OS X being very unstable

P

pierskittel

Registered
Hello all,

Have had a Blue and White G3 (upgraded with a G4 550MHz processor) from early August to late March - never had a problem with that (that is, that's similar to my current problem). Then in late March, I got a second hand dual 1GHz Quicksilver with 1 GB memory (2 x 512MB both seems fitted by Apple). No problem, I installed OSX and the same software I use on the B&W, using the same configuration, everything. No problem until a couple days ago, OS X 10.4 has become extremely unstable, Finder crashes on the drop of the hat (latest thing I did was open any app, Finder just crashes, I have to relaunch it every time I try to run an application). I find that the computer gets so unstable that I have to push the reboot button 5 or 6 times a day (while I can SSH into the system, not even "sudo shutdown -h now" will work. When the computer is working, I always find a certain bit of software crashes and refuses to be killed and restarted. Once, just pressing the eject button locked up the whole system. It's never the same problem every time, always a different one each time, and it progressively gets worse until the computer is completely unusable.

This is driving me incredibly crazy as I'm starting to get familar with the reset button. I'm starting to suspect a hardware problem, but how do I find out what exactly is the problem? My Mac Mini that I brought brand new from Apple came with an Apple hardware test DVD (which is also the OS X 10.3 install DVD as well) - put that in the Quicksilver drive and pressed C on bootup - it showed the light grey Apple logo on white, and the little spinning circle on bottom but stayed like that, and didn't start the installer. Not sure how to start the hardware test without starting the installer.

I've opened up the computer, checked all 3 fans, all seems to be OK, and while the processor heatsink is quite hot, it's not too hot to touch - I can leave my hand on the heatsink for a time. Everything else (video card, hard drive, etc) is quite cool. I've run Disk Utility and checked permission and verified the drive.

Any ideas what I can do?

Thanks very much for your help in advance!

Regards - Piers
 
Hi Piers,

It could be e.g. something with the RAM. The hardware test that you got with the Mac mini will not run on your G4, so you would need to find the discs that came with that computer to be able to run it.

Do you have other users? Are they affected as well?
 
Yeah I highly suspect it's the RAM. I will try running memestosx overnight tonight. All other users are affected as well.

Thing is that I brought the computer second hand and it did not come with any discs at all. Is there any way to obtain the Apple hardware test disc?

Thanks very much for your help though!
 
You haven't mentioned "repairing permissions". This should be done monthly and also before and after installing any software. Sometimes the answer is as simple as that, so it's worth trying.

In addition, the computer should be left on overnight, at least once a week, so it can perform its "cron" jobs at 3am. If you shut it down each night it won't be able to do this basic "housekeeping" and things can begin to go pear-shaped.

This is just basic stuff and may not help you but I mention it, in case "newbies" are reading this, as it's often overlooked.

I brought the computer second hand
Click to expand...
Amazes me how often people confuse "brought" and "bought"!
 
i think you now know why this qs was sold. but as far as why i't crashing, i can't say. ram is alwasy easy to swap and try. pull the ram from your b&w and put it in the qs, and put the ram from the qs into the b&w and see what they do. if the b&w has issues, then its the ram. if the qs still has issues, then i'd bet on the cpu.
 
Have tried repairing permissions. No change there. Didn't know about the 3am thing, don't really want to leave my computer on overnight, electricity isn't exactly cheap ;) That said, I've left my computer on overnight sometimes, tho in sleep mode. Will that still work? Apologies about the misspelling, I'll try to keep it correct from now on! :)

Secondly, the computer was sold as a batch - the auction had something like 6 or so quicksilvers, which seemed to all come from a company - my computer has a computer number label and a "Tested for electrical safety" label. Also, they all couldn't have the same problem ;) And the problem only started a few days ago, it has been running for 2 months without a problem.

Nevertheless, I've run Applejack but not have been able to run Memtestosx yet. The computer seems to have improved though I find when it goes to sleep, the LED doesn't pulsate and when it wakes up, the display is back to default res (6480x480 at 60Hz) but clicking on Detect Displays changes the res back. I'll try to run Memtestosx as soon as possible and see if the RAM's bad.

Not sure if I can run the G3's RAM in my Quicksilver as the G3 memory runs at 100MHz and the Quicksilver memory runs at 133MHz.
 
Yes you can "sleep" the Mac. If you can't afford the overnight electricity once a week you could use "MacJanitor" but you have to remember to use it. ;)

I don't for a moment think you were sold a "lemon". I think it's just bad luck. My gut feeling is that the other poster is correct and you have a RAM fault. I think you can use 133 RAM in place of 100 RAM (if it physically fits) but not vice-versa.

I occasionally have "won't wake from sleep" problems with my G4s. It's invariably traceable to a scheduled operation that went wrong - usually to SilverKeeper trying to do a backup while the "cron" job is running. One of my G4s also seems to have a RAM problem but it's so rare that I haven't bothered to do anything about it.

If you have any external devices connected, try disconnecting and running without them. Try a different keyboard and mouse if you can.

To run a hardware check you really need the original CD or DVD disc for your specific model. Try eBay?

However, I can also recommend DiskWarrior which is great for finding and repairing many software problems.

Failing that (and assuming RAM is OK) I would copy everything important, wipe the drive, and do a complete fresh installation.
 
nixgeek said:
"qs"=Quicksilver (or at least that's my assumption :p)
Click to expand...

Well done. Now explain "i't" (that's eye apostrophe tee)?
(Frankly it p;sses me off when people are too lazy to type accurately. Technical subjects are hard enough to follow without people making up a brand new and incomprehensible language!)

Anyway, I'm straying off-topic. I hope that the O.P. (original poster) will report back with a successful conclusion! :)
 
SatCure said:
(Frankly it p;sses me off when people are too lazy to type accurately. Technical subjects are hard enough to follow without people making up a brand new and incomprehensible language!)
Click to expand...

the truth is i did use a very common abbreviation in the mac tech world. even the "o.p." used another common one, "b&w". i'm not lazy, but efficent.

now as far as the ram, yes, pc100 and pc133 is interchangable. the ram will just run at the slower of the two speeds (133 ram will run at 100 in the 100 bus mac, and 100 ram will run at 100 in the 133 bus mac. i do it all the time.). and the truth is i'd rather swap ram then run some software because it is possible for the software to miss something, where you can't really agure with a hardware failure in 2 different systems.
 
The PC100 won't work at 133Mhz, but the PC133 from the G4 should work fine in the Blue G3 at 100Mhz for testing. Also, check the G3 RAM labels, sometimes people use PC133 at 100 MHZ as it is sometimes cheaper than PC100.
 
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