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TICKET ARCHIVE -> New (used) i book keeps freezing up

skimball - Nov 10, 2006 - 4:02 pm

I just bought a used iBook off a guy from Craigslist and he says it works great. But it keeps freezing, booting up very slowly, freezing while booting up, skipping before booting up, etc., seems to boot up but the screen is dark, freezes while using Photoshop after only a couple minutes, etc.

Here's the stats on the laptop:
Apple iBook 800
800 MHz Power PC 750 fx (G3) processor with a 512k on-chip level 2 cache, 128 SDRAM, a 30 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive, a 16X/8X/8X/24X CD-ROM Drive, and a 2X-AGP ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 Graphics card with 32MB of VRAM

It's loaded with software.

My wife was able to go pick it up.

She went to Comp USA to get some RAM for it and they installed it there for her. Here are the stats on the RAM:

CENTON 512MB SDRAM PC 133 144 pin. (compatible with PC133 & PC100)

I'm wondering if maybe this is what's causing my problems - possible incompatibility?

Any thoughts?

Sam

nhmac - Nov 11, 2006 - 12:25 am

While I would never recommend buying RAM for a Mac at a CompUSA (did they guarantee anywhere that the RAM was up to Apple spec?) it's also true that the symptoms you mention are often associated with logic board failure, which was a common problem in the G3 iBooks.

What's the serial number of the iBook? There is a repair extension program for certain G3 iBooks wherein if you are **very** persuasive Apple **might** still replace the logic board. Apple is ever more reluctant to do this as these machines get older, so that may no longer be an option.

Anyway, if you want to eliminate the RAM as a possible problem, you would need either a utility that checks the RAM, or to pull the RAM out and see if it still suffers from the problem. The utility to check the RAM is on a disk that would say Apple Hardware Test. If you got such a disk with your iBook, boot up from it and it will test the RAM and the logic board. If you didn't get that disk you may be able to buy one from eBay or from someone on the LowEndMac Swaplist.

If you want to pull the RAM you can look up directions for that at ifixit.com.

But really the dark video is a fairly strong indication that you are dealing with a logic board problem. In which case, if you are game for it, there is a relatively inexpensive fix that **might** work...but if you just bought it, you might want to contact the seller and say that the iBook is exhibiting signs of logic board failure and see if they are willing to take it back.

Beverly
beverlywoods.net

skimball - Nov 11, 2006 - 3:01 am

Removed RAM chip and seller confirms that was problem...the machine only accepts PC100 and it was a PC 133 chip that claimed to be compatible with PC100 but did not in fact work. Now that chip is out, things are going much smoother. Thanks!

nhmac - Nov 11, 2006 - 3:26 am

Hmm, I'm not entirely convinced re the 100/133 issue, as usually it is not a problem to put a higher speed chip (I have a number of machines in my care running higher speed RAM than originally spec'd with no problems.) However Apple has the Mac OS, especially OS X configured in such a way as to be very particular regarding RAM, so there could be other issues with the chip besides the speed. I recommend a visit to ramseeker.com to see who is offering Apple spec RAM for your iBook at a good price.

Beverly

skimball - Nov 11, 2006 - 6:11 am

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

skimball - Nov 11, 2006 - 6:18 am

OK, there's a lot of (geek) info here I am not familiar with. Is there any way to check my iBook to see if this is EXACTLY the kind of compatible RAM? The below is one example copied off the ramseeker site you suggested.

