 08:28 PM

Originally posted by noka:
Moki-
Our sys admin is a narrowminded msce jackass.... don't get me started on a rant here.

You only need to know 60% (yes, sixty percent) to get your MCSE for Windows Server and IIS. That means you can completely ignore TCP/IP configuration or even how to just plug in a freakin' ethernet cable and still be MCSE Certified.

So if he ever talks you up and down about how he's certified, tell him to get back to you when he learns how to turn on a computer.

Oh, on the other hand, it does give you job security. There will always be security patches for Windows.