Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

trancepriest · 10:01 PM

One of the main reasons why I bought a G5 and switched to Macs was because I believed the hype that "Macs just work". Well I really can't say that for my system. It fails to wake from hibernation frequently. It crashes/stalls alot. Yesterday I had a business partner at my house and I inserted a DVD and it stalled the system... could not eject it.. had to reboot (I know this is common on PC's but I expect better from Macs)... my partner said, "I thought Macs didn't do that". I believed in the hype of a unix crash proof system... or at least one that doesn't crash as frequently as my system. I run Repair Disk Permissions frequently... I've done a system check off the boot CD.. reports everything is fine. I love my computer.. love the operating system... but Apple is seeming more and more incompetent to me. On 10.3.2 while trying to file browse over my local network.. files just wouldn't show.. i happily downloaded the update to 10.3.3 to solve this problem (also naively thinking new updates will be generally better)... I can honestly say this sytem crashes more than any other PC I've been on. And that is just not tolerable for almost a 5 grand system.

If someone can give me some tips on how to eject a CD/DVD when it just won't eject and the system is stalled... please let me know. I was hoping to Force Quit DVD player and then eject the DVD... but the system was stalled and preventing me from doing that. I don't understand why this is such a big problem for personal computers in general both windows based or apple.

Everytime I have to press the power button to reboot the system it just kills me.

Also why the heck does apple send out Panther upgrades that aren't independent.. it is so annoying to have to install Jaquar and then install Panther... that is plain retarded. My sense of the Apple community is that we/they put up with all of this just to be different. If Macs, "Just work".. why the heck is my dp 2 ghz G5 with the latest OS and the latest updates crashing so much? I hope that 10.3.4 solves all this mess.

Another problem... is print sharing with windows based PC's. I have to change my system password to a new password and then rechange it back (or just leave it).. just to get print sharing to work.. with so many updates since jaquar.. why the heck does this still happen?

The fact that I have to pull up Internet Explorer all the time to view certain sites... makes me mad as hell too. i love Safari but the 72 videos on ITMS sure doesn't compare to the thousands on launch.com. I want to go to my banks site and Safari will work, I want to watch the videos on Launch. Why do we put up with this stuff. sure the Mac is more prettier than a PC the OS is more flashier... but we have some major drawbacks on the OS.

I know why we put up with it.. we spent so much money for our systems... that its hard to go back to PC land. About the only thing I'm happy with now is my 20 inch display... Damn headphones on the iPod blew out in less than 2 weeks.. what the heck??? 500 bucks for a darn mp3 player and the headphones are so crappy... and this sentiment is not just from me. And I still go around with those damn headphones... because I piad 500 bucks for the damn thing.. why should i go now and buy sony headphones.. or repleace the damn headphones for 40 bucks... what the heck.. someone give me hope... I'm going on a tirade. My BMW of computers suck... suck.. suck.

swiz · Apr 29, 2004, 09:35 PM

When did you get it?
The grapevine speaks of early dual G5's having lots of issues. I hear that systems purchased within the last month or two have rectified these issues but thats just heresay.

discotronic · Apr 29, 2004, 09:37 PM

Are you getting a Kernel Panic or just a total system freeze? How much RAM do you have and where did you purchase it?

trancepriest · 10:16 PM

I got the system in October from a store called Mac Center in Fort Lauderdale. I'm getting system freezes. I have 512 megs that came with the system. And please don't tell me i need 2 gb's of ram. For what i do on my system 512 megs memory should keep it running.