512MB, SDRAM, PC100, CL=3
64Meg x 64, 168 Pin DIMM, 100Mhz, 3.3v (Low Density)

nhmac - Nov 11, 2006 - 6:48 am

If you search ramseeker by making the rollover menu at the top go to iBook (plain iBook, obviously it's not an iBook G4), all the RAM that will then appear in the table towards the bottom of the page should be compatible. For instance, I did that just now, sorted the results by price of 512 chips, then if you click on the price of the desired chip you end up at a supplier's webpage for that RAM, in this case the lowest priced 512 chip today is here (And FWIW I have no connection with said co. but have bought a number of chips from them with no problems yet ever): http://www.omnitechnologies.biz/cgi-...&cat=2&catstr=
which has a lot more specs (unbuffered, non-parity, etc.) and makes it quite clear that this is an Apple spec chip that will run in G3 iBooks.

hope this helps,

Beverly

skimball - Nov 11, 2006 - 8:56 am

OK, so the part I might not have mentioned is I NEED this RAM NOW! As in I have a huge project I'm working on this weekend and having just bought the iBook (primarily for the Illustrator on it) wanted to get some more speed right away. So I send my lovely, helpful, 8-month pregnant wife out (again) to return the bad chip and instruct her that if they do in fact have PC100 compatible anything to get it. She called and said they did in fact have PC100 256MB chip for $100 (I know, I know, highway robbery, but I NEED it!) So I am ging to attempt to install it tonight when she gets home and hopefully this will work. But if it doesn't I will look into your recommendation for future RAM. Thanks.

OK, now here's another quandry and I don't know if I should start a new ticket for it, but, I have my old G4 Power PC Fire-Wired to the iBook and it's pretty cool that I can use the Illustrator that's on it from my G4, BUT when I try to import a finished Illustrator file into Photoshop, it's greyed out. Any way around this?

nhmac - Nov 12, 2006 - 1:03 am

Hi,

I'm wondering why you would be running from a G3 to use the files and programs on a G4 instead of the other way around? But I don't know re the PhotoShop and Illustrator issue, except that it sounds like the file type you have ended up in from Illustrator is not one that Photoshop is compatible with. Bitmap files and photo programs often speak two different languages. Have you done this successfully before? Perhaps you can export the file from Illustrator in a different format?

skimball - Nov 12, 2006 - 3:47 am

Actually, it was the other way around; running from a g4 (my original computer) to access the programs on a g3 (the iBook) But here's a question if you're up for it;

The G4 stats:
400 MHZ Power PC G4
192 MB SDRAM
Machine name: Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics)
Mach. model: Power Mac 3, 1
CPU type: Power PC g4 (2.9)
Bus speed 100 MHZ
Boot ROM version: 3.26f1
Serial # XB0240XBJSC
Available: 1.24 GB
Used: 8.3 GB on Disk
Capacity: 9.54 GB

The only "big" program I use is Photoshop. The rest of the software is pretty basic; MS Office, Cannon camera, and a lot of little ones that are pretty standard. What is using up all that other space? I'm considering adding more RAM but with so little free space available, not sure if it's worth it. Any suggestions?

skimball - Nov 12, 2006 - 3:48 am

Also, FYI I did install a 256MB PC100 chip successfully in the iBook and evrything is running smooth (and a little quicker too!)

nhmac - Nov 12, 2006 - 5:12 am

You really don't want to fill up that hard drive any more than that -- it would be asking for trouble to do so. Can't see from here what is taking the space, but it could easily be your graphics files, etc. Hard drives are dirt cheap these days (see for instance the storage section at dealmac.com) -- why not get a bigger drive?

How are you doing this sharing you are talking about? Target disk mode, or file sharing, or what?

skimball - Nov 12, 2006 - 6:41 am

Well, that's just the thing...ALL my graphics files are saved on my Lacie external hard drive with 146GB still available. Unfortunately I didn't get that Lacie with Fire Wire, only USB, which is probably part of the reason I was able to get it pretty cheap. The Fire Wire hookup to the iBook is using target disk mode.

nhmac - Nov 12, 2006 - 10:39 am

So you are booting the iBook in Target mode, with the FW icon bouncing around the iBook screen? If so, RAM in iBook should not matter I think. It would be RAM in the G4 that you would be using at that point.

There are I think free disk utilities that show what's taking the space on your disk. At a guess I would wonder about temporary, cache, and virtual memory files.

What OS are you running n the G4?