Yesterday, my PowerBook [running 10.3.9] crashed at least 12 times. At some points it locked up, at other points I got the black kernel error screen, and other times I got the formal 'You need to restart' lockup error right after restarting.
So far, my computer has locked up once today...
Anyone know what might be causing this? I verified/repaired HD permissions, did a parameter RAM zap, ran Onyx cleanup...
What else is left to do?
Have you tried booting into single user mode and run fsck? If you're not sure how to do this, hold down 'command+s' at start up, when prompted type in 'fsck -f' (no quotes) and let it run. If you get a message saying something like **system has been modified**' then re-run fsck until it clears then type 'reboot'. If the problem still occurs then it could be a multitude of things, either the cpu is over heating which is the culprit of many lock-ups or your system has suffered a major corruption somewhere, which means a reinstall. Let us know how you get on.
--Rogue
My guess - bad RAM
I agree with Unbe. Not enough ram, or something.
Have you dropped it/spilled any thing on it?
This is one of those questions where saying "get a mac" doesn't do much justice too.
I'm not saying it hasn't got enough ram, i'm saying the RAM is ****ed up and is malfunctioning, broken.
I'm gonna go with Unbe on this... sounds like a FUBAR'd memory module.
Of all the PowerBooks that I have serviced, RAM has not been an issue. PB's can be prone to overheating, therefore lock ups occur. However, we cannot rule out bad RAM, so I would suggest running the Hardware CD to check for bad RAM and diagnose the system, then see what that turns up from there.
I have one original stick of RAM and another 1GB stick of Crucial that I added this most recent winter. I haven't really experienced any significant crashing until yesterday. I'll run this fsck business, but I don't have my CD on hand... I do have DiskWarrior, but I can't run it on my PB's HD without first installing OS X on my external HD, and... like I said... my system CD isn't handy.
No spills / drops / anything like that.
I'll post updates when ready....
Ok, so here are the results:
http://www.small-scale.net/scrap/fsck.jpg
Looks like a funky volume header? I hope that's everything...
Thanks for the tips, and I'll be back if any more constant crashes occur....
I have one original stick of RAM and another 1GB stick of Crucial that I added this most recent winter. I haven't really experienced any significant crashing until yesterday. I'll run this fsck business, but I don't have my CD on hand... I do have DiskWarrior, but I can't run it on my PB's HD without first installing OS X on my external HD, and... like I said... my system CD isn't handy.No spills / drops / anything like that.
I'll post updates when ready....
After seeing that you added another stick of RAM i'm 100% sure the mobo & RAM are/will soon be fried.
It's a well known fact about PBs and Apple is working on fixing it.
My advice is to back up your data and send it to Apple ASAP
Why is that? Why would adding RAM cause the motherboard or RAM to be fried?
Well, if true... that's not good. I don't even have AppleCare. Bleh.... I hate this.
Oh, and: it froze twice today.
Yea. . .
Why is that? Why would adding RAM cause the motherboard or RAM to be fried?Well, if true... that's not good. I don't even have AppleCare. Bleh.... I hate this.
Oh, and: it froze twice today.
Yea. . .
RAM connectors are known to be funky with third party RAM and easily damaged.
I had a similar prob with my PC laptop and guess what was the cause?
Broken RAM >.<
Ok, I definitely need to get on that phone with Apple support... I just encountered something pretty frightening. My computer locked up, so I restarted... after I restarted, I got a gray screen with some kind of message about RAM... I have no idea what it said exactly, but it said to type something like 'mac-reboot' or something else to either shut down or restart.
This makes me very uncomfortable.
Ok, I definitely need to get on that phone with Apple support... I just encountered something pretty frightening. My computer locked up, so I restarted... after I restarted, I got a gray screen with some kind of message about RAM... I have no idea what it said exactly, but it said to type something like 'mac-reboot' or something else to either shut down or restart.This makes me very uncomfortable.
Well you should have done that the first time i told you it's RAM :slant:
Now it might have fried you mobo and HD.
Ok, here's the real deal...
The logic board needs to be replaced. I brought it over to the Apple Store, the guy looked it over... Tunrs out that my PowerBook is not correctly reading the amount of RAM installed. In one of the two slots, it is only reading the RAM as half of what it really is. That is, it's reading the 512MB stick as a 256MB stick. The guy said he never saw anything like this, and that a new logic board should do the trick.