Vash · Apr 29, 2004, 10:15 PM

You bought such a wonderful G5, and only 512mb of RAM. That's going to limit the G5s speed a lot. But, that wouldn't make it freeze up and beachball. idk how you bursted your iPods headphones, I listen to them at full volume on the iPod and they never burst =P. I'm not sure I understand your complaint about the Panther upgrade CDs, I mean to get those you had to have already had a new system with Jaguar pre-installed. My G5 has only once frozen up thanks to the OS (games do it quite often...) and it was because a computer that I had mounted was shut off. So are you saying before you had Panther, or at least some time before now your system was acting normal and not jamming? If so I'd recommend you just do a fresh install of Panther.

trancepriest · 10:50 PM

I knew someone would post somethign about the memory. And yes the system was running alot better with 10.3.2.. so i know its not memory. And i do plan to upgrade the memory... but thats not the cause of my problems. And you don't think its retarded that apple doesn't send an independent Panther upgrade? Sure its suppose to check if you've had jaquar.. but why do i have to install Jaquar and then install Panther.. doesn't that strike you as weird? I re-installed everything on the system... just to see if i had a messed up install. I couldn't just put the panther disc in and install... i had to install Jaquar first and then install 2 discs of Panther... and the Panther upgrade install took longer than the entire jaquar install... and even after this.. the system is stil crappy. but just out of curiousity what OS are you running? I would go back to jaquar if it wasn't for Expose.

512 megs of memory limits a systems performance alot.. ah?... OK... i could understand that if I was running heavy apps.. but why is my system crashing with just iChat, mail and safari open... 512 megs can't handle that? The funny thing is that its never crashed while Photoshop CS or FCP 4.5 was running. The other day I was closing microsoft Word and it just stalled.. I could understand that though... seems like MS sucks on mac... msn instant messenger doesn't work properly either.

Perhaps i should just blow 500 bucks more on memory and then pretend nothing is wrong with the system... and my mac, "Just works".

Also in the case with the DVD player.. if the software is having a hard time reading a DVD.. why can't we just exit out of the software or force it to quit... I thought Unix was suppose to be this savvy. This reminds me of the hype about linux... o' it doesn't crash like windows... I'm taking a course on it and I can tell you it crashes alot.. and it sucks big time. O' well perhaps I just live on my computer too much and ask too much of the Mac... instead of "it just works"... i suggest apple switches it to... "Ask not what your Mac can do for you... but what you can do for your Mac".

pillojunior · Apr 29, 2004, 11:15 PM

i tried reinstalling system disk. When I got to the part
where it says choose a destination it could not find
hardrive and my emac started making a ticking noise.
mac esperts help me.

discotronic · Apr 29, 2004, 11:19 PM

I think you should be fine with the amount of RAM you have installed. Bad RAM can have ill effects on you Mac. Every big problem I have had with a Mac has been because of RAM going bad. If you have 2 dimms you could take one out and see if the problem persists. If it does reinstall the one you took out and remove the other one. If the problem is still there you know it isn't the RAM. I hope that made sense.

discotronic · Apr 29, 2004, 11:22 PM

Originally posted by pillojunior:
i tried reinstalling system disk. When I got to the part
where it says choose a destination it could not find
hardrive and my emac started making a ticking noise.
mac esperts help me.

pillojunior--

Why don't you start a new thread. You will get more help that way because more people will see your post. I noticed that you posted in the iMac/eMac forum on another thread with this same question. Try that and see if it works.

olePigeon · Apr 29, 2004, 11:34 PM

First of all, if you have a G5 with Jaguar, you have the very, very first run of the production Power Mac G5s. They shipped with 10.2.7, which was a hacked up version of Jaguar. Pretty crappy. I've hear of people who own the 1st rev G5s calling Apple and getting free CDs of the retail version of Panther, I would suggest doing that. Seeing as how you do have a first generation G5, there are problems inherent with the first rev.

Secondly, try some textbook troubleshooting. Stick in your Hardware Diagnostic CD and run it, see if it picks up anything. If it doesn't, try reseeding and reconnecting your cables and cards. Take your RAM out, put it back in and make sure it's in there firmly. Do the same with your video card. Unplug, and re-plug in your HDs. Things get jostled when a computer is shipped, kicked, or moved around. It happens occasionally.

Third, 512MB is plenty of RAM. While more RAM = speedier response in some aspects, the amount shouldn't affect stability. If you have access to different RAM that you can test (say from your friend) I would suggest giving that a try.

