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iBook G4 kernel panic on start, then won't spin up HD

B

Ben Kei

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 30, 2002
204
1
London UK
Hello.

I had a problem with my G4 iBook (last revision 1.33ghz 12-inch) where it would Kernel panic every now and then using the airport.
It started less than a month after the 1 year warrantee ran out (surprise!) but I was moving at the time and didn't have the chance to take it to get it looked at.

Last week I switched on the Mac and it Kernel panicked on the grey apple screen before it loads extensions. After restarting it plays the apple chime and then nothing... No HD spinning up or anything.
I took the battery out, left it for an hour or so, came back and it was fine.

It did the same thing last night, only this time, it's not fine.. if I take the battery out and leave it for an hour or so it'll try to boot afterwards, but kernel panics and then goes into the loop of not spinning up the disk etc..

Any ideas? I'm dreading it being a logic board problem! if it is, any idea on prices for a replacement?

I'm going to attempt to use Target Mode to my desktop machine later to rescue all my project files (this laptop is used primarily for Music with a small amount of web stuff too).
 
Try booting off something like DiskWarrior 4 - this way at least you may be able to find out if it's your hard drive or logic board, or something else, and it's a good diagnostic tool that can also fix your problem if it's just a directory or OS X problem.
 
OldCorpse said:
Try booting off something like DiskWarrior 4 - this way at least you may be able to find out if it's your hard drive or logic board, or something else, and it's a good diagnostic tool that can also fix your problem if it's just a directory or OS X problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll see if I can grab a copy from work.

I can't boot up from the 10.4 install disk though.. I tried, now my OS disk is stuck in the drive cos it won't boot far enough to be able to eject it holding the trackpad button down.

I think the disk is OK though because I managed to Target Mode it to my desktop machine tonight and back up all my project files.

Just REALLY hoping it's not the logic board.. might as well buy a whole new machine for the money/hassle/lack of cover I'll have fitting a new board. SUCKS!
 
I don't know how it is in London, but here in Los Angeles, I can take my iBook (same model as yours) to any Apple store and have a genius at the genius bar look at it, even though I don't have Apple Care and it's out of warranty... they do it as a courtesy. You may just try doing the same and see if they can tell you something, or at least diagnose the problem. Of course, they may be more strict in London about not having Apple Care and being out of warranty.
 
Don't panic (yet!). The kernel panics using Airport provides a clue. Try removing (or at least unplugging) the Airport card.
 
I tried looking into the Airport card before, I have it disabled (on the software side) but I still had the panics on start up.

I managed to get it to boot fine from a CD yesterday after backing up all the stuff I figured I needed via target mode.
I wiped, and went to reinstall.. everything went totally fine.. that is until it restarted itself (to ask for disk 2..) at which point it went back into the restart = not spinning up the HD routine.

I've been checking the price online for 12 inch iBook 1.33 logic boards and they're 2/3 the cost of a new MacBook.. I hate to say it, but if it IS the logic board I'd be more tempted to spend the extra and get a new MacBook to at least have the peace of mind that is Apple Care (for what it's worth...) :mad:

Any more ideas from anyone?
 
Ben Kei said:
I tried looking into the Airport card before, I have it disabled (on the software side) but I still had the panics on start up.

I managed to get it to boot fine from a CD yesterday after backing up all the stuff I figured I needed via target mode.
I wiped, and went to reinstall.. everything went totally fine.. that is until it restarted itself (to ask for disk 2..) at which point it went back into the restart = not spinning up the HD routine.

I've been checking the price online for 12 inch iBook 1.33 logic boards and they're 2/3 the cost of a new MacBook.. I hate to say it, but if it IS the logic board I'd be more tempted to spend the extra and get a new MacBook to at least have the peace of mind that is Apple Care (for what it's worth...) :mad:

Any more ideas from anyone?
Click to expand...

Yes, unplug the Airport card, for starters. Turning off Airport is not the same thing. Don't assume that drastic measures are required until you've tried less drastic measures.

Reinstalling OSX almost never helps in this (or any other) situation.
 
Thanks for the reply!

Someone linked me to an article on the apple site telling how to remove the airport card on a last revision iBook 12-inch, I did everything as instructed, remove keyboard and covering panel and was presented with the slot with my extra ram fitted and nothing else!

If someone can tell me where the airport card is ACTUALLY found on the 12-inch iBook 1.33 final revision machine then I'll gladly remove it! A £60 replacement Airport card is FAR more preferable to a whole new Login Board!

Once again, thanks for your reply!

Ben
 
Ben Kei said:
Exactly!

