My G5 Crashed three times today... I need help!

[hotwire132002]

That's right--the "spinning beach ball of death" three times. I haven't installed anything new recently, but starting a couple days ago my G5 seems to be crashing... a lot. Like I said, three crashes today. I just get a "spinning beach ball"--I sit around for a few minutes, try Apple Option Escape, but no luck. Any idea what might cause this, or how to solve it? It's a bit frusterating--any help is appriaciated!

 

[Rod Rod]

It's possible that your video card is slightly loose, or if you have an Airport Extreme card installed, it may need to be re-seated. Although that sort of thing would lead to kernel panics and not eternal spinning. Have you called AppleCare?

 

[mklos]

I've you've had extra RAM added to it then remove it and see if it works better. Maybe one of the RAM DIMMS went bad. You need to remove BOTH extra sticks as a PowerMac requires RAM in matched pairs.

Also, repair permissions if you haven't already done so.

Try running the Apple Hardware Test CD that came with your PowerMac.

If nothing works then take all the cards and extra RAM out and see if it still does it. If it goes away then add them in one by one to see what one is possibly bad, making your PowerMac crash on you.

If that doesn't work then try re-installing Mac OS X. Just to an archive and install so you don't lose any of your applications, documents or settings.

If that doesn't work then I'd call Apple if its still under warranty and told them that you've done all the above which what they will have you do.

 

[hotwire132002]

I've you've had extra RAM added to it then remove it and see if it works better. Maybe one of the RAM DIMMS went bad. You need to remove BOTH extra sticks as a PowerMac requires RAM in matched pairs.

Also, repair permissions if you haven't already done so.

Try running the Apple Hardware Test CD that came with your PowerMac.

If nothing works then take all the cards and extra RAM out and see if it still does it. If it goes away then add them in one by one to see what one is possibly bad, making your PowerMac crash on you.

If that doesn't work then try re-installing Mac OS X. Just to an archive and install so you don't lose any of your applications, documents or settings.

If that doesn't work then I'd call Apple if its still under warranty and told them that you've done all the above which what they will have you do.

Thanks for the suggestions--I'll keep you updated!

 

[hotwire132002]

Here's the update:

I tried all your suggestions. No luck.

Called Apple. They told me to take it in to a reseller for repair. The reseller told me they fixed it. Brought it home, hooked it back up, and two hours later... kernal panic.

Tried to boot off the Disc One for OS X... kernal panic.

What would you say to do now? I'm thinking call Apple and get it replaced, unless anyone has a better idea...

 

[Rod Rod]

I think getting it replaced and having the replacement's computer's warranty start the day you get it (instead of the day you bought the first one) is probably the best option right now.

When you call just speak sort of slowly and impress upon them the whole long story of the misfortunes you've endured since you bought this top of the line computer. Mention how it's affected your work / gotten in the way / had adverse effects on your productivity.

If you can get some sort of "extra" for all the trouble you've been through that would also be good... such as a 9800XT or extra RAM.

 

[hotwire132002]

I think getting it replaced and having the replacement's computer's warranty start the day you get it (instead of the day you bought the first one) is probably the best option right now.

When you call just speak sort of slowly and impress upon them the whole long story of the misfortunes you've endured since you bought this top of the line computer. Mention how it's affected your work / gotten in the way / had adverse effects on your productivity.

If you can get some sort of "extra" for all the trouble you've been through that would also be good... such as a 9800XT or extra RAM.

Very good advice. This whole thing has definately set back my work--I had a few videos I was supposed to have done for people as christmas presents which I couldn't finish because the G5 went down. I'm going to call Apple up in a few minutes, and I'll keep you updated.

 

[jrv3034]

Just curious... Do you have a USB Compact Flash card reader attached to the PowerMac? I ask because it's happened to me a lot, and then I discovered the card reader was to blame. I only plug it in when I need to use it, and the Kernel Panics have disappeared.

Best of luck!

 

[hotwire132002]

Just curious... Do you have a USB Compact Flash card reader attached to the PowerMac? I ask because it's happened to me a lot, and then I discovered the card reader was to blame. I only plug it in when I need to use it, and the Kernel Panics have disappeared.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the tip, but I've been running with nothing except monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers attached to check if it was a peripheral problem. It's still crashing.

I'm going to call Apple and keep you posted!

 

[tedmuhindi]

Check your Fonts

Have you installed new fonts lately? I had a similar experience a while back and the culprit was a corrupt font. Even if you haven’t installed a new font/s check that out before you haul you G5 back to the store!

 

[hotwire132002]

Have you installed new fonts lately? I had a similar experience a while back and the culprit was a corrupt font. Even if you haven’t installed a new font/s check that out before you haul you G5 back to the store!

I seriously doubt the problem is a font--after wiping the hard drive and reinstalling OS X it's still crashing. That makes me seriously doubt that it's a software problem.

I called Apple, but since I was at my office and the G5 wasn't on hand, they couldn't help me. I'm home now and I'm about to call again. I'll keep you updated!

 

[hotwire132002]

The update...

I talked to AppleCare. The lady was extremely friendly and helpful--they're sending a new logic board and new memory, and set up a house call to have it installed. Hopefully that will work...

I'll keep you posted!

 

[Rod Rod]

That's good to hear. It's sort of neat to have a computer repair house call.

 

[hotwire132002]

That's good to hear. It's sort of neat to have a computer repair housecall.

The only thing that stinks is the reseller doing the house call is the same one that charged be forty bucks to tell me there was no problem with it (of course, two hours after hooking it back up it crashed again).

 

[Rod Rod]

That does stink, badly. Now that you have a case number with AppleCare the reseller should reverse that $40 charge. Otherwise it's bogus.

 

[continuum]

The only thing that stinks is the reseller doing the house call is the same one that charged be forty bucks to tell me there was no problem with it (of course, two hours after hooking it back up it crashed again).

sounds like you may have other problems than what i had...
i had the beach ball for a while, posted for help here at macrumors, i was told to try zapping pram (i think that's what it was) and repairing permissions. did it and everything works like a charm. 1.6 g5

 

[uncle]

freezing et al

Hi

You might try reseting the smu. This is a chip controller for things like fans and quite a bit of auto background stuff. You do this by taking the power lead out of the back of the mac wait for an audible click up-to 15 seconds or so then put the lead in again.

I've heard a lot about re-seating the vid card and also about disabling Quarts Extreme. I eventually managed to do this and noticed a drop off of CPU overhead in window server. I had a few hairy moments as i've not used terminal before. The best is to cut and past the script so its accurate. Having the install disk 1 and another bootable disk to hand is also advisable.

Once you've copied and pasted them in at the prompt hit return. If the prompt returns with no fault messages it worked, restart the machine. This hasn't been my prob. I'm getting random sleeps. So I hope this works for you! Take a look on the apple forums site if in doubt re this as a possible fix! If it does fix it this may indicate vid card prob. I can't remember if you have 10.3.7 but it's supposed to help with this also. That may be worth a shot first.

Bob

These are the terminal scripts. I got them from a discussion of the spinning beach ball of death on the apple forums site.

use at your own risk.

To Disable Quartz Extreme, (in Terminal) type:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver GLCompositor -dict tileHeight -int 0 tileWidth -int 0

To Enable Quartz Extreme, (in Terminal) type:

defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver GLCompositor