2.0G5s in computer lab crashing like crazy [Archive]

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Mav451

Mar 6, 2004, 02:58 AM

Ok, i have a problem here. My university (MD) apparently has no idea how to deal with the 2.0G5's we have in the WAM Lab. Recently Safari (and ultimately Finder) has been acting up that they both literally bring the system to a grinding halt (or kernel panic -- which i have seen several times now :( ).

To induce the problem, it begins with me opening Safari, in which it promptly stalls while opening the university website. The progress bar barely makes it past the / in "http://www..." when it stalls. Spinning beachball, Safari menu is locked. Force quit Safari from the dock. At least that works. Open Safari, again. Stalls. Again, i have to force quit. Now, it seems that Finder has locked (as i cannot access the "Temp" folder they give to student accounts). I click "relaunch", which unfortunately does absolutely nothing.

Finally, after another horrible few minutes, it KPs. OIT at this moment is probably still 99% going after P2P, while totally ignoring the virus situation, much less maintaining their SIGNIFICANT 14 Apple Dual 2.0G5 system investment! Which is why i do not think these problems are going to be resolved quickly...which is the reason i ask the forum. Is this a common problem with a common solution?

*on another note, just last night, i came in and two 2.0G5's right next to each other have their fans blasting at full volume (rivaling the 4 or 5 60mm deltas EASILY). From my experience on this forum, I know that something wrong is going on if the fans are acting in this way*

Dippo

Mar 6, 2004, 03:04 AM

Hopefully some Mac haters didn't upload torjans onto the machines...

Is this happening on all of the Macs or just that one? It wasn't really clear from your post.

Mav451

Mar 6, 2004, 03:09 AM

Hopefully some Mac haters didn't upload torjans onto the machines...

Is this happening on all of the Macs or just that one? It wasn't really clear from your post.

Oh, well, I was in there yesterday. I tried the first two right next to the door (the ones with the fans going full blast). Both of them crashed on me. Then there are two next to the window. Those as well crashed, with one of those two KPing. So that's a total of 4.

iJon

Mar 6, 2004, 03:12 AM

you don't have to know whats wrong, they are under warranty, send it back to apple and have them fix it. you will have the people who will say reinstall the system, or repair permissions, or zap the pram or what not. chances are likely its a hardware issue beyond your control, just give apple a jingle and tell them the problem

iJon

Stelliform

Mar 6, 2004, 07:26 AM

Have you tried not going to the university website? Out local news sites used to mess with Safari for me. The site had been written to take advantage of some PC loophole in the code. (In this case to force ads down your throat.) Everytime I went to it in safari, safari hung. They have fixed it now. (BTW, it is also very easy to crash I.E. with a website (or upload viruses), so nobody blame safari. ;))

Mav451

Mar 6, 2004, 10:42 AM

You see the problem is that Safari (that week that i was first trying the G5) was working PERFECTLY with the university website (loads all the way instead of stalling).

Does the Safari cache get corrupted like the IE cache "index.dat"? I know that this was a problem for IE, but if i think maybe that's a reason for Safari acting like this?

ZeppelinArmada

Mar 6, 2004, 10:57 AM

What is your university's web site?

Mav451

Mar 6, 2004, 11:42 AM

http://www.umd.edu/

...thought that was obvious by my location :)

Les Kern

Mar 6, 2004, 12:02 PM

http://www.umd.edu/

...thought that was obvious by my location :)

Holy cow, my old alma mater!
Anyway, loads fine here, and I can't see any page code issues that would cause your issues. Are these using DHCP or static? Does the lab/school use NAT?
This seems to be one of those problems where you just have to be there. I'd suggest calling a proven Mac third party to come in for an hour. It could be so many things.......

Rower_CPU

Mar 6, 2004, 12:18 PM

Well, have you told the techs? I know you said they're busy on other stuff, but if they aren't even aware of the problem they can't exactly do anything about it. ;)

gwuMACaddict

Mar 6, 2004, 12:45 PM

dont know if it's REALLY relevent or not... but safari has been doing the same thing to my computer recently too... not that i have a dualG5, just noticing that safari has been eating it as of late...

anyhow... good luck with all that. sure hope the terps get an at large bid for the tourny this year

Grimace

Mar 6, 2004, 12:50 PM

and make sure the tech people actually know how to deal with Macs. I've seen countless tech people who know PCs screw up Mac settings b/c they are clueless.

stoid

Mar 6, 2004, 12:57 PM

From what you talk about the fans abnormally running at full blast....

Open Activity Monitor and make sure that no background task is burning up the unused cycles (like folding or something).

Make sure that no one stole that clear plastic air flow control thing. I've read that the fans go full blast if you remove that thing.

Mav451

Mar 6, 2004, 01:06 PM

The fans were going full speed when the G5 was INACTIVE (Apple LCDs are off, presumable from inactivity - same as PC side i would presume). That means no one was logged in so i doubt any program was running.

And, the G5's are surrounded by a steel U-shapped cage that covers the top and left/right sides. This is triple bolted to the lab desk...its not moving anywhere, and the plastic thing is definitely still in there.

Yeah i could talk to OIT (or ugh...library staff hahaha).

acidrock

Mar 6, 2004, 02:06 PM