[G4] Perplexed need help

[Bruce Ryan Nakamura]

On 10/4/08 7:20 AM, "Robert C. Buitron" <rcbuitron at speakeasy.net> wrote:

> Thank you Eric and Bruce for responding. Since you both think the
> underlying problem might be the power supply, I will search for a
> reliable replacement.
> 
> Would it be smarter to move all those internal HDs to external, each
> with their own external power cord?

It would probably allow the internal power supply to run cooler and last
longer.
> 
> I did press the button on the motherboard the first time this happened,
> but it only worked if I had the original Seagate 80GB HD startup disk
> connected to the motherboard. When I reconnected the SATA Hitachi 80GB
> startup disk I got nothing, that is I heard the HDs spinning (since I
> have 4 internal) but the monitor was blank (black). Removing the SATA
> startup disk, reconnecting the original startup disk, and pressing the
> button seemed to solve the problem.
> 
> Rob
> 
> Eric Wood wrote:
>> Hard to be certain, but I'd suspect the power supply is overloaded. I
>> think Apple's tend to be fairly low in output capacity, at least the one
>> in my own G4 (digital audio) is. It was so bad, I had to stop using a
>> second hard drive, since it was failing to be mounted at boot time. The
>> drive itself is fine, as verified by its use in another machine.
>> 
>> First just zap the stored settings (like removing the battery and
>> pressing the button on your motherboard), and consider using fewer
>> devices. See if things clear up that way.
>> 
>> Eric W.
>> 
>> Am Oct 3, 2008 um 8:39 PM schrieb Robert C. Buitron:
>> 
>>> I have a G4 dual 1.25 GHz PowerPC, 2GB RAM (maxxed out), 4 internal
>>> HDs (3 SATAs & original Seagate ATA), a SIIG PCI SATA controller card
>>> 4-channel for Mac that can boot from any attached drive, and a Sonnet
>>> Allegro PCI Firewire 800/1394B card. The OS is 10.5.5. I boot up (or
>>> my startup disk) from the original ATA HD at this time.
>>> 
>>> The problem is kernal panics and freezes.
>>> 
>>> Some additional background:
>>> About a month ago I was downloading some Apple software updates when I
>>> encountered some freezes that eventually turned to a kernal issue as I
>>> did troubleshooting. I used the Disk Utility from the DVD install disk
>>> to check the startup disk, which at the time was a SATA connected to
>>> the controller card mentioned above. All internal disks were verified.
>>> At one point using the Disk Utility on the SATA startup disk, the
>>> computer hung up. This continued to the point that I had to power
>>> down, power up, heard the drives spinning but blank on my monitor-
>>> just black.
>>> 
>>> I did some internal HD troubleshooting and finally determined that it
>>> was the SATA startup disk that "seemed" to be the problem. I removed
>>> it and swapped it with the original ATA HD directly connected to the
>>> motherboard, and voila, my G4 was back to "normal".
>>> 
>>> Now the perplexing problem:
>>> I was downloading the latest software updates from Apple, which
>>> included the latest JavaScript,iTunes8, some remote security patch
>>> (which I don't  use), and some other update that I cannot remember.
>>> 
>>> I started the update and walked away as I knew this would take some
>>> time. A half hour later I came back to a machine that had a kernal
>>> panic and message that I needed to power down the machine. I did and
>>> powered up and resumed the update with only two items remaining of the
>>> starting 4. I walked away again as it was iTunes 8 and JavaScript.
>>> When I returned I had another kernal issue but without the power down
>>> message.
>>> 
>>> The first few lines of the kernal issue are:
>>> "System failure: cpu=1; code=00000001 (Corrupt Stack)
>>> backtrace terminated- frame not mapped or invalid: 0x4AD8FF10
>>> Unresolved kernal trap."
>>> 
>>> I'm not computer savvy, just enough to sometimes help myself and of
>>> course sometimes to create problems. Any ideas, suggestions, notions,
>>> preventive measures would help.
>>> 
>>> The machine is up and running. I decided not to continue with the
>>> software download. Seems that that was one of the contributing factors.
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