PowerBook grey screen of death!!!

[domokun]

Okay so here it is - my computer for the last two days has been acting a little strange. Yesterday after it started up and went into screen saver mode i got the screen that says something along the lines of "Your system need to be restarted. Hold down the power button...." so i did that and every thing seemed to be okay.
Today the the airport card was not picking up a network so i restarted the airport base station and then it registered the network and everything going okay until i got the same screen as yester day "Your system need to be restarted. Hold down the power button...." but when i restarted the computer this time i got a different message:
can't prune
Apple powerbook3,5 4.53f2 boot rom
etc.

now i just tried to restart it again and it loaded up just fine - but i want to know if this will keep happening?!

 

[domokun]

strike that...

it worked for about 5-10 minutes then it crapped out again.
any suggestions?

 

[robbieduncan]

As you are seeing frequent recurring kernel panics I would suggest that your hardware is either faulty or a component is badly seated causing problems. You mentioned Airport problems so the Airport card is a logical place to start. Try re-seating the card (i.e. remove then carefully re-insert the card). If that fails to stop the problems try running the hardware test CD, you may have a bad memory stick.

 

[Applespider]

It's called a kernal panic and there can be a variety of reasons as to why it happens. I'm sorry I don't know enough to interpret the message that came up.

Are you doing anything particular or do you have any common applications open when it panics?

Have you installed any RAM recently, any new apps or do you have any USB peripherals?

Have you tried repairing permissions (in disk utility)?

You might find this Apple article on kernal panics useful

 

[diamond geezer]

Have you tried using the hardWare Test Cd/DVD that came with your PowerBook?

 

[domokun]

i have not tried any of these things yet - but i have a feeling it might be a bad memory stick. That was one of the messages i received as well.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Whatever you do, don't reinstall OSX no matter how many times it's suggested (I'm surprised it hasn't been yet). The probability of this being a hardware issue is 99% ±1%. Bad RAM is by far the most common cause, followed by a defective logic board. It can also be caused by a poorly seated Airport card, or bad USB or FireWire cables or connections.

 

[domokun]

...back from a trip.... So i run the hardware test and get a memory error:
***error*code
mem_/3/6 sodimm0/j16top

So i pulled the top memory chip and ran the test again - there you have it, back in business short 512mb or ram but i am running smoothly again - does anybody have any recommendations on what type of ram i should purchase to replace the old one?

i have see alot of thread's about compatibility problems between old and new chips of memory.

I found the following memory that was just released:

1GB Apple OriginalOSX/OS9 144pin PC133 SODIMM PowerBook kit (p/n APL144X1024)

Any thoughts/comments?

 

[hcuar]

I'm partial to Apple RAM even though it costs more. Most would recommend someone like Crucial around here though.

 

[robbieduncan]

...

i have see alot of thread's about compatibility problems between old and new chips of memory.

I found the following memory that was just released:

1GB Apple OriginalOSX/OS9 144pin PC133 SODIMM PowerBook kit (p/n APL144X1024)

What sort of PowerBook do you have? PC133 is SDR, recent PowerBooks have used DDR RAM. Crucial are not the cheapest but they are decently priced and the configuration tool makes sure you get the correct RAM and it's got a lifetime guarantee so if this happens again you get new RAM