Powerbook G4 crashing, going blank, help??

[PSS4]

Greetings,
I bought a Powerbook G4 about 2.5 yrs ago, top of the line, new from an Apple Store and its been great. However over the last 2 months, its developed this habit of crashing/sleeping/going blank while it Itunes is streaming music, and/ or while Safari is up. Last night it did it while I was recording a Live DAT into garage band. I used to be able to hit the space bar or any key, and it would come back briefly, crash, repeat etc until I restarted. Now however, its just suddenly black. nothing. All I can do is take the battery out for a little while, wait, put it back in, and then restart. I've backed up everything as a precaution. I am diligent about uploading software updates, and I run MacJanitor from time to time...
I probably have 1200 songs, 15TV shows on Itunes, and 1000 pictures on iphoto, So I would hope my hard drive still has ample space. Before I bring it to an Apple Store or have it shipped out for who knows how long, does anyone have any suggestions that I try? Any advice or Tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. -Peter

 

[anothermacaddic]

You would be lucky if it was just a bad hard drive. I would think the logic board (motherboard) is shot. I would try replacing the hard drive myself (not an easy task to do on a pb) and then if that didnt work take it to an apple repair shop or send it to an online repair shop. Might just want to save yourself time and effort and sell it on ebay as junk and buy yourself a new mbp.

 

[0007776]

It is probably the logic board. if you still have any applecare on it then take it in otherwise it is probably not worth fixing. If you don't have apple care then I would probably do like the previous poster said and sell it on ebay for parts and buy a new MBP.

 

[PSS4]

Wow, Really? I'll just add that I can be online for hours, without it happening, sometimes it wont happen for a week or so, but it does happen from time to time....Like once in a while it will just have a bad night, then the next day its fine...

 

[deadpixels]

before thinking about the extreme case (failing logic board) you should use the dvd that came with your machine, start from it and run the hardware test just to see if you get anything interesting (that's probably what the Apple tech will do first).

 

[SuperCompu2]

It might be a Memory DIMM dying, as both streaming music and recording things take ample memory to complete. Doing simple tasks like net browsing may not provoke problems, but accessing more of the RAM may send it off the deep end.

Try taking one or the other SODIMM out and see if it happens. This would be my second guess after a HD failure.