Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Powerbook G4 1.67 kernel panic-- won't boot

Nova77 said:
The install process was 100% fine, but when it restarts on the clean install... same kernel panic.
Click to expand...

More proof to me that it's not the drive. It's a very odd issue indeed and many of the things that are happening make no sense. I would say take it to a tech but most charge over 90 per hour so you could buy a new one for about the same amount as 2-3 hours worth of work.

This is the kind of issue where I would need to test all the chips and PCB links to them to decipher the issue properly.
 
Last edited:
zen.state said:
More proof to me that it's not the drive. It's a very odd issue indeed and many of the things that are happening make no sense. I would say take it to a tech but most charge over 90 per hour so you could buy a new one for about the same amount as 2-3 hours worth of work.

This is the kind of issue where I would need to test all the chips and PCB links to them to decipher the issue properly.
Click to expand...

Could it be the drive? I have to say this is the second drive... first one died because of overheating.
 
Nova77 said:
Could it be the drive? I have to say this is the second drive... first one died because of overheating.
Click to expand...

The reason I rule out the drive is that you have been able to do a couple reformats and reinstalls on it. A drive that can do those things should have no issue booting at all.
 
zen.state said:
The reason I rule out the drive is that you have been able to do a couple reformats and reinstalls on it. A drive that can do those things should have no issue booting at all.
Click to expand...

I did not reformat the whole drive, I just wiped out one partition and reinstall the system.
 
Nova77 said:
I did not reformat the whole drive, I just wiped out one partition and reinstall the system.
Click to expand...

I don't trust that partition business. Just reformat the whole drive and see what happens. Also make sure you are not doing the reformat in GUID.
 
Yes you need to do a proper format on the drive. Back up whatever isn't already and wipe the whole thing into 1 partition then try the whole install and boot again.
 
zen.state said:
Yes you need to do a proper format on the drive. Back up whatever isn't already and wipe the whole thing into 1 partition then try the whole install and boot again.
Click to expand...

I can't access my files.... how could I?
 
zen.state said:
Target disk mode (if it works) or take it out.

This is why you should always backup everything anyway.
Click to expand...

Who said I have no backup? I just don't wanna lose my latest japanese anime. Btw who I am supposed to take out a laptop drive and access it after?... Its not like I have a billion computers and hardware to mess with.
 
Update: I was able to boot it again, holding shift key at startup on fresh tiger install.

How do I find a faulty extension? I don't know what to do
 
Last edited:
zen.state said:
I wasn't talking about pulling any hardware
Click to expand...

Admittedly I didn't really read most of what you were waffling on about, I do apologise.

zen.state said:
Based on the info I have I would rule out GPU or HD failure at this point at least.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't rule it out, mostly because I've had very similar issues described in this thread occur with an iBook a few years back. Turned out the HDD was ****ed.

Edit: (sorry missed the last post there Nova77)

Nova77 said:
Update: I was able to boot it again, holding shift key at startup on fresh tiger install.

How do I find a faulty extension? I don't know what to do
Click to expand...

Even if you do find a faulty extensions, chances are turning it off won't fix the underlying issue. After all something's caused it to become faulty in the first place, right? I really do think you should just at least try swapping the HDD and trying a clean install. If I'm wrong then well slap my arse and call me Suzi and I'll shut the hell up.

Edit edit: I dunno what 1.67 G4 you have but here's some info on HDD removal for the hi res 15" - ifixit's got the tuts for the other models too, not that they're a whole lot different.

Aside from all this if you're not confident or capable of doing this procedure then chances are what's causing your problem isn't anything you can fix yourself either, and finding out the problem from this forum ain't really going to solve that issue so you might as well just take it to a repair shop and get them to fix it.
 
Last edited:
Xandros said:
Admittedly I didn't really read most of what you were waffling on about, I do apologise.



I wouldn't rule it out, mostly because I've had very similar issues described in this thread occur with an iBook a few years back. Turned out the HDD was ****ed.

Edit: (sorry missed the last post there Nova77)



Even if you do find a faulty extensions, chances are turning it off won't fix the underlying issue. After all something's caused it to become faulty in the first place, right? I really do think you should just at least try swapping the HDD and trying a clean install. If I'm wrong then well slap my arse and call me Suzi and I'll shut the hell up.

Edit edit: I dunno what 1.67 G4 you have but here's some info on HDD removal for the hi res 15" - ifixit's got the tuts for the other models too, not that they're a whole lot different.

