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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > iBook G4 crashing

iBook G4 crashing
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sek929
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Sep 21, 2010, 04:02 PM
 
My buddy has an old 1.42ghz iBook G4 that has run flawlessly for 4+ years but just today he was greeted by a few kernel panics back to back for no apparent reason. I suspect that his HDD might be going south, as his Crucial RAM upgrade has been working for over a year. When it first crashed he was moving files to the trash, after the restart it crashed again on the login screen. Took him several restarts to get the machine booted at which time he saved the crash log.

Just wondering if any info jumps out at somebody here. He is teaching now and uses his 'book on a daily basis. I am curious whether or not he should let me have the machine over the weekend to do a proper troubleshoot.

Unresolved kernel trap(cpu 0): 0x300 - Data access DAR=0x00000000F69D7320 PC=0x000000000003FFD4
Latest crash info for cpu 0:
Exception state (sv=0x37B1F000)
PC=0x0003FFD4; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0xF69D7320; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x0003FFBC; R1=0x22073A40; XCP=0x0000000C (0x300 - Data access)
Backtrace:
0x000A80E0 0x0002BDCC 0x00304E60 0x00306404 0x002F9F64 0x002C3854
0x002C2558 0x002C268C 0x002EA2C0 0x0008ADB8 0x00029234 0x000233F8 0x000ABEAC 0xF37CF204
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x37B1F000)
previously dumped as "Latest" state. skipping...
Exception state (sv=0x3C324000)
PC=0x9000AF48; MSR=0x0200F030; DAR=0xA1123048; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x9000AE9C; R1=0xF007FB90; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.0: Wed Oct 10 18:26:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.24.17~1/RELEASE_PPC
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xFFFF0003): copyin/out has no recovery point
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
Backtrace:
0x000954F8 0x00095A10 0x00026898 0x000A8204 0x000ABB80
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x37B1F000)
PC=0x0003FFD4; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0xF69D7320; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x0003FFBC; R1=0x22073A40; XCP=0x0000000C (0x300 - Data access)
Backtrace:
0x000A80E0 0x0002BDCC 0x00304E60 0x00306404 0x002F9F64 0x002C3854
0x002C2558 0x002C268C 0x002EA2C0 0x0008ADB8 0x00029234 0x000233F8 0x000ABEAC 0xF37CF204
Exception state (sv=0x3C324000)
PC=0x9000AF48; MSR=0x0200F030; DAR=0xA1123048; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x9000AE9C; R1=0xF007FB90; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)

Thanks in advance
     
P
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Sep 22, 2010, 06:59 AM
 
Have you tried running the hardware test disc?
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 22, 2010, 10:51 AM
 
Well, I would have liked to keep the machine for a few days in order to troubleshoot properly, but he needs it to teach classes and whatnot.

Another newer item is a battery he bought to replace the kaput apple one so that makes three possibilities in my mind, because I've never seen an OSX installation crap out for no reason before.

The battery is bad/odd/not seating correctly
The RAM has gone bad (it's Crucial brand)
The HDD is failing

I'll convince him to give me the 'book for over the weekend because I don't like the look of this situation. This iBook has run with zero problems for 4 years and now, within one day, it has crashed more times than in its entire lifespan. I was hoping the resident nerds would be able to garner some info from the crash logs, god knows I can't, but if that isn't the case I'll do a full diagnostic on it this weekend.
     
misc
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Sep 22, 2010, 02:31 PM
 
It could be the logic board. My iBook had its logic board replaced four times before my AppleCare was up. I started having similar random kernel panics.

Run the hardware diagnostics. Make sure you remove any upgrades or peripherals. Hopefully it's just the ram!

"And after we are through, ten years in making it to be the most of glorious debuts."
     
seanc
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Sep 22, 2010, 06:12 PM
 
I had a 12" 1.33Ghz PowerBook given to me, diagnosed as having a faulty logic board, due to kernel panics.

I booted it up, listened to it and it was obviously the hard drive. Noisy and seemed to pause as if struggling to read data.
Replaced HDD, all working fine.

If you can run the application Smart Utility on it, that'd be a good start.
Post the attributes here.
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 23, 2010, 09:01 PM
 
I'll get to it over the weekend and see what SU says, thanks for the tips guys.

Talking to my friend over the week he says even when the machine is running it beach-balls constantly. I know it's an aging PPC computer but honestly the machine has always run very well for its age, especially after the RAM upgrade (total 1.5GB). The fact it still boots, but has been going through kernel panics and beach-balling makes me suspect the HDD first and foremost, especially since that is usually the weakest link, longevity-wise.
     
Waragainstsleep
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Sep 24, 2010, 04:31 AM
 
Dodgy HDD would also cause excessive beachballing, but then so would visiting flash websites on an old iBook.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 27, 2010, 08:05 PM
 
Ran Smart Utility and got bump-kiss.



Machine has been running ok, no kernel panics since then but it still is beachballing at inappropriate times.
     
amazing
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Sep 28, 2010, 11:30 AM
 
Next question would be how much empty space the HD has?
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 28, 2010, 11:58 AM
 
That was my first question when I met with him over the weekend.

8GBs, which is more than enough AFAIK.
     
seanc
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Sep 28, 2010, 01:17 PM
 
Doh, looks like that drive has been replaced before. I'm pretty sure iBooks never came with 80GB HDDs as standard.
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 28, 2010, 02:09 PM
 
I'm pretty sure this machine did come, from Apple, with the 80GB drive as a BTO option. Otherwise you would seem to be correct that this machine shipped with a 60GB as standard.

At any rate I have instructed him to back up all his important data, and I guess he'll continue to flog the machine until the HDD dies. I hear these machines are nice and easy to slap a new HDD in, so that shouldn't be a problem for me.

I just really, really hope it isn't the logic board.
     
seanc
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Sep 28, 2010, 02:53 PM
 
Hmm, Mac Tracker says 40, 60, 80 or 100GB, maybe I'm wrong.

RAM could be the problem...
You could really do with testing it booted from a fresh firewire installation. If that's OK, it rules out the internal HDD and S/W issue. Then, clone the internal HDD to a firewire HDD and test it booted from there to rule out the internal HDD and test the software.
     
Salty
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Oct 14, 2010, 01:52 AM
 
Check the airport card! I think those ones still had airport cards. My old 12 inch PowerBook KPed all the time for a while to the point where I got a new machine. After a while I tried using it and it would go for a while but then eventually KP. At one point I noticed my WiFi reception seemed wonky, so I popped the card out, popped it back in, never had another KP on it. It's been running as a bittorrent server for the next two years.
     
Waragainstsleep
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Oct 14, 2010, 04:15 AM
 
The 1.42 had a dedicated wireless card, not a removeable Airport Extreme. Also changing the hard drives in iBooks isn't hard if you are comfortable with remembering where lots of screws go. Many of them are marked (unlike the G3s) but I used to see iBooks regularly that people had attempted to rebuild themselves and failed miserably. Mostly lots of lost or misplaced screws but in some cases they gave up and handed me a bag of bits to put back together.

You need to remove the bottom case, the bottom heatshield, the top case and then the top heat shield to get to the drive, unless you don't mind bending the top heat shield which will save you about half the screws or so and won't really do any harm, just doesn't look so pretty for the next guy who opens it up.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
   
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