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TICKET ARCHIVE -> G4 Constantly Crashing!!! Tried Everything!

nikol - Sep 13, 2005 - 1:13 pm

I have had my G4 since June 2001, and this is the first time I've had a problem with it. About three weeks ago, when I started to hear my tower make a noise, as if it was about to go to sleep, but it never did. A few days later, my restart and shut down buttons on the apple menu stopped working. Meaning, everytime I would go apple
I thought maybe something was wrong with the hardware (because of the noise), so of course I did a hardware test and everything came back fine. Then I thought it was the software, so I did a clean installation where I cleared out my hard drive and installed the G4 software first for OS9, and then the mac OSX Panther. However, there was a problem where it said that the OSX didnt install correctly. And meanwhile, the noises from my computer (the sound where it's like its going to sleep) is coming sooner and closer together.

Everything seemed fine, and I used my computer normally, and shut it down fine. The next morning, I turned on my computer and saw the flashing question mark.

So I did another clean installation with just the OSX, but this time, my hard drive wouldn't mount. So I went to disk utility and erased my hard drive and my hard drive still wasn't mounted. I then opened my pc and pressed the pram. I turned it on again and finally i could mount my hard drive to do the installation. (wierd huh?)

My computer was working fine, but the noises from my computer was still going on. And after ten - twenty minutes of using it, it would begin to freeze. I wouldn't be able to force quit anything, and the swirly circle would keep going. I wasn't able to restart from the apple menu, and when I would press the restart on my tower, the screen would turn grey. The only way to turn it off and then on again was through my monitor. I started to look online for forums and the program Disk Warrior kept coming up.

Disk Warrior seemed to be my answer. I followed the directions. It repaired a lot of stuff. But what's wierd is that I started with a 60gb hard drive with only os x installed and after disk warrior I now only have 30gb available. Anyway, even though it fixed the damage on my disk, the noises are still happening on my computer, and it is still freezing. What is wrong with my g4?

Here are my computer specs:
Power Mac G4 Super Drive 733 mgh, bought June 01
1.5 gb memory (have always had this much, so freezing rarely happens)
OSX Panther 10.3.9
Only OSX installed right now

Please Help!!!
Thank you very much.
Nikol

bobw - Sep 13, 2005 - 2:02 pm

Hi Nicole

Sounds like your hard drive is bad. I would replace it, or have a Tech look at the machine.
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Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support

nikol - Sep 13, 2005 - 11:12 pm

I was in denial for awhile, that my hard drive was failing. But now I know you're right. I opened my mac and took a stethoscope to listen to be sure where the noise was coming from, and it is my hard drive making that awful noise.

Only question is, what hard drive brand do you recommend to replace it with? And is there a way to prevent this happening again?

Thanks very much.

bobw - Sep 14, 2005 - 8:08 am

Nicole

You use a 3.5" ATA/IDE drive in the machine. Most any brand is okay. Some people like one brand over the other.

Here's a good company to buy from;

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/3.5-IDE-ATA/

As for keeping the drive in good shape, run Repair Permissions every couple weeks using Disk Utility in your Utility folder, and Repair Disk every couple weeks using Disk Utility while booted off the OS disc.

Hard drives go bad just like anything mechanical, that's why backups are so important.

I use a program clled Chronosync to backup my business, financial files, all other important files, including email, bookmarks, etc. I do this daily. Chronosync will do this automatically. I also use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my main drive to another drive about every three weeks.

Also, make sure you always have at least 15% of free space on your drive. Filling the drive can cause data corruption, lost data and drive failure.

OS X also has built in Cron scripts (maintenance scripts) that run between 3AM and 5AM, if the machine is left on 24/7 and the drive set to never sleep. This is the way I run my machines.

Also a good idea to use a program called Cocktail to run these scripts, clear Caches, logs, etc.
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Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support