Force restart

[biggapple]

Lately my PB G4 (3yrs old) constantly needs forced restart (hold the power button until it shuts down..) and before I spend a fortune on service, I just wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions to what this could problem could be and what to do about it.

Thx.

 

[dartzorichalcos]

Are you having a Kernel Panic? If so put the original ram back if you installed 3rd party ram.

 

[geekytrent]

depends

what you need to do is tell us exactly when it's locking up, what's running, what have you installed (like 3rd party hacks or system "enhancements"), and you can always run a diagnostic from the dvd's or cd roms to see if it's hardware related. lockups can occur from bad ram, bad motherboard or part of the motherboard, hard drive failing slowly, ect. also if there are any system hacks or changes it can make the system unresponsive depending on what files were messed with.

 

[biggapple]

Thank you guys. (A little home emergency delayed my response...)
I haven't actually installed any RAM - still have the original from purchase.

And I don't get the Kernel Panic response ether. What happens is that it freezes and I have to push the P-button until it stops. And then push start again. When I start it again, it makes a couple of "tapping" or "knocking" sounds which doesn't seem right. I usually have do this several times over when my mac is cold (it even freezes during startup fase). It seems to be getting worse and worse. Is my hardrive breaking down?