Big problems with G4 mac

[Jake25uk]

Hi, i have a G4 Quick silver (733 mhz with 1GB ram) i installed leopard on it using the firmware cheat to let it install with a 733 processor, this worked fine and ran really well for 4 months. Last week it kept crashing (power logo on screen with message "you need to restart your computer") i tried resetting the PRAM and repairing permissions but this did not help (Kept crashing during permission repair) then it died and was stuck on the apple logo startup screen. I have 10.1(came with mac originaly), Tiger and leopard (both black retail) DVDs so tried reinstalling Leopard, this started to work then failed at the last little bit of the blue bar on the main install, I tried again and it would not see my harddrive, I erased the disk with disk utility and it saw the drive again but needed Tiger installing before leopard, this took about 10 tries (failing at different points each time), when it finally worked i tried leopard with the firmware cheat (cheat worked fine as installation started ok) this failed a few times then seemed to finish installation but got stuck on the apple screen when restarted, and wiped tiger off the mac (or would not start with Tiger) I am now running ok on tiger although trying the system update does not work (freezes) I really need to be running leopard for my iphone etc. I hope i have given enough info for someone to help if possible thanks, Jake

P.s i have tried disk utility to repair disk n permissions and it says its all ok. I think i have tried everything, could this be a hardware problem or would the disk repair show that?

 

[AdrianK]

Sounds like your hard drive is fried. Would explain why you can't boot, and why every attempt to reinstall the OS has failed.

 

[Jake25uk]

Thanks, was thinking that, but why is it working ok now in Tiger and why would the disk first aid tell me the disk is ok? thanks

 

[BrianBaughn]

What size hard disk are you booting from? If you have something bigger than 128GB in there, that could cause problems as that was the last model (I believe) that had a 128GB limit. Bigger drives show up as 128GB in System Profiler so look at the drive itself to determine the size.

 

[Jake25uk]

It only has 40gb harddrive (I have a 500gb USB drive but I disconnected this when I started having problems, along with all other external hardware)

 

[Hrududu]

Still have your hardware test disc? It could be bad RAM or a failing CPU thats causing these problems.

 

[Jake25uk]

No, I may have one at work for a different model g4, if it will run, I'll have a look.

 

[BrianBaughn]

If that 40GB drive is the original (and even if it isn't), then it could be going and nearly gone. Disk Utility and even more robust drive utilities quite often don't do a good job of finding problems with disks

Check to see if all your fans and cooling parts are working and attached properly. Overheating can cause the startup problems you've described.

After that checkup I'd try a new drive in there as that really sounds like the problem.

 

[Jake25uk]

I will keep trying but I guess it's time to upgrade, perhaps an intel Mac mini (pretty cheap) ofcorse this happened a week after paying alfa Romeo for a new cambelt n radiator leaving me broke! Cheers for all the help.
The fan etc is working fine by the way
P.s ... Brian, is Baltimore really like the wire? Lol

 

[Jake25uk]

Well, got home after a nightshift switched on the Mac, tried the software update (could live with tiger for a while but most programs I need to use need at least 10.4.11) and it actualy worked! So feeling lucky I tried installing leopard again, as usual it nearly finished and the Mac crashed, I restarted expecting either to load tiger or to get stuck on the startup screen and have to reinstall tiger but the leopard welcome screen came up! It has crashed once today but at least I can sync my iPhone etc for now, told the wife we are getting an intel Mac though! Thanks for your help people.

 

[Dave H]

Do you know how much of the 40GB drive was taken up with Leopard? Maybe it was running too low on free space. You need about 20% free at least.

 

[AdrianK]

Well, got home after a nightshift switched on the Mac, tried the software update (could live with tiger for a while but most programs I need to use need at least 10.4.11) and it actualy worked! So feeling lucky I tried installing leopard again, as usual it nearly finished and the Mac crashed, I restarted expecting either to load tiger or to get stuck on the startup screen and have to reinstall tiger but the leopard welcome screen came up! It has crashed once today but at least I can sync my iPhone etc for now, told the wife we are getting an intel Mac though! Thanks for your help people.

Considering your previous issues, I'm willing to bet that it breaks within the next week =P

Congrats on the future intel mac ^_^

 

[Jake25uk]

Yes, I'm sure it won't last long now, Dave, it used up about 12gb, I have an external harddrive so always tried to keep at least 15gb free on the 40gb internal hd.

 

[BrianBaughn]

P.s ... Brian, is Baltimore really like the wire? Lol

Just like The Wire. Only there's no background music.