On my machine, when I remove the keyboard, all I have is a metal cover, under which is the RAM slot and no airport card.

A friend has the 14-inch machine and his is just like that, the design appears to be different in the 12-inch and Apple don't seem to have a guide specifically for my model.

:(
Click to expand...

The later models of the G4 iBook had integrated Airport. Sorry for the confusion.

Apparently at least one run of iBooks has been experiencing significant problems of this kind, probably related to Airport firmware, but I don't think anyone knows for certain. One suggestion I've seen is to remove the Airport driver manually, but I don't think you can easily do this if the iBook doesn't boot at all.
 
GeeYouEye said:
Can you boot to a CD/DVD?
Click to expand...

Yes I can. Although I probably now have an extra problem.

I tried to reinstall just to strip things back to a factory default.
Disk 1 (10.4.2 I think) went on fine, then when it reboots to install the files from disk 2, it failed to reboot. Same problem it was having after the Kernel panic on start up.

So I'm not in a position to boot from the disk and remove drivers from my existing set up as I've now wiped that off half-installed a fresh OS on there. :(
 
k

try to get a operating system on the ibook then via target disk mode remove the airports drivers of that system and see if you can reboot ???
 
Gokhan said:
try to get a operating system on the ibook then via target disk mode remove the airports drivers of that system and see if you can reboot ???
Click to expand...

Interestingly, I tried another reinstall. This time I installed ONLY the OS itself and the X11 subystem to see if that would give me any extra clues.

So I let it reboot after the installation and instead of booting into OS X it booted up into open firmware.
It reports:

Illegal instruction at %SRR0: 00000000 %SRR1: 00081010 (are these memory addresses?)

Then gives my BootROM info:

Apple Powerbook6,7 4.9.3f0 (I have an iBook.. I'm guessing it uses the same boot rom at the Powerbooks? I don't think I ever updated the firmware on this machine unless it was through software update).

It then says:
To continue booting, type "mac-boot" and press return.
To shut down, type "shut-down" and press return.
Reducing system power...

ok
0 >

If I type mac-boot it sits in a loop of dsplaying an old OS9 system folder with a ? (i.e. can't find a startup disk) and then the ? changes to the old OS9 happy disk icon, back to the ? and so on..

Unplug, leave for 20 minutes, come back and try a normal boot.
It boots fine!
Welcome to OS X etc.. then the setup discovers my wireless, so I figured I'd give it a try, what do I have to lose? Type in my WEP pssword, hit enter and BAM! It Kernel Panics.

Left it for another 20 minutes, got it into target mode and deleted all the Airport drivers, associated files etc.. I'll attempt to reboot once it's had it's 20 minute cool off period.. sigh.

Just figured I'd post this up as installing the X11 subsystem seems to cause it to actually boot into open firmware rather than totally crash out after a kernel paic.. I'm a total open firmware noob and it doesn't mean that much to me to be honest - hoping this means something more to someone on here.

Thanks!!

Ben
 
k

try zeroing the drive and reinstall then boot via target disk and delete airport driver and dont use the airport for a while to see if its stable

also i wonder if you could open the machine up and unplug the airport cable ??

this may solve your issue
 
Gokhan said:
try zeroing the drive and reinstall then boot via target disk and delete airport driver and dont use the airport for a while to see if its stable

also i wonder if you could open the machine up and unplug the airport cable ??

this may solve your issue
Click to expand...

Well I'm posting from the iBook now.
Looks like removing the Airport drivers has done the trick (for now) although I haven't tried a restart to see if it hangs again yet!

As an added bonus it even managed to log the panic for me even though I didn't even get through the registration process.

Here it is:

panic(cpu 0 caller 0x000A8B98): Uncorrectable machine check: pc = 0000000036CD9D18, msr = 0000000000149030, dsisr = 40000000, dar = 0000000021FFA040
AsyncSrc = 0000000000000000, CoreFIR = 0000000000000000
L2FIR = 0000000000000000, BusFir = 0000000000000000

Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
Backtrace:
0x00095544 0x00095A5C 0x0002683C 0x000A8B98 0x000A7E28 0x000ABB00
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x37737280)
PC=0x36CD9D18; MSR=0x00149030; DAR=0x21FFA040; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x36CD9D04; R1=0x17EF39E0; XCP=0x00000008 (0x200 - Machine check)
Backtrace:
0x36CD9D04 0x36CF3970 0x36D13718 0x36D14048 0x36D131FC 0x36D13098
0x002CDC6C 0x36D1138C 0x36D126D0 0x002E82CC 0x0008CBE4 0x000291C0 0x000233AC 0x000ABE2C
0xFFFFFFFF
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.iokit.AppleAirPort2(401.2)@0x36cd4000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily(1.5.0)@0x2df28000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(1.6)@0x27fdf000
Exception state (sv=0x37168500)
PC=0x9000A778; MSR=0x0200F030; DAR=0x21FFA040; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x9000A6BC; R1=0xBFFFCA90; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.2.1: Fri Jun 24 23:31:10 PDT 2005; root:xnu-792.3.2.obj~1/RELEASE_PPCModel: PowerBook6,7, BootROM 4.9.3f0, 1 processors, PowerPC G4 (1.2), 1.33 GHz, 1 GB
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon 9550, ATY,M12, AGP, 32 MB
Memory Module: DIMM0/BUILT-IN, 512 MB, built-in, built-in
Memory Module: DIMM1/J7, 512 MB, DDR SDRAM, PC2700U-25330
Modem: Jump, , V.92, Version 1.0,
Bluetooth: Version 1.6.3f2, 2 service, 1 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Built-in Ethernet, Ethernet, en0
Parallel ATA Device: MATSHITACD-RW CW-8124,
Parallel ATA Device: TOSHIBA MK4025GAS, 37.26 GB
USB Device: Bluetooth HCI, , Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: Apple Internal Trackpad, Apple Computer, Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA

And there you have it.. Airport.

Now I need to see if it's rectifyable and try to work out why it causes the HD to not spin up after a panic/restart (unless that's still happening, in which case they might both be part of a larger problem).

I'll bring it back up to the latest versions (my install disk is 10.4.2) and put some apps back on it tomorrow I think, put it through its paces and see if it's stable or not.
 
That's right, keep trying to reinstall OSX until you die of exhaustion. :rolleyes:

You almost certainly have a hardware problem of some sort. The Hardware Test CD, which came with your iBook, might be able to find it. This is worth a try, at least. Continually reinstalling OSX is not the ticket.
 
Now what you'll probably end up doing is booting from an external HD that already has OS X on it and continue troubleshooting. Like IJ Reilly said, its a hardware problem, not a software problem. A lot of the time when kernel panics continuously occur, its a hardware issue, not a software one. If its software, then just that particular piece of software will continuously crash.

I would also suggest trying the hardware test CD that came with your iBook. Its usually either on a separate CD thats chrome, if not then its on one of the restore DVDs. If thats the case, put in that restore CD/DVD and then power up the Mac and hold down the option key. It will go out and scan for bootable sources and will take a minute or 2. Select Hardware Test and then click the --> button. It should then boot from the hardware test portion of the restore CD/DVD.
 
k

DONT USE THE AIRPORT it seems to be the problem so unplug teh damn thing and use a usb dongle !!! ell tou could maybe even fit that inside the machine is you take out the priginal airport !!!!

let us know how you get on and guys dont always assume its the logicboard a service center told me my board was busted and its the damn harddrive thats keeps corrupting stick with that guy !!
 
Gokhan said:
DONT USE THE AIRPORT it seems to be the problem so unplug teh damn thing and use a usb dongle !!! ell tou could maybe even fit that inside the machine is you take out the priginal airport !!!!

let us know how you get on and guys dont always assume its the logicboard a service center told me my board was busted and its the damn harddrive thats keeps corrupting stick with that guy !!
Click to expand...

If you read through the thread you would see that its already been pointed out that the Airport Card is not a just a card under the keyboard like previous models. Its physically on the logicboard and cannot be taken off very easily if at all. For this reason, we assume a logicboard issue, and/or an issue with the airport hardware which cannot be swapped out very easily as previously said. Therefore, since its physically installed in the computer and cannot be taken out, it always starts up as part of the normal OS X boot procedure. I guess if you were really good with the firmware, you maybe able to boot to that and disable Airport, but I wouldn't dare screw around with that nor would I recommend it to anyone.
 
Thanks for the replies and concerns.

Like I said, last night I booted into the OS perfectly after a reinstall and then Target mode to remove the Airport drivers.

It's booting fine, running fine (except the airport obviously) but it does still have the problem where if you restart it doesn't spin up the HD.

I am aware it's almost certainly a hardware issue, don't think I'm not.. but I'm the kind of person who will exhaust every angle I know of before seeking some REAL help.

Put it this way.. I've been using Macs for nearly 15 years and have never had to have one fixed professionally - YET
 
I would make sure your stuff is backed up as well. You never know what could happen in the future. Especially if you let it go until it totally dies.
 
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