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TICKET ARCHIVE -> restart message when loading programs

Purelight777 - Jan 19, 2008 - 10:39 pm

I'm using a mac G5 dual 2.0ghz the original G5 released early on.

I'm currently running Panther 10.3.9 When I start the computer everything loads up fine. But when I try to load any program up off either of my hard drives the computer freezes and a message in 4 languages pops up and says I need to reboot my computer.

I've never had this problem before. The only thing different is that my hard drive was starting to get full. But I deleted some content off to free up space but that didn't seem to help.

I did install additional ram about three months ago as well.

I read some stuff about "kernal panicks" and the like, but I wasn't sure what to do with that info!

any help would be most appreciated, and in the simpler terms the better since I'm not exactly an expert on this stuff! Please help because right now my recording studio computer has been rendered completely worthless!

thanks!

Sean

DeltaMac - Jan 19, 2008 - 11:24 pm

A kernel panic is often associated with hardware problems. If you have been having panics more often since installing that new memory, then you should consider testing the system to see if any problems show up as a result. You have the Apple Hardware Test on your original restore DVDs. Put the disk one in your drive, and restart holding the Option key. Choose the Hardware Test from the partitions that show up, and press your return key. Run the extended test. With 4GB of memory, the test could run most of an hour, so be patient.
Or, you could simply remove the extra memory, and use the computer long enough to see if the problem does not occur again.

OS X does like to have a lot of free space on the booting drive, so try to clear out enough space so that you would have more than 15-20% of free space. If your drive is 160GB, then 25-30GB free space would be a good goal, I think

Try reloading the 10.3.9 combined updater, and then repair your disk permissions if you haven't done that recently. Those two done sometimes will help if you begin experinceing some new problems, and your hardware tests don't show much else as a problem.
I will still be suspicious of problems with memory, and there are other, longer tests that you can run using a utility called Memtest.. It can be found at Versiontracker.com. http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17156
Follow the instructions carefully on how to set it up, and run at least 3 or 4 tests. It will take several hours, but is the best test that I have found to test memory while still in the computer.
Hope this helps you...
- Dale

Purelight777 - Jan 22, 2008 - 1:44 am

Hey!

Thank you for your timely response. I haven't had a lot of time to diagnose things as of yet.

But here is what I have tried. I bought another hard drive and freed up a lot of space off of my main drive where osx is installed.

I also used the disk utility program and tried repairing disk permissions.

Neither of these things worked as far as getting my computer functional again. Everything freezes as soon as I try to load a program that lovely restart message pops up.

The only way I've been able to get my computer to function at all is by loading up my mac in safe mode. Then I can access my e-mail and basic software. None of my music software works at all though in this mode apple or otherwise.

Does the fact that my browsers and the like work in safe mode mean that I can eliminate memory as the issue? or do I still need to do more testing as far as that is concerned?

I'm curious as to what you think.

thanks!

Sean

DeltaMac - Jan 22, 2008 - 8:13 am

Did you try the 10.3.9 combined updater? http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...pdate1039.html

repair your disk permissions after running that update.

Something in your startup software is probably causing problems. You could try removing all apps and services from your System Preferences/Accounts/Startup Items tab.
You can't eliminate faulty memory that easily. You should still test it, just for your own pleasure! The reason is that the memory loads to more memory space when you boot normally. When you Safe-boot, then not as much memory is in use.
- Dale

Purelight777 - Jan 23, 2008 - 10:11 am

Dale.... you are my personal hero!!!!

Thank you so much for your help!

I reinstalled the 10.3.9 combined updater and redid the repair permissions and I now everything appears to be working fine. I have no clue why that worked....but hey I love it!

Thank you so much again!

Sean