Help with a PM G4 please!

So I am finally upgrading my old power mac G4 400 (still pretty much factory except I am running OsX 3.4 I think) in an attempt to fix the problem it is having. Yes I know it is waaaaay over due.


The Problem: it has taken to freezing at random intervals. It seems to only freeze when performing certain tasks but has also been prone to freezing before loading the desktop.

History:
1999 - Purchased
2005 - added 128 mb of memory for a total of 256 mb (yes I know!)
*somewhere between this time of 2004 to current it began freezing.
2007 - added another 128 mb of memory for a total of 384 mb
2008 - in an attempt to fix the freezing problem I wiped the old 10 gb hard drive and installed a new 80 gb hard drive.

attempted Solutions: through my research on the awesome internet I have come across the following information that could be the cause of the problems. 1) problems with the memory 2) problems with the jumpers settings 3) problems with the PRAM 4) problem with the processor.

Suggested solutions have been to reset the jumpers, reset the PRAM, run memtest to check the memory, and run applejack to do an overall test/fix.

The things I have done so far have been to reset the jumpers on the hard drives. I've removed the "new" memory that I installed and am using the factory installed memory. I have both the new 80gb and the old 10gb hard drives installed with the new one set as the master and the old one set as slave. I have reset the PRAM.

The machine is still freezing.

I have not been able to download memtest or applejack because the machine keeps freezing in the process. (I am on my work computer (PC) now and have downloaded the programs to upload and run tonight.)

I am now thinking that it is a problem with the processor (and since it has been going on for awhile it may have jacked up the motherboard too) and I found a suggestion to check the processor speed in system profiler and to possibly reset the jumpers on the processor.

I want to exhaust all my options before I take the machine to apple to find out what the problem is. This includes replacing most of everything if necessary. I am considering buying a new processor but I don't want to if its just going to get messed up if the motherboard is already messed up. Please help me to determine what is going on or if I should save myself the headache and take it into the shop.

Thanks for the help.

 

It completely freezes to where I have to reboot or shut down.

I don't think I have the apple hardware test cd. Would it have come with the original software and/or OsX Jaguar?

I don't really have any need to do a major upgrade because it is mostly used for internet access, simple design (illustrator 10 has all I need), and some word processing.

Although I may need to if its the motherboard.

 

Yes I have a fresh version of OsX running. I have even completely wiped both hard drives.

 

Holy dang! I didn't realize they were going for so cheap on ebay!

Unless there is some place else someone can recommend getting one. . .

Oh! And thanks for all the help/advice everyone!