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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Desktops > Troubles with B&W G3

Troubles with B&W G3
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Johnny_B
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Jun 21, 2003, 09:47 AM
 
Hey, I have B&W G3 which crashes often. My QS G4 NEVER (never say never, but once a year or so) crashes. I have reinstalled the OS and formated the G3 as well, and applied all patches from Apple (Mac OS 10.2.6 and so on). It has I Radeon pci card, but no other expansion. It also has a 120GB WD disk. I have overclocked it to 500 mhz (from 450), and never had any troubles with it in the days of Mac OS 9. Can it be an issue with X ? It has 384MB ram as well.

I would love some feedback, and I am not a newbie som don't ask me to repair privileges and so on
Mac Pro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core, Nvidia GeForce 8800GT
     
superlarry
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Jun 21, 2003, 10:02 AM
 
my B&W G3 has problems with a new 60 gig WD drive, and another user here had the same with an 80 gig (not to mention a friend of mine in XP with the 60 gig). either OSX wouldn't install, it would mostly install and then panic, or it would barely be booted and panic. my 60 gig drive works fine in OS9, which is puzzling to me. anyway, i'm gonna go ahead and blame the western digital drive.
a solution? i don't know. i wish i did - that stock 6 gig drive is very slow. in my case, the WD is just being used as a storage drive.
     
drHo
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Jun 21, 2003, 05:01 PM
 
what about ram? os9 worked fine but osx is very picky about the ram you use. I had a similar problem about a year ago with my B&W. Difference was that OSX would not install. Long story short...I checked the ram using Tech-tool pro on os9 and it detected bad ram. Changed the ram and everything is cool now. Oh yeah i'm also using WD but mine is only 40gb. One other thing, i also o'clocked from 450--->500...I was getting random crashes and stuff under osx, but not 9..and i have a second fan on the heat sink! so you might want to bring it back to stock speed.
" pc's feel cheap like a dirty whore..."
     
Johnny_B  (op)
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Jun 21, 2003, 06:21 PM
 
WD drives are special, if they are ALONE on the IDE they won't work with Master. They need to be set to nautral, check their homepage for more info (I used alot of time to figure this out). I spoke with another guy, and he said that the overclocking was the issue. So I'll try using 450 some days and see.

Good luck to you all.
Mac Pro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core, Nvidia GeForce 8800GT
     
bowwowman
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Jun 21, 2003, 07:16 PM
 
I doubt it is the overclocking, but more likely the drive itself is failing.

I oc'd my B&W from 350 to 450 for 2 years w/ � problems under any OS versions, then I got a G4/550 from OWC and oc'd it to 650 last year, again w/ � problems to this day.

I also have a Rad7k, 1GB ram, a bunch of other stuff installed & currently run 10.2.6 on it.

However, all 4 of my HD's are Maxtors, not WD. My oldest one is the 6GB OEM that came with the tower (4.25 yrs), and the other 3 are getting close to 2.5 years old

I have several friends who have had very little luck with WD drives, in both Macs & peecees too
     
Johnny_B  (op)
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Jun 22, 2003, 07:16 AM
 
Well, this guy said he had the 450 oc to 500, and that dc it fixed the crashing thing. 350 to 400 is not the same as 450 to 500. Like you could oc a 350 to 450, but the machine won't boot if you oc 450 to 550, but both are overclocked with 100mhz. And with %, the 450 is oc less than the 350.
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DeathToWindows
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Jun 22, 2003, 11:06 AM
 
have you tried the CUDA reset (little grey button on the motherboard)


power down
open up
look for button
press & hold for 30sec
close up & reboot

you'll have to reset the date & time though

Don't try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal.
     
tooki
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Jun 22, 2003, 02:03 PM
 
What revision blue and white is it? Rev A's have "deficient" IDE controllers that really don't play nice with anything other than the factory drives. With other drives, they just end up having serious data corruption issues, which of course can cause crashes.

tooki
     
Johnny_B  (op)
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Jun 22, 2003, 06:28 PM
 
450 is not Rev. A, only the first 350 was that. I've never had any troubles with WD, I only have WD, I love their disks !! I have 2*80 (raid) and two 120GB (one of them in the B&W the second one is system disk at my G4). I doubt the problems lies in the disk, since I had the same problem with the old IBM disk, I hate IBMs (check my previous posts to see why :O) . As I said over 450 to 550 is no luck, but 350 to 450 is okay (if you have a good fan). The machine doesn't even boot in 550. Without beeing a Hardware expert I think the problem is there.

Feel free to call me an idiot.
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tooki
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Jun 22, 2003, 09:17 PM
 
Originally posted by Johnny_B:
450 is not Rev. A, only the first 350 was that.
Rev A was 300, 350, and 400MHz. Rev B was 350, 400, and 450MHz.

But since was conceivably possible that you got a real 450MHz CPU from a Rev B to put in your Rev A, it was still worth asking, since the Rev A's IDE troubles are pervasive!

tooki
     
ThisGuy
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Jun 22, 2003, 10:43 PM
 
i have a 450 that i overclocked to 500 and all was well for a while and then i started to have problems with applications unexpectedly quitting. as soon as i went back to 450 all of the problems disappeared.
     
Seamus
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Jun 22, 2003, 11:44 PM
 
Rev. B here overclocked from 350 to 450. My hard drives are 30 and 80 gigs each, both Maxtor. No serious issues.
I'm a bad...motherf%#!ing DJ
     
drHo
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Jun 23, 2003, 12:24 PM
 
right about that. i tried o'clocking my 450-->550, and it wont even boot. i've heard that if you have a copper G3 you would have better luck. mine is a aluminum G3. so i dunno. maybe prices will come down on upgrades when apple announces the g5's (970)
" pc's feel cheap like a dirty whore..."
     
   
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