iBook Choke Problem

M

mindbend

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Just got a new iBook last week. I installed all the updates after a few days of running it as it came.

Since the updates the iBook will consistently freeze when I wake it up from sleeping, but only if an ethernet cable is connected. It happens at home which just has an ethernet cable from a cable modem and at work which has an ethernet LAN connection.

It's not every time, but probably as high as half the time. Sor far, I can't seem to replicate the problem without the cable connected.

To clarify the problem...when I hit the space bar or lift the lid to wake it up, the iBook screen will light up, the hard drive will chirp briefly as normal and then it completely freezes. No mouse movement, no alt-tabbing to other apps, no command+option+whatever to force quit, just a complete freeze. I've let it sit frozen for as long as a couple of minutes. I may try leaving it for several minutes just to see next time.

I'm just checking to see if anyone knows what's up with this.

Thanks for anyone replies!
 
RANT ALERT:AVERT YOUR EYES IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ANNOYING POINTLESS RANTING.



This whole Permissions Fixing thing is really getting on my nerves. No offense to the suggestion, it's obviously valid, I'm just saying it's to the point of absurdity. Every time you move your mouse in OS X these days you have to fix permissions for no apparent reason. For one, how the hell are these permissions getting screwed up in the first place? For two, why doesn't the OS take care of this for me? Three, even if they do get screwed up, why does it wreak so much havoc? And four, is this REALLY the problem for a lot of things? It reminds of the old OS 9 trick of resetting the PRAM. Got a problem? Reset the PRAM! It doesn't do jack diddly, but it makes you feel good. Call me skeptical and/or annoyed.
 
Well, one way to determine if it is actually helpful is to try it. If it works, you know it's helpful. If it doesn't, it just adds fuel to your annoyance.
My own opinion is as neat as many of the new features in every version of OSX, there is a considerable amount of bloat in the system, and installing updates/major revisions upsets things a little and repairing permissions is a bit like shaking things up a bit so they run a little smoother.
That said, I'm a big believer in repairing permissions (though I never had to zap pram in the days of OS9 and beforehand) and there are plenty of apps out there that give regular scheduling. I just took a suggestion from EdX and have given Maintain a try and it seems to be a solid app. Cocktail and OnyX are two others.
 
Hmm... Gotta love your post mindbend... However, let's recapitulate the really important ones...

1.) Zap your PRAM. (Cmd-Opt-P-R at startup.) It _always_ helps! ;-)
2.) Let the Finder rebuild the catalogue files (hold down option while classic Finder is starting). ;-)
3.) Rebuild permissions.
4.) Check your harddrive.

All of those tips have one thing in common. If "someone who knows" tells you to use one of those and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the actual problem, you know one thing: He or she does _not_ know how your problem can be really solved. ;-)

Quite obviously, the problem, mindbend, is connected to your Ethernet connection. DHCP (or rather: waiting for a DHCP server response) could be a problem. So could checking for a connected server be the problem. However, I'd like to give you another one of those "they always help" tips: Reinstall. If it's not too much of a hassle to you, I'd urge you to clean install this lil' iBook.
 
I didn't mean to sound like I was criticizing the suggestions, I'm just merely frustrated with the need to do them at all. I'm also very familiar with all the standard fix-em-up routines, but I appreciate them nonetheless.

Here's the latest for anyone who cares.

Here's what I DID NOT do:
Zap PRAM
Rebuild catalog files (I don't have classic installed--is that the only time I would do that?)
Check hard drives (I'm going to run DiskWarrior later, just didn't have it installed on the iBook)

Here's what I did do:
Downloaded Cocktail, ran many of its routines. Afterwards the iBook was worse than ever! Would not boot except in Safe Boot mode!

Kept rebooting, finally got far enough where I could see it was hanging as SnapzPro 2 was kicking in. I rebooted in Safe Mode, completely removed Snapz Pro 2 and all is good again. I'll be writing Ambrosia. It may be coincidence of some sort, or it may be a serious problem on their end. Who knows.

I've only had it "fixed" for a half day now, so the problem may come back. So far, it wakes from sleep with ethernet plugged in just as it should. GKRUP!!! I lied. Problem is back...just tested it.

Looks like it's DiskWarrior followed by a reinstall. Grrr. Oh, and I'll throw in a Zapped PRAM just for fun!
 
(crosses fingers) I think I may have solved it. So far it seems to be everybody's favorite problem...BAD RAM!

I pulled the 512 and haven't had a problem yet (knocks on wood). Lots of other weird little things are now fixed. That's what I get for cheaping out and getting the low end RAM.
 
By the way, how can I prove the RAM is bad? I've got good circumstantial evidence, but that's all. I tried running Apple's hardware test CD, but surprise, surprise, it chokes and crashes the iBook (because of the bad RAM?).
 
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