[G4] G4 Sawtooth Issues

[garretts at xmission.com]

> Hello,
>
> The problem...without apparent warning, the system freezes up.  I lose
> the mouse & keyboard completely.  If I unplug them an replug them there
> is no change.  The cursor vanishes from the screen.   If there is an
> application in the background (ie: iTunes) it will continue to
> operate(?cached songs?), but I am unable to bring it to the foreground,
> also the DVD player frequently freezes the entire machine, requiring me
> to push the reset button on the fron of the tower.
>
> The machine...G4 Sawtooth, 512MB RAM (2X256MB), 40 IDE HD, DVD-RAM
>
> The system...a clean install of OSX 10.2 onto a freshly formatted
> drive.

A similar problem has popped up recently on my Sawtooth.  Every day or 
so, my cursor will freeze without warning... actually, it's the USB 
system that crashes (keyboard lights go out, mouse/keyboard and any 
other USB periphs stop working).  I have to use the reset button 
whenever it happens.

I'm not sure if this is what's happening to you (I think my cursor 
stays on the screen), but it does sound similar.

I think mine may be related to 10.2.6, since it's the only change I've 
made to the system lately.  (I know 10.2.5 caused kernel panics with 
some USB hubs, for example.)  It could also be that some hardware has 
gone bad.  A faulty stick of RAM or a faulty USB device (I've noticed 
some reports in Apple's support discussions of bad mice causing issues).

I ran Disk Utility to repair permissions.  Also zapped the PRAM and 
used a cache cleaner utility.  (I considered resetting the PMU, but 
didn't do it.)  The problem persisted.  I was about to downgrade / 
reinstall the OS, but first I made a few other changes, and so far the 
problem has disappeared!  (Knock on wood.)  I've taken ALL extra USB 
devices off the machine (hub, printer, etc.), and instead of using my 
Apple Pro keyboard and MS IntelliMouse, I'm using the original keyboard 
and mouse that came with the Sawtooth.  I also took some RAM out of the 
machine.  Finally, I suspected Safari or Extensis Suitcase (maybe a bad 
font?) might be related somehow, so I'm not running either of those 
programs.  The problem has now been absent for three or four days, so 
I'll systematically get the system back to normal and see when the 
problem reappears.  This could take a while, since it only froze once a 
day (or less) in the first place.  I'll try to keep you informed.

I hope to get back to my long uptimes soon...

garretts at xmission.com