Fourth, yes, Microsoft sucks. Word will crash and your MSN messenger will crap out. Your only options is to set the auto-save in Word for 1 minute and avoid MSN messenger all together and grab a 3rd party client that supports the protocol. Nothing you or Apple can do about it.

And, lastly, generally the "just works" motto is true. As with any product, there are a few bad... *ahem* apples in the production line. If you're still having problems with your Mac after attempting to fix them, I have two suggestions:

1) Call Apple and send it in for repair. I'm guessing your G5 is not more than one year old, so you still have a warranty.

Or

2) Take the computer back to the store, get Store Credit, then buy a newer revision G5. Ask for a G5 recently received from Apple vs. one that's been sitting in the stockroom for the past year.

Hope this helps. Sorry you're having trouble with it, it's tough hearing about a new Mac user who's having nothing but trouble. But oh well, not much you can do.

OT: By the way, I administer a school with over 100 Macs running Jaguar (not even Panther yet) plus 1 XServe. We have maybe 10 crashes a semester, and it's almost always when someone's trying to mount a sharepoint at the exact same time the stupid network goes down (f*cking HP routers.) Sometimes it's because someone's in the middle of saving a file and they pull their USB HD out in the middle of saving.

trancepriest · 01:45 AM

Read somewhere that having dual SATA Hard Drives could cause problems with the computer waking up from sleep. This is the main issue I'm having. Sometimes even during a regular bootup the system will stall. Does anyone have any experience with RAID 0 dual 250 SATA drives in a G5? Any opinions on booting off a RAID array?

psisquared · Apr 30, 2004, 02:24 AM

Have you tried running the hardware diagnostic CD that came with your mac? Although you're still using the original 512MB chip that came with your computer, they do sometimes go bad. You wouldn't believe the number of issues that are caused by bad RAM.

You may have something connected to your machine that's acting finicky and causing your system instability. Before 10.3.3 I was having a lot of problems with an external Firewire hard drive I use. Have you tried disconnecting anything external and running your system bare for a while to see if the problem still exists?

Let me step back to the basics for a sec, since I'm not sure how familiar you are with Macs. When you say that a program "stalls", do you try and force quit the program using either the "Force Quit.." item under the Apple Menu or by using the key sequence Command-Option-Esc? Does that bring up the Force Quit dialog? Does the program remain stalled after you try quitting it?

About ejecting DVDs... I'm using an older Mac G4, but on my system I have to push and hold the F12 key to eject DVDs or CDs. I believe the keyboard for the G5s has a disk eject key in the upper right corner. If you push and hold that (or F12) does the disk eject icon show up in the middle of the screen and the disk still doesn't eject?

There's a reason why your machine is acting up...hopefully you can figure out what it is, but don't be too quick to give up. It's either hardware or software. If you exhaust all the software possibilities, external hardware, and RAM possibilities, it's probably time to take your machine in for a check up. Good luck.

Big Mac · Apr 30, 2004, 05:30 AM

Why do people with allegedly faulty machines take their negative experiences indictments against the entire platform? Here's a clue: if you're the only one complaining, don't act as if the sky is falling for the rest of us. Post sounds a bit trollish, IMNSO.

trancepriest · 09:23 AM

Ran the hardware diagnostic test and had a logic board failure error: 2STH/1/2:CPU A AD7417 AMB

Taking it into the Mac Center now. At least my faith is somewhat renewed now.. although a logic board failure in less than 7 months is quite dissapointing. �n the pro side... its great that I can take it into a number of locations to quickly get it repaired. Thanks everyone.

olePigeon · Apr 30, 2004, 03:27 PM

Originally posted by trancepriest:
Ran the hardware diagnostic test and had a logic board failure error: 2STH/1/2:CPU A AD7417 AMB

Taking it into the Mac Center now. At least my faith is somewhat renewed now.. although a logic board failure in less than 7 months is quite dissapointing. �n the pro side... its great that I can take it into a number of locations to quickly get it repaired. Thanks everyone.

Logicboard failure will do that.

Sucks that you got one, hope everything turns out OK from now on. Actually, this could very well work to your advantage. You'll be getting a new motherboard, which means possibly a newer revision. Might fix more than you know.

