Startup Problems with G4 500 MHz AGP tower

[junbug]

Hi,

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Basically I have G4 500 MHz with 1.2 gb of RAM running OS X 10.26.

On startup I reach the grey screen and it gives me a prompt to restart my computer and kernel error says:

FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF

Sometimes the grey screen freezes with white noise streaked across the screen horizontally.

Any thoughts? Could it be a bad video card? Bad RAM?

I reinstalled the OS X two times already.

I can't find anything on apple's tech support page.

Argh...

Thanks!

 

[insidedanshead]

RAM errors usually result in a quirky unstable system.. if you get a constant FF:FF:FF blah blah something that seems like it would be something else.. have you tried booting up from an old os 9 disk?

 

[Balin64]

Ummm....

I have the same machine: indeed strange. Try starting up holding down command+S. This will get you into safe mode and will display all the background process during start up. Pay close attention at when it starts to choke. If you see ATI, nVidia (if you upgraded video) you know the video is the culprit. It is unlikely that all your RAM has gone bad at once. But, try removing it all, inserting one module at a time then starting. Also, do you have access to another Mac? Try hooking them up through target drive mode and use your G4 500 as the start up disk. If the second Mac also crashes, you know it is an OS issue. If it does not, it's probably a hardware prob with your G4. Have you made a complete clean install? That is, wiping the drive using Disk Utility from the CD and then installing? This is how I would troble shoot... good luck.

 

[GraphicUmp]

Actually, command+s gets you into single user mode. At the prompt, type fsck -y and watch it go through disk utility stuff. If you get a message that says the disk has been repaired, type it again. And again, until the message says the disk appears to be ok. Then type reboot.

To get into safe boot, hold down the shift key on startup. It disables non-Apple extensions and lets you know if something extra you've installed is causing a problem.

 

[junbug]

thanks so far...

Thanks to everybody that has replied to my post!

I updated the my ATI Rage 128 video card drivers as well. I only thought of this since I was sometimes getting a weird freeze at startup with white noise streaked across.

We'll see if this does anything.

I will also try the safe mode startup.

I'm wondering if I should just go back to OS 9?

I'd rather not.

Thanks again so far.