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davidflas · Apr 26, 2008, 12:12 PM

I'm trying to help my sister with her Mac Mini its a G4 1.42 model with 512MB RAM running 10.4.11 It has airport and bluetooth installed and is the combo drive model. The issue is that the computer starts up fine, but within 3 minutes it beachballs non-stop and non-responsive force-quitting. The mouse can be used to move the beachball around...but that's it, even the clock is frozen. Any ideas on how to proceed? So far I opened it up and dusted it off. I've checked to be sure the ram is seated, etc.. Not sure what to do next........

ibook_steve · Apr 26, 2008, 02:27 PM

512 MB is rather small. You might want to up that. You should also run Disk Utility and make sure there is nothing wrong with the disk. Can you start running any apps before it beachballs?

Steve

davidflas · Apr 26, 2008, 02:33 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

512 MB is rather small. You might want to up that. You should also run Disk Utility and make sure there is nothing wrong with the disk. Can you start running any apps before it beachballs?

Steve

I think this may be a software issue. When the mini starts up classic immediately comes on. You can use the computer for about 3min before it locks. I have been able to connect it to my Macbook in target mode and can access the drive that way... I'm thinking that backing up the data on the Mini's drive and doing a fresh install is the way to go. I don't know how long my sister is planning on keeping the mini, but if its for a while I'll suggest uping the ram.

davidflas · Apr 26, 2008, 08:41 PM

My sister lost her restore dics, so I started a WTB thread in the market place...please help if you can

davidflas · Apr 27, 2008, 08:22 AM

More info: I've been lucky and the Mini is working for longer than 3 minutes... I have activity monitor open and no other apps. CPU use varies continuously between 60 and 100% with PrintjobMgr usings 85% of the cpu.... what can I do about this? The harddrive is constantly accessing too.... Some tips would be appreciated

Cold Warrior · Apr 27, 2008, 10:18 AM

In activity monitor, enable the Kind column, and make sure All Processes is selected.

Are any of those listed as PPC? If so, it means Rosetta is open, and those PPC processes (not even applications) are eating up CPU and RAM, which will drag down the Mac.

davidflas · Apr 27, 2008, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

In activity monitor, enable the Kind column, and make sure All Processes is selected.

Are any of those listed as PPC? If so, it means Rosetta is open, and those PPC processes (not even applications) are eating up CPU and RAM, which will drag down the Mac.

This is a G4 mini, so Rosetta is not an issue. I'm beginning to think that the issue is that there is so much junk on the HD, that it's time to just do a fresh install. I"m hoping my sister will find her restore discs, the only one she can find is the os 9 install disc and I don't think she wants to go back to that...