iBook G4 freezes sporadically

[HeatherMarie]

Hey! I sent in a question, but I thought I would also post a thread in case anyone else might have some helpful suggestions.

I have an iBook G4, Tiger edition 10.4.11, 1.07 GHz, 768 MB DDR SDRAM.

My system sporadically freezes. Whenever it is moved (i.e. resituated on my lap, or from my lap to the table). Or if I leave it unattended for a period of time (i.e. downloading something, and walk away, by the time I come back it's froze if I am not constantly DOING something). Or if I try to access 3 or 4 applications at a single time.

Sometimes the freeze is a complete system freeze where nothing works or moves. Sometimes everything but the mouse freezes and I can still move the black arrow around. Sometimes it freezes and the little beach ball just keeps spinning, but is still mobile.

Sometimes after it freezes it will not restart. Instead it goes to a screen where it is all white with black flashing horizontal lines.

Sometimes a screen will pop up and say simply "You need to restart your computer. Please hold down the power key."

The only thing that I've found that fixes the screen is to take out the battery for 5-10 seconds and then it restarts immediately and perfectly.

I've done my "google" research and found that the early G4's (which mine is) have issues with the logic board and my Mac showed similar symptom's. It also said the "clamp" method temporarily fixes the problem. I tried this and it did nothing but readjust the black flashing lines. It did not fix the problem.

I've tried completely reformatting my hard drive. Starting from scratch.
I installed an additional 512 MB of RAM on top of the 256 built-in.
I ran Disk Utility to verify and repair permissions.
I installed SMART reporter, and it says that my hard drive is fine.
I ran ClamXav before reformatting my drive and it found nothing. I can't run it now, it freezes before it's finished every time


Thank you.
Heather Marie

[kgray]

I have the exact same problem. My G4 had Leopard on it when I got it. I tried repairing permissions and repairing the disk. Still, it freezes. I then erased the drive, repartitioned and re-installed with the system disk (Panther), and upgraded to Tiger. No joy! I still get a freezing system, sometimes immediately, sometimes after an hour, but usually within 10 minutes.

I still suspect the hard drive.

Ken

Despite the drive

[HeatherMarie]

Well, Ken, I will be taking my G4 into an Apple store shortly and when I do I will let you know. Maybe once they fix it I can tell you what they did and save you the cost good luck!

[kgray]

A new detail, that I just realized in my G4 problem, is that if I do not move the iBook, it runs without freezing. If I move it, even slightly, it freezes up. This makes me suspicious of a loose connection, or bad hard drive.
Ken

[macitnow]

I have experienced the same problem. My ibook is running 10.4.11. It freezes up randomly. I tried it with a new hard drive. No luck.

Then I moved to the battery. Thought there maybe loose connections. So I took it out and ran the ibook with plug-in power only. And guess what?

NO MORE FREEZES.

There must be some power control glitches but I'm no expert and don't know if there is any fixes.
Would you guys trying running your ibook without the battery and see how it goes?

Cheers

[macitnow]

I just discovered that the ibook can also run flawlessly on an external hard drive (an ipod), even with the battery attached. So, a wild guess that the problem may lie on the power circuit between the battery and the ATA controller.

[kgray]

I disassembled this iBook and checked all connectors in the process. I took it all the way to removing the hard drive. Not sure which connector was loose, but upon reassembling the iBook, the problem has gone away (knock on wood!). Don't know yet if I have permanently solved the problem, but have been using it for several days with only one situation involving the freezing problem.

Recommend you give it a try.

[macitnow]

I did double-check the hard drive connector and I think it's firm enough.
The machine ran smoothly without a freeze for a whole day but no longer than that. The same old story on the next day.....

Now I have no doubt that the problem lie on the quality of the logic board, which Apple has never admitted.