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OSX constantly crashes on iBook G4

R

roebuck86

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 3, 2007
22
0
Lincoln, UK
Hey, I really need some help.

2 days ago, I turned my iBook G4 on, and loaded up safari and Msn messenger. When I my mac crashed. I thought no biggie I've had this a few times before, so I held the power button and it turned off. I rebooted and just as the os was loading it crashed again. I tried numerous times and it constantly crashes but at random times, once booted up it will be no longer than 2 minutes before it crashes again.

I popped my Install disk in, and installed a frash copy of OSX 10.4 and during the install everything was running smooth, until it was time to enter my information to set up my mac. It crashed whilst trying to do this numerous times. I managed to fill it out real quick and the OS booted up for the first time, within 20 seconds it had crashed again. Its so annoying!

I have also ran a hardware test and everything came back ok. Any ideas on what could be causing this problem? If I have to take it into an apple store do the " genius' " charge to have a look at hardware?
 
Not much help perhaps but...

I had a similar problem before, and it turned out to be a RAM stick that would go from bad to good randomly. Try the hardware test maybe 3 times in a row, staring intently at the RAM test, if you're luck it may fail once. Perhaps also try resetting (phycially) the RAM stick. If this doesn't work it sounds like a logic board (which is very bad news).

One thing to add, when I say I had the same problem before, I mean I had similar reinstall issues as you are having, as well as random crashes.
 
Never attempt a reinstall of OSX on a Mac which is kernel panicking frequently. As you have discovered, you are far more likely to hurt than help yourself.

I agree, this is likely a hardware issue, either RAM or motherboard. Another possibility is a loose internal connection. Unfortunately no bullet-proof test for either is available to we mere mortals, except for removing RAM from the user-accessible slot. Also, given the age of your Mac and the fact that you have been hard-restarting it frequently, I would recommend checking the drive integrity by running either Disk Utility or fsck.
 
roebuck86 said:
Hey, I really need some help.

2 days ago, I turned my iBook G4 on, and loaded up safari and Msn messenger. When I my mac crashed. I thought no biggie I've had this a few times before, so I held the power button and it turned off. I rebooted and just as the os was loading it crashed again. I tried numerous times and it constantly crashes but at random times, once booted up it will be no longer than 2 minutes before it crashes again.

I popped my Install disk in, and installed a frash copy of OSX 10.4 and during the install everything was running smooth, until it was time to enter my information to set up my mac. It crashed whilst trying to do this numerous times. I managed to fill it out real quick and the OS booted up for the first time, within 20 seconds it had crashed again. Its so annoying!

I have also ran a hardware test and everything came back ok. Any ideas on what could be causing this problem? If I have to take it into an apple store do the " genius' " charge to have a look at hardware?
Click to expand...

If I were to bet, I put my money on RAM that has an intermetent failure. Some times RAM will fail on some bit patterns and not others. If you are lucky then RAM or something else on the M/B is loose.

My advice: If you don't have a current backup pull the disk out and connect it to some other computer and copy off any data you want to save
 
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