So, off in the mail she goes... and $300 to boot.
+___+
And, here's a new turn of events:
Turns out many others have experienced this same problem... Let's hope I can get out of paying for this...
That's bad news...I've just bought an additional 512 RAM from crucial and I planned to install it on my PB 15' 1.67GHZ in the next few days.
Has anyone else tried to install some more RAM on their PBs?
If yes, have you managed not to get these problems? Can some people testify this worked fine for them?
I don't want to screw up my computer...
Here is another link of people having the same problem...
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@...43v.1@.68ab7b77
You know, now that I think back on it even more, I think this skunked-out logic board cropped up when I initially installed the memory... I remember putting the Crucial stick in one of the two slots [the lower, I think/assume], starting up... and the amount of RAM read incorrectly in the System Profiler. Then I popped it into the back slot, and I guess I THOUGHT the problem was resolved... I guess I just forgot about it...
Convenient that I remember this now, 8 months after the fact of doing it AND 8 months after the warranty expiring.
What are the chances that they'll believe me that I've had this problem for that long...
And the only thing that doesn't make sense is why only now I've had this continuous string of crashes.
You know, now that I think back on it even more, I think this skunked-out logic board cropped up when I initially installed the memory... I remember putting the Crucial stick in one of the two slots [the lower, I think/assume], starting up... and the amount of RAM read incorrectly in the System Profiler. Then I popped it into the back slot, and I guess I THOUGHT the problem was resolved... I guess I just forgot about it...Convenient that I remember this now, 8 months after the fact of doing it AND 8 months after the warranty expiring.
What are the chances that they'll believe me that I've had this problem for that long...
And the only thing that doesn't make sense is why only now I've had this continuous string of crashes.
There is no chance they will believe you and if nothing else, it's your fault for not brining it to them earlier. As i said, it's a well known mobo problem and at least on a Mac, it's easy to diagnose what's going on.
I too have been having continuous Powerbook crashes, infact, as I was writing about it about a minute ago, it froze on me.
I have a Powerbook G4 Widescreen 15'' Combodrive which I bought a little less than a month ago. This is also my first mac, and there have been no upgrades thus far.
When I first got it, it had a few crashes during the first 2 weeks, which I ignored, but on saturday when I took my powerbook to NY from NJ with me, when I went to go use it, it would freeze on me within 5 minutes of booting. Hoping the problem would resolve itself, i just didn't use it for the weekend and went to go use it when I went home.
Unfortunatly it was not the case, on Monday, it crashes probably a total of 10 times, many of them while doing nothing. So this morning, I reformated and put Tiger back on. Within 10 minutes of the fresh install of tiger, it crashed on me. Since then, it has probably crashed 6 or so times today.
I ran a bunch of diagnostics, the hardware test on the tiger disc, which would freeze when it got to memory, but then I ran the test that came with the applecare disc, said everything was fine. But obviously it's not, because I formatted and the problem still exists. Tomorrow I will probably bring my powerbook to the nearest apple store, but I am curious if there is anything I can still possibly do.
That's bad news...I've just bought an additional 512 RAM from crucial and I planned to install it on my PB 15' 1.67GHZ in the next few days.Has anyone else tried to install some more RAM on their PBs?
If yes, have you managed not to get these problems? Can some people testify this worked fine for them?
I don't want to screw up my computer...
I'm don't usually have an issue with Crucial RAM, but for PowerBooks your best bet would be to buy Kingston RAM.
Go figure, by the way, that my PB hasn't crashed since I got that RAM error.
I brought my powerbook the applestore, and unfortunatly the crash was not able to be reproduced, but they took it in, and lo and behold, the ram was bad. Glad to have my baby back 
Guhh... One more thing...
I just switched out my 1GB stick of Crucial in for the original 256MB stick, because I'm having the PowerBook sent out sometime this week.
I just started up... and now System Profiler now reads the correct amount of RAM installed, not half of what is installed in the lower slot.
Is it possible my logic board is fine, and the RAM is defective?
Gah.
EDIT: Is 10.3.9 the result of everything....?
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php...wer+memory+slot
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