Ron Goodman · Apr 30, 2004, 09:23 PM

It would have been nice had you run the hardware test before posting the rant about the G5s, instead of after.

trancepriest · 12:09 AM

O' indeed I can still rant.. because the hardware test later doesn't report the problem... and i have ran it 6 times with everything passing (extended test). So yes the G5 still seems freakier to me now. And i won't turn it in now.. because the people at the testing center won't see anything wrong with it. The iPod headphones still suck... and all my opinions still stand. So many people have either posted on here or in the apple discussion forum about the same problems with the G5... I'm positive more than ever its 10.3.3.

discotronic · May 1, 2004, 12:06 AM

Originally posted by trancepriest:
O' indeed I can stil rant.. because the hardware test later doesn't report the problem... and i have ran it 6 times with everything passing (extended test). So yes the G5 still seems freakier to me now. And i won't turn it in now.. because the people at the testing center won't see anythign wrong with it now. The iPod headphones still suck... and all my opinions still stand. So many people have either posted on here or in the apple discussion forum about the same problems with the G5... I'm positive more than ever its 10.3.3.

If the hardware test showed a bad logic board you should take it in for service. Run the test over night by putting the test into a loop. You can do this by pressing CTRL-L. Just because the problem isn't coming up now doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The test cd is a very basic test. I have never had it diagnose bad RAM.

trancepriest · 12:19 AM

I've read many posts on MacNN / Apple Discussion forum with other G5 users that have G5 sleep/wake problems. And some are noticing this since 10.3.3. Before I turn my computer in to be serviced on a weekend... I'll wait it out.. the computer is running pretty good (except for the wake from sleep problem) and i'm still in warranty.. will just take energy saver mode off. And be happy with my PC like G5. At least the OS is more pleasing (most of the time).

No wonder why it seems so many Mac users won't buy Rev A releases. If only someone would tell the switchers that. DUDE!!! Don't buy Rev A.

Viv Savage · May 1, 2004, 08:10 PM

Originally posted by Big Mac:
Why do people with allegedly faulty machines take their negative experiences indictments against the entire platform? Here's a clue: if you're the only one complaining, don't act as if the sky is falling for the rest of us. Post sounds a bit trollish, IMNSO.

Seems familiar. Reminds me of "Beachmac" from a different site that I used to frequent awhile back.

trancepriest · 11:28 PM

I must be hurting "The Cult"... someone always comes along and pushes this back up. I guess you guys don't check the forum and notice the issues with the G5. O' well i should suffer in silence and act happy. Put on that Mac smile.

I was thinking of buying some wheels for my G5 and seeing if the fans at full blast could power me around the neighborhood... powered off my UPS.. figure i could get a ride for 15-30 mins in that manner.

Orion27 · May 2, 2004, 01:00 AM

Originally posted by trancepriest:
I must be hurting "The Cult"... someone always comes along and pushes this back up. I guess you guys don't check the forum and notice the issues with the G5. O' well i should suffer in silence and act happy. Put on that Mac smile. I was thinking of buying some wheels for my G5 and seeing if the fans at full blast could power me around the neighborhood... powered off my UPS.. figure i could get a ride for 15-30 mins in that manner.

The only hope you have in this forum is to cooperate and take the advice given. You will not be given better advice or help anywhere. Play nice and listen.

Groovy · May 2, 2004, 09:44 PM

Originally posted by trancepriest:
I must be hurting "The Cult"... someone always comes along and pushes this back up. I guess you guys don't check the forum and notice the issues with the G5. O' well i should suffer in silence and act happy. Put on that Mac smile. I was thinking of buying some wheels for my G5 and seeing if the fans at full blast could power me around the neighborhood... powered off my UPS.. figure i could get a ride for 15-30 mins in that manner.

Only people with problems post about problems. So you have a few dozen
people posting like you out of like 500,000+ G5 owners. People like me without
any problems tend not to post everyday like say

"Hey everyone my G5 works great!! I will post tomorrow how great it is too!"

