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Madrag · Nov 12, 2007, 07:14 PM

Hello all,

I've recently added an extra HD for my Powermac G5 DP 2.0 (rev B).

It's now a week since I've done that, and I formatted the original and the new HD (samsung HD321KJ - 320GB SATA II) and I actually swapped their location (the new to the upper bay (A) and the old one to the B bay.

I have partitioned both discs for my convenience, and have the OS (OS X 10.4.9) installed and running on the new one (after a super-duper copy from an external HD).

All is well, but in this week or so, I've had to force shutdown (on the actual IO button) because of a complete stall and the famous beachball!
It happened twice already, and AFIK only when I went to the finder and selected a file/alias/disk that belongs to the old HD!
(BTW, I've got it on for several hours a day, then I put it to sleep, and this problem happened "only" twice in a week).

I have the "sleep HD" off under the system prefs > energy saver, so I reckon this has nothing to do with a HD sleep (?)

Anyone knows what might be?

Madrag · Nov 13, 2007, 05:31 PM

it just happened again!
I am positive that it has something to do with the old HD because before the system became FUBAR I could open the system partition (part of the new HD).

Should I have changed the jumpers? (to what?)

Madrag · Nov 14, 2007, 06:10 PM

it happened again

anyone can help, please?
any idea is welcome.

It is 100% to do with the original HD, because these two last "crashes" happened after waking the mac, and trying to save some opened document belonging to the old HD, and at the same time I'm able to use the new one without problems...

reader50 · Nov 14, 2007, 10:16 PM

Try to unplug / replug the connections on each HD. A poor connection (such as when the box has cooled down overnight) might cause your issues. Especially reseat the connections that had not been used before, those are the ones most likely to have accumulated some dust. Blow them out before reconnecting them if you can.

Madrag · Nov 15, 2007, 05:49 AM

that's a good suggestion! thanks, I'm going to do that.

Do you think zapping the p-ram will also help?

Big Mac · Nov 15, 2007, 06:07 AM

The PRAM doesn't have much to do with drives. I'd disconnect either drive and see if you can reproduce the beach ball - process of elimination.

Madrag · Nov 15, 2007, 08:26 AM

That's in my plans and it's also a good suggestion.

The only problem is that this problem isn't easy to reproduce, since I've experienced the "stall" in more or less random occasions. I've left the mac sleeping and when waking up after several hours, it was ok, and the last two times, it happened after a "quick" one hour sleep and when waking up, there it goes...

Unplugging one of the drives will be a pain, but maybe will be the only way to understand which is the "guilty" one...

Big Mac · Nov 15, 2007, 04:00 PM

I bet it's the new drive, but I could be wrong.

Madrag · Nov 15, 2007, 06:37 PM

?
It could be influenced by the new drive, but the symptoms point to the old one...
I'll have to wait till the weekend to open up the G5 and start my trials.

eggman · Nov 15, 2007, 06:54 PM

Just a thought... is one of these drives jumpered as "master" and one as "slave"?

Madrag · Nov 15, 2007, 07:31 PM

I pointed the jumpers option at my second post, but I've searched a bit and found that there is no master/slave on SATA drives... Is this correct?

eggman · Nov 15, 2007, 08:16 PM

Right, there is no master/slave on SATA drives.

Never mind me.
I'll just shut up now.

Madrag · Nov 16, 2007, 05:23 AM

no, don't shut up, every idea is welcome!

I'll get "under the hood" of my G5 this weekend (tomorrow) and the more ideas/trials I make the better...

Madrag · Nov 22, 2007, 11:20 AM

ok, I've disconnected my old drive and have been using the new drive for a total of five days without any of the issue described above!

I've been using the mac exactly in the same way, sleep, wake, same apps, login/logout, close, open, save, etc, etc.

What does this say about the problem?
Can this be a some kind of issue with drive bay B?
(my next test is to place the new drive into the drive bay B and see if it gives me the "stall")

Or could this be some kind of "clash" between the two HDs?

reader50 · Nov 22, 2007, 01:48 PM

You're on the right trail. Test the new drive in the other bay, to see if it's the drive or the bay. Or dusty plugs in the B bay. Afterwards, if everything stays stable, plug the old drive in again and see if the problems come back.

Madrag · Nov 22, 2007, 02:11 PM

my bet is that its related to the B bay. I'll clean the plugs beforehand just in case.