PowerBook G4 12'' A1010 - kernel panic?

[paardenkapper]

G'day everyone. Another PowerBook G4 - this time the 12 inch model is behaving badly.
It has OSX 10.3 Panther installed and it gets pretty hot.

1) 512 MB DDR are installed yet it only recognizes 256 MB of that stick - even though the system should support 1 GB sticks (https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_867_12.html)

2) Pretty often when you boot into OSX after seconds the system suddenly crashes and urges me to restart:

I cannot even boot into 10.4 Tiger installation because it crashes, too. I think it might be the harddrive - is there any way to proof that besides swapping it?

Thanks!

 

[chaosbunny]

1) 512 MB DDR are installed yet it only recognizes 256 MB of that stick - even though the system should support 1 GB sticks (https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_867_12.html)

Now that sounds weird. Have you tried removing the stick and booting without it? The machine has onboard memory so it should boot if the problem is a faulty ram stick.

 

[Amethyst1]

After the panic occurs and the machine restarts, open Applications > Utilities > Console and have a look at the "diagnostic reports" or panic.log file. Try booting without the RAM module and reseating the module. If that doesn't help, run Apple Hardware Test or memtest (from e.g. an Ubuntu Live CD/DVD) to check if the module behaves properly.

 

[AphoticD]

I recently had a similar issue where a 256MB SODIMM only registered as 128MB in my Lombard and the machine exhibited random instability.

Sometimes it would boot normally, then lock up after a few hours of use. Sometimes no boot at all. I attempted reinstallation of OS X, which locked up and became corrupted mid install.

This was coupled with a known issue around top memory slot usage being unstable for OS X installations on that model, but after replacing the faulty SODIMM the issues all went away.

Just see how the Mac behaves without it as @chaosbunny suggests.

 

[paardenkapper]

Must have been the RAM - after exchanging the 512 MB with a 1 GB which are fully recognized - the OS booted normally, no kernel panic and would even load into Fallout 2!

Yay!

 

[AphoticD]

View attachment 2203482Must have been the RAM - after exchanging the 512 MB with a 1 GB which are fully recognized - the OS booted normally, no kernel panic and would even load into Fallout 2!

Yay!

Great outcome!

Enjoy Fallout 2! My son just started (re-)playing Fallout NV on Xbox today and we are having fun exploring the Mojave wasteland together

 

[chaosbunny]

Must have been the RAM - after exchanging the 512 MB with a 1 GB which are fully recognized - the OS booted normally, no kernel panic and would even load into Fallout 2!

Yay!

It's always great when the fix is easy. I also have an 867 mhz 12" PowerBook. Bought it new in 2003. Nice little machines.

Great outcome!

Enjoy Fallout 2! My son just started (re-)playing Fallout NV on Xbox today and we are having fun exploring the Mojave wasteland together

Yeah, the Fallout universe is always a great place for awesome adventures.