how many crashes do you have in OSX?

E

Elliotjnewman

Registered
I am really confused. I have a G4 MDD 1.25 512 ram and running 10.3.4 and I seem to get a crash every other time I start the machine.

I have done all the usual - repair permissions, started using a new admin user, mac sweeper, virus software etc. but I just seem to have problems. I hear from people on these boards that OSX doesnt crash - or maybe twice in a year - but I seem to experience it all the time. Even if I just select the hard drive and hit Apple+i to 'get info' the cursor just spins for about two or three mins - cant even force quit!
 
Did you ever try a fresh installation?
Did you add ram to the system which might have bad quality? My system crashed maybe 3 times within 1.5 years.
 
To answer the title of the post... I've only had one crash (system wide) on my PowerBook since I put 10.2 on it in August 2002 (I pulled the CDRW drive out of the bay while the system was using it :eek: ).

Photoshop has crashed twice in that time (both times in 2003), Acrobat twice (once in 2002, once in 2003), GoLive five times (three times in 2003, twice in 2004), LiveMotion once (in early 2004), AppleWorks once (in 2003), Create three times (twice in 2003, once in 2004), PStill twice (both in 2004) and TimeEqualsMoney once (early 2003). Safari and OmniWeb are browsers, so I have no idea how many times they have crashed (figure once a month).

If you are talking about anything beyond these types of crash-and-go-on type of events... or they are happening far more than this, then it might be time to look into getting professional help for your system. It is great to be able to trouble shoot your own system, but there comes a time when someone who does this stuff for a living might really be needed to solve the problem.
 
I've had one crash in three years. If I were you, I would be taking a look at possible hardware problems, such as faulty RAM.
 
Do these crashes happen often? What are you doing and what applications are you using? It could be faulty ram, if new, or overtaxed ram if you're trying too much.
 
I have had two crashes since I started with OS X beta when it first came out. The first crash was on the beta. The second was on an update that I forgot to turn off sleep mode (in my Tibook). After I really started Repairing Permissions on a regular basis, OS X has ran like a champ when other users were complaining (see MacFixIt.com).
 
Something is dead wrong on your config... It could be a bad installed of OS X... It could be a hardware issue... IF it is possible do a clean install and see what gives. If the problem will not go away it IS a hardware issue! :eek:

BTW things people say that OS X doesn't crash? It is true you know? Uptimes of months with systems working full time with multimedia apps, development, even playing games is the rule... Especially with OS X 10.2 and 10.3 (aka Jaguar and Panther) ;)
 
I've had zero crashes on my 17" iMac at home. My G4 at work was another problem. I finally found that it was my external speakers which I had working on my G3. Disconnected those and now I am kernel panic free.

I suggest you unplug all your devices (keep the keyboard and mouse), then plug in one device and give a try. Keep on going until you find the problem.

If you get the panic with no devices, it could be a ram module that Panther does not like.
 
In two years, knock on plastic I have not had any major system crashes. I have had the trackpad totally shutdown on me for two days and the wonderful reed switch, motherboard problems(screen issues) but the OS has been a blessed thing.
 
Since Beta I have had only two crashes. I am not a power user, non the less, love the stability of OSX. Everyone has mentioned the common sense approach. I find that bad ram is often to blame.
 
I am a power user with close to 150 installed applications including several of the big ones such as Photoshop, InDesign, Office, and Macromedia Studio. Since the OS X Public Beta I have not had one kernel panic, I don't recall an OS crash since OS X 10.0, and applications crashes since 10.3.4 can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The only forced reinstall of OS X was after a hard drive crashed.

I have three Macs here and support nearly a dozen others scattered from Texas to Florida all running OS X 10.3.4 and all as stable as the Macs here. With the problems you are having there has to be something wrong somewhere. It could be
  • Bad or marginal RAM modules. Even if they are all Apple branded modules that doesn't mean one cannot fail. They can and will. By-the-way most RAM test utilities will only detect gross memory errors and are unlikely to detect the errors that cause problems such as you are having. Your best bet is simply remove and/or replace the DIMMs and see if the problems go away.
  • Third party PCI cards
  • External firewire or USB devices -- even something as inocuous as a hub or a poorly made connector cable
  • Third party device drivers such as printers, scanners, etc.
  • Any haxie that modifies or changes the UI in any way
  • Third party utilities sucn as Norton Utilities for Macintosh
  • Poorly written or out of date applications. VersionTracker can be a big help in keeping your applications up to date.
  • Hopefully the problem is not a flakey logic board, but that is a possibility that has to be considered. I hope you have AppleCare.
  • etc. The list goes on -- and on.
After you have eliminated all the possible hardware issues then, given your history, an erase and install might be in order. If you do this, do not add back any third party apps, utilities, haxies, etc. until you know the system is completely stable and then only add one at a time and run long enough after each install to be sure your system is still stable.
 
