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AirPort Extreme Causing Crashes on 12" G4 Al

B

bluewhite4

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
31
0
Beloit, WI
I picked up a used PowerBook G4 1.5Ghz Al today. I stopped at my local apple retail store and purchased an Extreme Airport card, which I was assured would work. I also bought a copy of Leopard to install. Got home, tried putting the card in, with the version of Tiger it already had installed. The system would pause/hang on the grey screen for forever, or after a hard restart, would load the desktop background and then freeze up. When it would freeze, it also would no longer move the mouse. I figured it was a incompatibility with Tiger. Pulled the card, and installed a fresh copy of Leopard. I then installed the AirPort Extreme drivers from the disk. Inserted the card and.....was right back to the freeze on either the grey screen or before the login-prompt, with the mouse also unable to move. I also want to add that I've tried a PRAM reset as well, no change there. Also, there is no warning message about kernal panic of things of that nature. It just stops. Any ideas?

****Edit*****
I take that last part back. After leaving it frozen for several hours, I hard restarted it and got a kernal panic "restart" message and now keep getting them.
 
hhmm

Try a PMU reset, if that doesn't work, reseat your Airport card, then your RAM. They need pushing harder than one thinks.

**The card should work perfectly with both OS's**

F
 
I reseated the RAM and did a PMU reset as well. I've re-seated the the airport had 5 or 6 times, in reality that's how I determined for sure that was what the problem was. Is it possible I corrupted the software that should be used for the card, by installing the software that came on the disk? (Instead of using what Leopard would already have).
 
You said you just bought it.

The 12" 1.5ghz comes with Airport Extreme installed.

Why wasn't it in the computer?

Bet there is some problem with the connectors on the logic board.

And you should not have to load software.

Call Apple, since the card at least should still have some "warranty".

Is the card showing up in system profiler?
 
Took it to the local retail store and had a genius look at it. He went and got another guy who was more familiar with the PowerBook line and actually seemed to know where the card was installed. (First guy didn't even know where it went.) He messed with it for awhile, resetting PVRAM, NVRAM, and PMU. He went and got their in-house testing card, put it in and it loaded a lot further then it did with the card I purchased. He went and got a new card, put that in and turned the thing on. It seemed to load, got alot further then the night before, but then stopped. He said that the constant hard shut-downs had probably messed with the OS load and to take it home and reload Leopard.

Ok, not a problem.

Got it home, tried to load from the leopard dvd, and the mouse freezes before I can select a language. Reboot again and try to move the mouse quickly. Able to select a language, but then it sits there with the color wheel spinning for an hour. In my frustration, I turned it off, pulled the extreme hard, and turned it on. Leopard fired right up as if nothing was wrong.

I've got another genius appointment in the morning, will show them everything again and more then likely get my money back for the card.

I guess at this point it looks like there is a problem with the logic board and more then likely thats why the wireless card was gone to begin with. I'll update in the morning with what happens. (Until then I've pulled the card and haven't had a single problem using a wired connection.)
 
So the guy today determined that the logic board is indeed failing in some way when the extreme card is plugged in. Found an article online showing how to, so went and got a $40 D-Link usb adapter that seems to be working perfectly good. (I wasn't willing to shovel out $310 for a Apple assesment/replacements when I only paid $100 more then that for it.)

Anyone interested in it? ;)
 
bluewhite4 said:
So the guy today determined that the logic board is indeed failing in some way when the extreme card is plugged in. Found an article online showing how to, so went and got a $40 D-Link usb adapter that seems to be working perfectly good. (I wasn't willing to shovel out $310 for a Apple assesment/replacements when I only paid $100 more then that for it.)

Anyone interested in it? ;)
Click to expand...

Not the PB, but the D-Link. What model and where did you buy it? My former (now my daughter's) iBook G4 just went through the AirPort kernel panic thingy. It works fine with AirPort turned off, but now she's tethered to the ethernet cable. Thanks.
 
The usb adapter is a D-Link WUA-1340. WalMart.com has them, or I picked mine up at my local Target. The box only lists Windows support, but the chip maker has a driver for OS X. You can find that at http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Macintosh.html. You want the driver labeled USB (RT257x/RT2671). It doesn't offer integrated support like the built-in cards, so you have to run and use the program the driver comes with. (The program should launch when you insert the card after installing the driver.) I found all this information from a blog entry here: http://torley.com/how-i-got-my-wireless-g-usb-adapter-working-with-a-mac
 
Batt said:
Not the PB, but the D-Link. What model and where did you buy it? My former (now my daughter's) iBook G4 just went through the AirPort kernel panic thingy. It works fine with AirPort turned off, but now she's tethered to the ethernet cable. Thanks.
Click to expand...


I can buy your PowerBook 12"... PM the price
 
Before you sell it, take a magnifying glass and good light and physically try to look at the connectors on the board for the Airport Extreme in the slot

I'll bet someone tried to shove the card in backwards.

I'm sure this is not easily fixable, but maybe there is some surgery that could be done on the connectors?
 
Help with getting the Airport Extreme Card

Dear All,

I would like to purchase the Airport Extreme Card. Do you have a recommended and trustworthy website, so I can purchase? Hmm... Other than apple.com? Also, does the Airport Extreme Card works for all versions of desktop Mac? I have a Mac Pro 1,1.

Thanks for your help at first!!

:confused:
 
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