G4 munching on my system 9 file

[stefangs]

i had a mirror drive G4 1.25g, 1.5 g ram since it was brand new and it had problems from the start that just got worse over time. i still need to use it semi-regularly and so i would like to know if anyone here might have a clue what's going on. of the long list of problems, i'll describe the ones that are the most frustrating! oh and by the way, i zapped pram and i have reinstalled everything from the original discs which made no difference at all.

1. when booting into 9 or classic, just about every other time or so i'll get a system error and i need to hold the power button to turn it off. then i need to boot into X and replace the system file in the classic system folder (i already have a copy just for this purpose on the desktop) and then it will boot ok on the next run.

2. if i boot (9 or X) and don't touch the mac at all, it will hang up after about 10-15 minutes. if i reset and boot a second time, it won't freeze. so my practice for years has been: boot up, wait for the desktop to appear and restart immediately. what a pain!

3. many (but not all) applications fail to launch with an error (quitting unexpectedly), i.e. don't run at all. some launch ok when the application is launched but quit when they're launched via a double click onto a related document.

how does that sound?? is there any hope for this machine at all? i would be eternally grateful for any solid pointers just as i'll be forever mad that i did not return this machine while it was still under warranty!

regards,
stefan

 

[iamcheerful]

... how does that sound?? is there any hope for this machine at all? ...

it sounds pretty bad.
if there's any hope, i would rate it slim.

did you ever try booting with an external hdd or OS 9 CD and running some applications from there? does the problems manifest too?

that said, have you tried checking the RAM? i.e. swap with known working RAM (if swapping RAM does the trick, hooray! lots of hope )

and if you have a spare working hdd lying around, no harm testing the hdd as well.

 

[stefangs]

it sounds pretty bad.
if there's any hope, i would rate it slim.

did you ever try booting with an external hdd or OS 9 CD and running some applications from there? does the problems manifest too?

that said, have you tried checking the RAM? i.e. swap with known working RAM (if swapping RAM does the trick, hooray! lots of hope )

and if you have a spare working hdd lying around, no harm testing the hdd as well.

i don't have spare parts at the moment, but if i can find something cheap, i'll try your suggestions, because as i said, i do need to use it on occasion.

thank you for your help!

stefan

 

[iamcheerful]

If there are at least 2 RAM modules in your PowerMac, test individual sticks. If you have only 1 module in there, you really need to get hold on some working RAM for testing.

There're software that you can use to test RAM but imho, they don't seem to do a good enough job.

All the best!

 

[stefangs]

If there are at least 2 RAM modules in your PowerMac, test individual sticks. If you have only 1 module in there, you really need to get hold on some working RAM for testing.

There're software that you can use to test RAM but imho, they don't seem to do a good enough job.

All the best!

ok... that's a good suggestion. i must have probably three modules, as my box has 1.5 g ram, so i'll try taking them out one by one and see what happens.

thanks again!

 

[iamcheerful]

no prob.

btw, something else you may wish to note ...
sometimes, the modules may be fine, but the RAM slot itself may be faulty, thus, do test the various slots too.

 

[stefangs]

sometimes, the modules may be fine, but the RAM slot itself may be faulty, thus, do test the various slots too.

geez, all the things that can go wrong.... thanks i'll try that too. sounds like a lot of restarting

 

[666sheep]

no prob.

btw, something else you may wish to note ...
sometimes, the modules may be fine, but the RAM slot itself may be faulty, thus, do test the various slots too.

From my experience, its rare thing in those machines. But it's worth to check ofc.

KPs in G4 are mostly caused by faulty RAM, but also could be worth to test with other HDD.

 

[stefangs]

KPs in G4 are mostly caused by faulty RAM, but also could be worth to test with other HDD.

uh... what's a KP please?

 

[666sheep]

Kernel Panic - black screen with Power sign and message "You need to restart your computer" in several languages
It could be caused by faulty HDD, but as i wrote before, in most cases it's "bad RAM".

It's something like "bomb" in OS9. It could be hardware (for example RAM) or software (damaged files on HDD or lack of drivers) related.

 

[stefangs]

Kernel Panic - black screen with Power sign and message "You need to restart your computer" in several languages
It could be caused by faulty HDD, but as i wrote before, in most cases it's "bad RAM".

thanks for clarifying. since my G4 has 2 internal drives, i suppose i 'soft-swap' them, i.e. put all the system files on the other drive and use that for booting.