Well I have an old usb hub - so maybe I will disconnect that. If I get time I will re-install it over the weekend, maybe I should back-up and re-format it? What type of install would you all recommend? I dont think its the Ram as its Kensington... but I need more anyway so perhaps I will remove it and see if it improves... I think I started getting real problems when I messed up some user accounts by changing the name of the /Users/folder - and I still havent been able to find some stuff - like my Itunes library...

oh and I dont have applecare :(
 
I remember I read some ppl posting ram issues on Kensingtons. Before you reinstall I would rather just unplug it and see if that changed anything.
 
As for the preferred installation method, I would back up anything you need, reformat the drive, then do a clean install and immediately run Software Update over and over until no more updates show. Then, reinstall all your apps and what-not. Then, repair permissions once (it's pointless doing it in between every update or app install) at the end.

This has always provided me with a clean, stable system. In fact, I only ever installed Jaguar once -- and I only ever installed Panther once on my machine following those steps, and it's still running strong without a hint of slowdown or instability.
 
On work machine (DP G4 1 GHZ) I get full system crashes maybe once every few months. Application crashes occur a little more frequently, maybe a few times a week.

I've got a pretty bloated system with lots of junk on it and I never maintain it. So considering that, it's very stable. I'm just holding out for the new box.

My iBook crashed all the time when I first got it. Turned out to be bad RAM. I don't think it has had a system crash since (6 months). Applications crash less often than work machine. Maybe once every couple of weeks an app will go down.
 
ive had a number of crashes since owning my imac g4, though i attribute it to microsoft somehow. Most recently, I tried installing Quickbooks Pro for Mac, and the installer crashed my system every single time. They even expressed me a brand new CD in case it was a CD error (it wasnt, the new CD did the same thing). So, I just copied the entire CD (150 megs) to the harddrive, and ran the program no problems. very strange.

I am a recent "switcher" (bout 1 1/2 years ago) so crashes are no stranger to me. I used to write programs for school that would somehow turn the screen all sorts of funny colors, then kill the processor, so crashes were an everyday thing! hahahah
 
I've had some crashes, but nothing that brings the entire system down. Sometimes I do overload the system a bit. :p

Case in point: I was connecting from a PowerBook G4 to my Slackware Linux PC in my office through SSH. Since the PowerBook wasn't mine, I went ahead and had SSH forward the X11 applications (Gaim, Firefox, VNC, etc.) to the PowerBook while listening to iTunes stream music. Eventually, X11 crashed on me, but all i did was get back on and everything was as before. :)
 
so when backing up applications - whats the best thing to do? copy them onto a dvd or cd and then drag them back onto the system after the clean re-install? shurely I would have to re-install them and not drag and drop??
 
Elliotjnewman said:
Well I have an old usb hub <snip>
What type of install would you all recommend? <snip>
I dont think its the Ram as its Kensington... <snip>
I think I started getting real problems when I messed up some user accounts by changing the name of the /Users/folder <snip>
oh and I dont have applecare :(
Click to expand...
  1. Old or new, USB hubs have been implicated in problems before this.
  2. Bad thinking, Kensington RAM has shown up by brand name in many memory related problems. Just because it costs more does not mean it is better. The only DIMM I have ever had go bad in service was an Apple branded DIMM that came in a G4 AGP from the factory. Some of the less expensive brands from Crucial.com, Other World Computing, and SmallDog have been relatively problem free and cost about half of what you would pay for Kensington.
  3. Yep it is time for an erase and install. There is no telling what may be messed up down deep inside your system. An erase install would get rid of all the traces of your faux-paux. Unless there is an overwhelming reason to change things it is best to leave everything where the installer puts it.
  4. I just hope the problem does not turn out to be a flakey logic board.
 
Elliotjnewman said:
so when backing up applications - whats the best thing to do? copy them onto a dvd or cd and then drag them back onto the system after the clean re-install? shurely I would have to re-install them and not drag and drop??
Click to expand...
It depends on the application. If it was a drag and drop install then drag and drop will reinstall it. If it was an installer, then use the installer because there are almost inevitably bits and pieces you would miss in a drag and drop reinstall. If you don't know or can't remember, it is always safer to reinstall. That is why I keep all my downloaded installers and updates backed up and on a DVD. It saves the download time.
 
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