iBook G4 dies randomly every few days.

I've been trying to diagnose this problem for a while. Specs
G4 800MHz
12" 600 somethingMB RAM, which I belive I've eleminated by running a lot of Rember on it (and switching the ram out)
Combo Drive
30GB hard drive

It was originally my mom's computer, and she has dogs which would knock it on the floor. To the best of my knowledge the falls never caused any real damage, but I bring them up for motive.

I've taken apart the screen and found some screws came out of their place, and that the microphone cable was pinched (it has only given static for quite some time).

So I removed the mic from the screen, and later from the body. I've never found anything wrong around the logic board. (though after removing the mic from the screen(leaving a wire down by the hinge) it sure seemed like it started crashing more infrequently, to the point where I thought I had solved it for a little while.)

There are three basic ways it dies
#1, Kernel panics, and you get the grey screen-o-death.
#2, while using, the mouse will freeze and you have to reboot.
#3, when waking from sleep the screen is on but the mouse is stuck.

Its difficult to say which one is more likely. Its weird, you can use it for days and never have a problem. But then sometimes it will die a couple of times in an hour or two.

What can I do to narrow down the problem? I could replace the logic board or hard drive, which are the two components that seem likely.

Eniregnat said:

It could be two different problems, 1 memory, and 2 a bad connection between the trackpad and the motherboard. Perhaps the MB is cracked, but lets hope not. Perhaps if you post your logs now, or wait until it crashes again. Check the diskstatus using the DiskUtility. What is the SMART status? The only other inexpensive fix I could see is to reinstall the OS, but others will coach against that.

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What logs should I check? Pretty sure the trackpad connection isn't loose, in my earlier statement about the mouse locking up I mean the computers alive but stuck. No mouse or keyboard commands do anything. Plus, I've had to reseat the trackpad as I've opened the case a couple of times. I'm relatively sure its not memory, Rember has never failed to find a problem for me before. But if it is RAM then its the 128mb onboard stuff cause I've switched out the rest. And I've already reinstalled the OS a couple of times. Disk utility says SMART Status is Verified for whatever that means.

Eniregnat said:

Is your avatar from Cowboy Bebop?

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Yes. If I'm not mistaken its from the end of Real Folk Blues pt2 AKA the end end. He walks down the stairs and points his hand at the syndicate people, goes "bang", and falls down dead. And the song "Blue" starts playing. Sometimes my memory surprises myself.

Eniregnat said:

Since you have trouble shot the rest, then it looks like a fresh instal of the OS is next.

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No, I've done several freash installs of the OS.

Eniregnat said:

The compuer may be toast, sorry.

Others, any ideas?

Not to ignore you question about SMART.
S.M.A.R.T = Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology.The disk can still be verified and still be prone to failure. If it's a hardware error, like the drive failing, then you might have a SMART warning. The SMART status is a series of tests and statistics that are tracked on the drive it's self. Mostly read/write errors and timing. Certain sudden events are noted also. If there was a software anomaly that is causing an error, or some hardware issues, SMART won't show an error. So SMART verified won't guarantee that your drive isn't failing, but a SMART warning is a guarantee that the drive is beginning to fail. Just a little background.

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Yeah, I kinda knew that. Its just that "verified" is so vague. Anyway, I'm up to replacing the logic board or hard drive, I just don't want to start throwing money into it if I can't fix it.

Well can't fix it, I didn't mean. I mean start replacing things blindly. If I can narrow it down to a logic board or something else then I'm all for fixing it.

I'm trying it out running off another computer's hard drive in target disk mode. So we'll see.

Well it died again even after being booted off an external hard drive.

I slept it and waked it several times, but then I went to wake it and it woke but was frozen. So I think the hard drive is not the problem.

I actually have another ibook, so I'll just sell this one and keep the good one I think. I'll look for someone to buy it I guess.