You should see the ** THOUSANDS** of posts from PC owners with problem in the
PC forums. like 100 times more than mac problem posts and PC's only are about
10 times more installed base. (20 times more current shipping market share)

I own a Dual G5 2.0 Ghz and a PC (Dell 4400 2.4Ghz with XP) and i see both sides
everyday. XP is total crap compared to OSX but box wise it is even steven. Games
wise PC side crush mac side.

trancepriest · 11:59 PM

Below is just one thread with 645 messages about the G5 freezes on Apple Discussion board:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/[email protected]/501

And this is from MacNN:

Reader: G5 freezes plaguing hundreds of users

A MacNN reader points to a very lengthy Apple support thread on G5 freezes, which seem to be linked to underlying issues with recent releases of Mac OS X 10.3, although there has been no acknowledgement by Apple or confirmation by other sources: "I'm a Macintosh Technician in San Diego, CA and I have had a customer come in with a G5 having serious freezing problems. The same problems that are happening to a lot of people. On the Apple discussion board the thread has 500+ replies. This is not hardware-related like people think."

Those few dozen people sure post alot of messages.

Thinine · May 3, 2004, 02:02 AM

Well, you have five posts in this thread alone, so it's safe to say that not every post in the Apple Discussion is from a unique user.

And I would recommend that when you get your G5 back (if you haven't already) to use the Panther install disks to wipe your drives and start from scratch. It will be much better, stability wise, than upgrading over the Jaguar system. And the next time you have a problem, try to be more specific about what's happening. We can't help unless we know what you're talking about.

trancepriest · 07:56 AM

I would love to install Panther directly. Unfortunately Apple sent me Panther upgrade discs that doesn't install Panther directly. I have to install Jaquar and then Panther. Something I ranted about in this thread.

I had run the AHT and it did report one problem with the logic board... after I did a cold shut down (turned off my UPS).. it hasn't reported any problems at all through numerous extended tests/quick tests. The system is fine hardware wise. My woes started with 10.3.3. Stalls while booting up... mainly as its about to approach the login screen.. and stalls/freezes while waking from sleep. those are my main issues. Logs don't report any problems.

Here's an interesting post from the Apple Discussion board:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Apple Computer seeded developers on Friday with the second external build of Mac OS X 10.3.4, which is labeled with build number 7H46.
In the accompanying notes to developers, Apple reiterated changes to application compatibility, device compatibility, Core OS, graphics, imaging, OpenGL, Core Audio and the Mac OS X High Level Toolbox. The company asked that developers focus their testing on these areas.
Apple also specified a small number of know issues with the latest build involving display resolutions that are not maintained between logins, machines experiencing problems waking up from sleep, and CD-R icons that remain on the desktop after CDs have been burnt and ejected.
Along with the new build, the company also provided developers with the latest version of the Mac OS X High Level Toolbox and HIServices. In a document Apple discussed a list of bug fixes in the two frameworks for Mac OS X 10.3.4; the list includes corrections in the area of control manager, drag manager, menu manager, text service manager, window manager and Internet Config.
Since the previous seed, sources said that Mac OS X 10.3.4 had swelled approximately 5.1 MB in size and is currently being distributed as a 38.7 MB MacBinary encoded disk image.
News Source: AppleInsider

And if I had the time I would go through that thread and count the unique users that posted. But presume that everyone posted 5 messages. That is still 129 users in just one thread. And I highly doubt that the average is 5 messages per user in that thread. And a reminder... that is just one thread. Now not every G5 user with freezing problems has the time to bitch and rant like I do. On the corporate end alone... I'm sure they just turn in their systems for repairs silently. I'm a small business owner.. i only have one mac... one G5... my first apple computer that I bought for the "reliability" and "power" for a very high price. Yes like hundreds of other people that have posted... I'm pissed. Threads like that are indicative of a larger problem with G5 systems. And I do believe that the Apple disccusion forum has a method to count unique posts in the thread.. sometimes they report messages as 332.1, 334.1, 334.1.1, 334.2, 337.1, etc. If I'm correct then there are 344 unique posts in that thread... incredible. And I haven't posted yet on that thread. I prefer to rant on MacNN.

discotronic · May 3, 2004, 10:54 AM

Originally posted by trancepriest:
I would love to install Panther directly. Unfortunately Apple sent me Panther upgrade discs that doesn't install Panther directly. I have to install Jaquar and then Panther. Something I ranted about in this thread.