Aside from all this if you're not confident or capable of doing this procedure then chances are what's causing your problem isn't anything you can fix yourself either, and finding out the problem from this forum ain't really going to solve that issue so you might as well just take it to a repair shop and get them to fix it.
Click to expand...

I would take out the hard drive if I had another one to put in place, which I don't have.
Still don't understand why this thing would get the same kernel panic via external firewire drive if it was hard drive related...
 
At last, some good news! yeah!

I got to boot freshly installed tiger boot partition without disabling anything. (idk if its luck lol)
And now I've found out it won't recognize airport at start. When I go in network prefs and press "apply" settings, kernel panic.

To me it sounds as if the airport card is faulty or... more likely a bad connection. I say this because the top of my laptop is slightly damaged (it has been for quite a long time).

However, the hard drive feels slow as hell! Its sluggish as I've never seen it before (exept when drive was near full), and thats on a clean install. So this might be a double issue thing.

I'm backing up the remaning files because last backup is too old, and I'm gonna wipe out the entire drive.
 
Nova, I would suggest that you replace your hard drive. It seems that you cannot rely on it anymore. Anytime soon it will hit the dust.
 
Nameci said:
Nova, I would suggest that you replace your hard drive. It seems that you cannot rely on it anymore. Anytime soon it will hit the dust.
Click to expand...

Personnaly I think the HDD is sluggish for software related reasons. Haven't cleaned anything and run almost NO maintenance stuff for approx 2 years (since I got it). I don't think a fairly new WD drive would die out so quick.

As I said the computer is damaged, plus, the first time it got kernel panic was after I had a hard time with the cover (screen), because that thing barely closes. That put with the fact the kernel panic doesnt happen anymore on a clean install because airport comes disabled at start, and when you apply network settings, BOOM... and its the only thing that doesnt work proprely at the moment...

I'm gonna throw away that airport kext and see if I can apply network settings. If its the case, and everything works fine again, well.... And I will also do a clean install, erasing all partitions.
 
I just fixed a friend's PB G4 who has this exact same issue. It is not the HD, graphics card, or logic board as others have suggested, it is the Airport card as you came to discover.
It can boot in Tiger because it doesn't load Airport right away like in Leopard.
Confirm this by booting Leopard (install disc boot works) in verbose mode (hold Shift + V after chime). It will show you the details of the kernel panic, the airport drivers should be in the backtrace.
Removing your Airport kext will not fix it, I attempted this and it did nothing.
Only solution is to physically remove the bad airport card.
Excellent guides can be found here:
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/PowerBook_G4_Aluminum_Series
As soon as I removed the bad airport card from my friend's PB it booted fine, no more kernel panics.
You'll have to get a new airport card or a 3rd party wireless card... for a computer of this age I'd just get a cheapy 3rd party...these are small cheap and mac compatible: http://www.airlink101.com/products/adapter.php
 
Last edited:
p4madeus said:
I just fixed a friend's PB G4 who has this exact same issue. It is not the HD, graphics card, or logic board as others have suggested, it is the Airport card as you came to discover.
It can boot in Tiger because it doesn't load Airport right away like in Leopard.
Confirm this by booting Leopard (install disc boot works) in verbose mode (hold Shift + V after chime). It will show you the details of the kernel panic, the airport drivers should be in the backtrace.
Removing your Airport kext will not fix it, I attempted this and it did nothing.
Only solution is to physically remove the bad airport card.
Excellent guides can be found here:
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/PowerBook_G4_Aluminum_Series
As soon as I removed the bad airport card from my friend's PB it booted fine, no more kernel panics.
You'll have to get a new airport card or a 3rd party wireless card... for a computer of this age I'd just get a cheapy 3rd party...these are small cheap and mac compatible: http://www.airlink101.com/products/adapter.php
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, I'll check this out. I'm pretty sure its the airport card, and leopard wouldn't even boot in safe mode, so thats probably the same problem here. Also I guess my old Tiger system wouldn't boot normally because prefs were set to auto activate airport at start and connect to my network. After a clean install, airport is not activated at start.

Guess I'm gonna get some usb or add-on card for wireless N.
 
Removed Airport kexts and cleaned the cache... result : no more kernel panic when I apply network settings. One more proof this has to do with the airport card.
 
Nova77 said:
Removed Airport kexts and cleaned the cache... result : no more kernel panic when I apply network settings. One more proof this has to do with the airport card.
Click to expand...

Interesting - probably since you are still in Tiger, it did not work for me with a Leopard install.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back