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TICKET ARCHIVE -> iMac 500mhz G3

krbmedia - Dec 24, 2007 - 1:08 pm

I have an iMac G3 500mhz that I installed Tiger on. I have put in 512mb of ram and it seems to run fine except for one problem. Whenever I try to transfer or copy files from either an external firewire or a network drive, the machine locks up.

krbmedia - Dec 25, 2007 - 4:53 pm

No answer yet

nhmac - Dec 28, 2007 - 1:47 pm

How much free space do you have left on the hard drive?

If less than 10%, that could be a problem.

Have you run Disk Utility and repaired the disk and the permissions? That's the first thing I'd try.

--Beverly

krbmedia - Dec 28, 2007 - 5:31 pm

I tired all of that. The Disc was erased and has 70% free space.

Cheryl - Dec 30, 2007 - 4:41 pm

Allen,

I remember going through that same problem. Are the files/folders you are moving rather large? Have you tried moving a small file? Do you get the same results?

When you erased the disk - did you also use Disk Utility to repair the drive before you installed the OS?

Are any programs quitting on your unexpectedly?

Cheryl

krbmedia - Dec 30, 2007 - 7:32 pm

Its weird. It would happen some time but not always and usually with bigger files. No I did not do a repair before installing. I figured the erasing would take care of that? Should I have?

Cheryl - Dec 30, 2007 - 8:04 pm

Allen,

When ever you do a major install or wipe clean and instal, you should always run Repair Disk just as a safety measure.

Try this:
Start up with the OS X CD (matching the version you are running - in this case the 10.4 Tiger install) (insert disk restart the computer and immediately hold down the C key.
Select your language and do not click on the installer screen. Instead go to the Utilities/Tools menu and select Disk utility.
When that opens click on the second icon in the side bar at the left, then click on Repair Disk at the bottom right.
Watch the activity screen. If it does any repairs - you will need to click on the Repair Disk button a second time after the first pass is done. The object is to make sure it finds all the problems and repairs them. You may need to hit that button a third or fourth time to get no references to repairs made.

Now click on Repair Permissions.

When that is done, quit Disk utility and restart the computer.

Keep me posted on how you do.

Cheryl

krbmedia - Dec 30, 2007 - 10:52 pm

Do I need to reinstall after all this or is this good enough?

Cheryl - Dec 31, 2007 - 5:11 am

Allen,

No you do not need to reinstall the OS. Just running Disk Utility from the CD (and continue until it finds no problems) should do the trick.

Keep me posted.

Cheryl

krbmedia - Dec 31, 2007 - 4:08 pm

I ran it and the disc was fine.

Cheryl - Dec 31, 2007 - 4:37 pm

Allen,

That is good news. Now the question is what condition is the drive you are copying to.

Let's work on your external drive. Go to Utilities>Disk Utility and when it opens select your external drive from the side bar on the left. Now click on Repair Drive, then Repair Permissions.

Did you format that drive? You can format it using Disk Utility. Select Mac OS Journaled as the format.

Now give a try and move a file over.

Keep me posted.

Cheryl

krbmedia - Jan 1, 2008 - 12:53 am

Whats weird is it works with USB but not the firewire.

Cheryl - Jan 1, 2008 - 5:18 am

Allen,

I am not sure what you are referring to - what works with USB and not firewire? The Disk Utility or moving files?

Cheryl

krbmedia - Jan 1, 2008 - 10:43 am

The moving files. Its slower but works.

Cheryl - Jan 1, 2008 - 11:19 am

Allen,

Did you use Disk Utility on the firewire drive? How is it formated?

Cheryl

krbmedia - Jan 1, 2008 - 12:21 pm

Yes I did. I did all the steps on the firewire drive as well. What's weird is sometimes copying over the network flakes out too.

By the way, you are by far the BEST tech that has ever helped me! Thank you so much.

Cheryl - Jan 1, 2008 - 12:29 pm

Allen,

There is one thing I want you to check. Click once on the firewire drive icon that is on your desktop.
Now go to the File menu and select Get Info.
What does it say under Ownership & Permissions? What does it say under Details (you may need to click on the arrow next to Details to see everything).

Cheryl

krbmedia - Jan 1, 2008 - 8:48 pm

I think it might be my firewire drive. Everything looks fine under permissions. See JPG below.

http://krbmedia.com/permissions.jpg

What's weird is I have never had a problem with it on my Intel Imac but on any G4 or G3, the drive is flaky.

Cheryl - Jan 1, 2008 - 10:53 pm

Allen,

Then you have a firewire drive that does not have Oxford-based FireWire bridge chipset. On a PowerPC computer that is important for file transfers. For an Intel machine, there is no problem.

The most important thing is to have an Oxford-based FireWire bridge
chipset. Prolific and Initio "Oxford compatible" chipsets often have
problems with OSX, both when copying and trying to boot.In fact, many drives indicate they're Mac-compatible, but only give headaches.

So your Firewire drive will not work smoothly on your G4 or G3, but will with your Intel Imac.

How is the copying of files on your USB drive doing?

Cheryl

krbmedia - Jan 1, 2008 - 11:01 pm

Slow but it works. Its actually a firewire enclosure with a notebook drive in it. See it below.

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817113018

krbmedia - Jan 1, 2008 - 11:04 pm

I can return it for any of these. Do you know which ones have the right chipset?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...re+2.5&x=0&y=0

Cheryl - Jan 2, 2008 - 7:52 am

Allen,

You would have to call NewEgg as their web site does not disclose if the enclosure has the Oxford Based Firewire bridge chipset or not.

Check this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...817392003#spec

After doing some research on which brands do have that chipset, Vantec was given five stars.

I do know that MacPower does.

http://www.macpower.com.tw/

Icecube Gerneration II External Enclosures also have the correct chipset. But I believe these are available in Australia only as I haven't found it anywhere else.

I hope this helps you.

Cheryl

krbmedia - Jan 2, 2008 - 9:49 am

What about macally?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817146604

I need to return it and get one from newegg that's 2.5.

krbmedia - Jan 2, 2008 - 11:46 am

I called Macally. They say their enclosures have no issues with Macs but has the Initio chipset. is that good?

krbmedia - Jan 2, 2008 - 12:02 pm

By the way, I found out my enclosure uses the Jmicro chipset but can't find anyplace to get a firmware update for it.

Cheryl - Jan 2, 2008 - 1:14 pm

Allen,

From the looks of the Macally reviews - it seems to be a good choice. I noticed a couple of reviews were from Mac users, and they didn't seem to have serious problems with it.

All I could find in researching the Initio chipset is:
The Oxford 911 (FireWire 400 bridge) is reliable and more dependable then Initio.
The Oxford 922 (FireWire 400/800 bridge) is optimized

And this was a couple of years old. If you are not planing on making a bootable back up drive, then the Macally is the one to go with.

Cheryl