Two questions - Aluminum PBG4

[feelingsupersonic]

This is for my 17" PB G4 1.5 GHz running 10.5.8 but is almost surely pertinent to other models:

• iScoll2, which enables trackpad gestures such as 2-finger scrolling on pre-2005 models (ADB trackpad). Having issues and was curious to hear feedback from others. Worked great on Leopard for me last year - for a few weeks, until one day the keyboard stopped working completely. Thought it was a hardware issue and took it apart several times to check connections. A clean install showed me it was a software problem, and nothing else was installed that would have caused this conflict. Has anyone else experienced this? I actually swapped the hard drive into my Mac Mini and the install worked fine (USB peripherals obviously). Swapped it back to the PB and it was broken.
• L3 cache. On some other PPC machines I have, it shows up under "About this Mac" however I am not seeing anything register. I vaguely remember reading about how it can go bad, or something to that effect. Is there a way to check this, and any action that can be taken? EveryMac shows that this model has 512k of L2/L3 cache on chip. I am seeing 512k in System Report as L2. I guess I am just looking for a sanity check, that this is normal and there is not some handicap on this machine.

Thanks for any inputs!

 

[Raging Dufus]

I've never had your particular model of PowerBook, but have used iScroll2 extensively on other hardware and never had any issues whatsoever.

As for the L3 cache, there isn't any on the 7447A chip, which is the type of G4 your PowerBook is running. 512K of L2 is all you get with that model.

 

[eyoungren]

I use and have used iScroll2 on my 1Ghz 17" PB for years Never had any problems, except initially and that was down to me learning how to use it. I've had two of these model PowerBooks, my original and my current. Three or four if you count the logicboards and guts I bought to keep the original running. I had to periodically clean the ribbon cable contact for the keyboard/trackpad on my original PowerBook because sometimes it would freak out and the keyboard and trackpad would stop functioning normally. I've not had that problem with my current PowerBook.

My original had a cache failure - it shows in Diagnostics in System Profiler, but my current PowerBook shows the cache. My understanding was that only the 1Ghz 17" PB had L3 cache.

 

[feelingsupersonic]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Case closed on the L3 cache, but I am still scratching my head on the keyboard issue that I suspect was caused by iScroll2. It's such a nice feature, after using Macbook Pros for a decade now with these features as my daily machines. I will simply make a disk image of my drive, and re-install iScroll2, knowing I can revert if needed. Will keep this thread updated with any findings.

 

[B S Magnet]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Case closed on the L3 cache, but I am still scratching my head on the keyboard issue that I suspect was caused by iScroll2. It's such a nice feature, after using Macbook Pros for a decade now with these features as my daily machines. I will simply make a disk image of my drive, and re-install iScroll2, knowing I can revert if needed. Will keep this thread updated with any findings.

Maybe something you‘ve already eliminated, but worth an ask anyway: have you ditched the preference file for iScroll2 and started with a fresh one? This parses like a corruption, and preference files, which get their fair share of being re-written, sometimes go awry. I lack direct experience with iScroll2 (confession: I’ve never had a Mac which would work with it), but I use SideTrack with my older iBook and have had to, on at least one occasion, delete the pref file to redress an issue with its function.

As for eyeing which G4s have an L3 cache: the 7400-series (G4s) with 745x (7450, 7451, 7455, 7457) should denote the presence of an L3 cache interface.

 

[feelingsupersonic]

Maybe something you‘ve already eliminated, but worth an ask anyway: have you ditched the preference file for iScroll2 and started with a fresh one? This parses like a corruption, and preference files, which get their fair share of being re-written, sometimes go awry. I lack direct experience with iScroll2 (confession: I’ve never had a Mac which would work with it), but I use SideTrack with my older iBook and have had to, on at least one occasion, delete the pref file to redress an issue with its function.

As for eyeing which G4s have an L3 cache: the 7400-series (G4s) with 745x (7450, 7451, 7455, 7457) denote the presence of an L3 cache.

I wasn't even aware of a prefs file to be honest. A fresh copy of OS X has been installed since then, but I will watch out for this if it happens again.

I installed iScroll2 earlier today but nothing happens... this was literally the same installer file on the same laptop, same OS X version, and it worked fine this time last year! Something else is going on. I deleted all caches and etc using OnyX, but nothing changed. The preference pane is there and I'm able to configure it as usual, but nothing actually happens. 2-finger gestures are ignored. Maybe I'll look at Sidetrack.

 

[B S Magnet]

I wasn't even aware of a prefs file to be honest. A fresh copy of OS X has been installed since then, but I will watch out for this if it happens again.

I installed iScroll2 earlier today but nothing happens... this was literally the same installer file on the same laptop, same OS X version, and it worked fine this time last year! Something else is going on. I deleted all caches and etc using OnyX, but nothing changed. The preference pane is there and I'm able to configure it as usual, but nothing actually happens. 2-finger gestures are ignored. Maybe I'll look at Sidetrack.

SideTrack works a bit differently than iScroll2: you can configure it to allow for scrolling, but with one finger, by reserving the left or right side of the trackpad for vertical scrolling (and, similarly, reserving the bottom or top of the trackpad for horizontal scrolling). SideTrack is necessary for older trackpads which lack the circuitry to discern more than one contact point on its capacitive matrix. Basically, the physical ability for trackpads to discern more than one contact point came later in the iBook/PowerBook G4 run, which is where iScroll2 comes in handy.

If you can, look for the preferences in one or more of these locations:
/Library/Preferences/name.razzfazz.driver.iScroll2.plist ~/Library/Preferences/name.razzfazz.driver.iScroll2.plist

Either rename or mv (with sudo) the files to name.razzfazz.driver.iScroll2.plist.old, or you could also move them to the trash before rebooting. The reboot should generate fresh, new plist files for iScroll2. Past preferences you saved will need to be set up again.

There may also be a LaunchAgent plist for iScroll at:
/Library/LaunchAgents/name.razzfazz.driver.iScroll2.plist /Library/LaunchAgents/name.razzfazz.driver.iScroll2.plist

For the LaunchAgents, I would be surprised to see recent file mod dates — like around the date when your problems began — on those, and if that’s the case, you could probably leave those be. But if those too are recent, try moving them to a .old suffix and reboot.

 

[Macbookprodude]

The last Titanium series which I have has L3 cache. Somehow running this app from PowerLogix caused my L3 to be disabled, though at first I thought it was an issue with the L3 cache chip - this stuff goes bad over time though. Luckily, AFAIK, the L3 is working fine and its now visable once I stopped using that cache app.

 

[feelingsupersonic]

Thanks all, got it sorted. Had to re-install it a few times after clearing caches and etc. Knock on wood, but everything appears to be stable this time.