You can still do a clean install of Panther with the upgrade disks. After you install Jag (which would take all of 8 minutes on a G5) start up with the Panther disk. Go through the motions and after you select the drive you want Panther installed on click Options. From there you can do a Clean Install which will format the disk before installing Panther. You can do this because your system has already been checked for a previous install of OSX.

I don't see what the big deal is with Apple only giving you the upgrade disks. I bought a G3 iBook in Feb. That was 4 months after Panther was released. I got the upgrade disks and haven't had any problems.

eyevaan · May 4, 2004, 02:50 PM

this thread is really aggressive. I feel a bunch of sympathy for trancepriest. to spend all that money and run into this stuff...

I bought a 1.8 GHz G5 in October. I got a great deal and it seemed smart at the time, I was slightly more than a little nervous. I had been 'burned' previously by being the first on my block to own the Apple hardware (7100/66 - two months later they released the 88 and two months after that the 120)

Under Jag, it was good. I made every upgrade there was to the OS. Keep it current, right? This machine can handle it. I went up to Panther, the G5s were built for this.

It screams. It is unbelievable coming from the old hardware I had.

Then I have one of my PC friends over to watch the preview to Halo2... that I downloaded locally. It gets 3/4 of the way through and stops the Quicktime quits and I get the panel to submit the report to Apple.

blink blink

"What happened?" he asks.
"Beats me, never did that before."

I still does this from time to time. different apps different docs. Run diagnostics Apple and 3rd party - nothing is wrong. It is kind of funny to me, kind of suxx - - but it is certainly par for the course. I guess it just feels normal, 15 years of computing this is the only constant. The difference is that now it takes less time to get back on track.

Save often.
Track your work.
Keep copies.

Your computer hates you and wants to make you miserable.
Mac or PC it doesn't matter.

discotronic · May 4, 2004, 04:15 PM

Originally posted by eyevaan:
this thread is really aggressive. I feel a bunch of sympathy for trancepriest. to spend all that money and run into this stuff...

Then I have one of my PC friends over to watch the preview to Halo2... that I downloaded locally. It gets 3/4 of the way through and stops the Quicktime quits and I get the panel to submit the report to Apple.

blink blink

"What happened?" he asks.
"Beats me, never did that before."

I still does this from time to time. different apps different docs. Run diagnostics Apple and 3rd party - nothing is wrong. It is kind of funny to me, kind of suxx - - but it is certainly par for the course. I guess it just feels normal, 15 years of computing this is the only constant. The difference is that now it takes less time to get back on track.

Microsoft Office is #1 on the list for doing that. It has been doing better since applying all the updates. Safari 1.0 was bad also but since upgrading to Panther and going to Safari 1.2 I haven't had anymore problems. VPC is also on the list. I doubt there is anything that can be done. More than anything I think it comes from the application itself and not the OS. At least OSX doesn't crash like OS9. I sure don't miss those days.

grovberg · May 4, 2004, 04:36 PM

Just FYI, I had a similar experience with one of the G5s here at work. The problem occurred exactly when I tried to update the system. It seemed to work fine before that. But as it turns out, the problem was a faulty logic board. I would seriously consider taking it into a shop and making use of that warranty. Ours has worked great since coming back from the shop.

Good luck man. Nothing ruins your day like a constantly crashing system, no matter what it is.
-Grover

k2director · May 5, 2004, 03:45 AM

I have a dual 2 GHz G5 with 2.5 gigs of RAM. The system ran PERFECTLY on 10.3.2, and every version before that. When I installed 10.3.3, I experienced frequent freezes. I thought I had a corrupt OS, so I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled, 10.3.0, and ran some heavy duty apps that had been freezing before, like FCP and Compressor. No problems.
Then I did a combo update to 10.3.3, and the freezes started again, quite soonafter.

