Hey, Well I don't think the Altivec function is broken in your machine. There are 4 (8 on the newest machines) Altivec units called Vectors on your processor. Altivec is mainly done through software utilizing these Vector units that are built into the PowerPC G4 processor. Fact is there is no way to disable Altivec. It's built into your CPU. Perhaps it's just your applications causing the problems? Altivec is still in it's infancy. Just because it says it's "Optimized for Altivec" doesn't mean it's totally Altivec. Only if it sports the logo "Built for Altivec" then it's almost 100%. Apple is trying to make a quick buck off you. I think you may have a disk problem. If you are in MacOSX, open the disk utility and try running a permissions repair or with a third party program for OS9 try optimizing. Try this before you go out buying another processor. Or go to a third party apple authorized repair center to have it fixed you'll find it's half the price. CJ