So....*another* HD wipe, reinstall of 10.3.0, and then upgraded to 10.3.2. The Mac has been working fine since then. So obviously, there's something rotten about 10.3.3--at least as far as my hardware goes.

trancepriest · 10:30 AM

k2director,

Thank you for posting and everyone else that has posted objectively. I too believe the root of the problem is with 10.3.3. It's pretty simple actually.. the system was working fine with 10.3.2 and all of the freezes started happening with 10.3.3. Is there away for me to re-install my OS and then get it up to 10.3.2? I don't have the old update. I guess I should just wait it out until 10.3.4 comes out.

Note to self: make backups of the old updates.

The main irritant that I have is rebooting my system twice sometimes just to get it to the login window. I've turned off sleep to stop the wake from sleep freezes but I do shut down the system when I will not be using it for awhile. So then I bootup and then it goes slow.. stalls... then i hit the power switch again... and most of the time it loads perfectly on the second try. After that its smooth sailing. AHT tests continue to report everythings fine.

At least tiger will be out soon.. hopefully that solves alot of problems.. and Microsoft just released a new version of MSN Messenger... looks like it works... no more bouncing MSN on my screen from the app quitting. Life in MacLand is looking up a bit. Although Microsoft Word won't launch now.. O' well.. perhaps got to re-install it. Will purchase Office 2004 when it comes out.. heard its better than the PC release. And can't wait for Virtual PC to be released so I can use mIRC instead of Snak.

My visions of utopia in computer land are somewhat blemished now... but updates are like showers restoring innocent visions.

k2director · May 5, 2004, 12:15 PM

trancepriest,

You can find updates to 10.3.1 and then 10.3.2 on Apple's site. I forgot exactly how I found em--I think I used VersionTracker.com to look up the updates, and then followed the links on VT to Apple's site.

Good luck!

Orion27 · May 5, 2004, 12:23 PM

FIND UPDATES HERE: SCROLL TO FIND WHAT YOU NEED
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/

trancepriest · May 5, 2004, 12:46 PM

Thanks for the info.. I've learnt some new things from this thread. Will wipe the drive tonight and install upto 10.3.2. Will make a report by tomorrow of how the system is running.

buffalolee · May 5, 2004, 12:48 PM

Originally posted by pillojunior:
i tried reinstalling system disk. When I got to the part
where it says choose a destination it could not find
hardrive and my emac started making a ticking noise.
mac esperts help me.

Sounds like a bad hard drive. Send it to get it replaced.

Arkham_c · May 5, 2004, 02:44 PM

I have a dual 2GHz G5 that has been rock solid in 10.3 -> 10.3.3.

Last night at 3am I went down to the basement after hearing its fans going full throttle. The machine had a kernel panic on the screen. I was too tired to investigate so I shut it down (power button for 5 seconds) and went to bed.

I'm not sure what caused it, but it could've been 10.3.3 or the new security update that was installed the other day.

I'll try to investigate further tonight once I get the kids to bed.

It very well could be that there is a problem with 10.3.3.

Cadaver · May 5, 2004, 09:50 PM

Just for what its worth, I have one of the first builds of the dual 2.0GHz G5 (came with 10.2.7), and my machine has been nothing but rock solid, even with 10.3.3.
I've had only two system crashes since I received the machine last October (can't say the same for the Windows boxes at work), and it literally runs 24/7. The only times its been shut down for more than a few minutes was when I was out of town for three weeks and when the northeastern U.S. lost power. Otherwise, its been on pretty much continuously since it arrived.

Sorry to hear you're having problems, but I can assure you that its not all G5s.
Best of luck.

mac_addict415 · May 5, 2004, 09:55 PM

First, I have a G5 that has been freezing. From what I have read it has to do with possible one of the processers is screwed up. There is a whole forum in apple discussions on this. I also talked to my Apple Store and they said that this was probably the problem.

2nd apple will replace ipod headphones free of charge. If your ipod is within the year warrenty.