[HM] Re: Shutting down frozen G4

[Nevin Steindam]

There are usually two possible reasons why OS X might be crashing lately.

The first is something wrong with your system.  The Unix-based kernel is
very reliable when it's set up right, but if it has a problem (usually with
conflicting hardware), then crashes can happen.  Have you installed any
hardware in addition to the basic stuff that came with the system?  If so,
you can try to completely re-install the system.  Make sure it works in the
basic installation, then install your additional hardware one piece at a
time, taking time to work with it for a while each time.  If the system
starts crashing after a certain piece of hardware is added, that's most
likely your problem.

The other possibility is bad RAM.  RAM is very sensitive, and can go wrong
in many ways.  The OS does a basic RAM check when it starts up, but it's
still possible for it to have some subtle problem (one bit has the wrong
value when some other combination of bits are set a certain way) that only
shows up randomly.  And if there is corrupted information in RAM, no system
can keep from crashing.  If you have more than one RAM module, try taking
all but one out (observing careful static-protection procedures!  You don't
want to introduce the problem now!) and see if the problem goes away.
Either re-add the RAM chips one at a time, or swap the ones that you took
out with the one that's in, and see if the problem seems to be traceable to
one of them.

There are also programs which will do a more thorough verification of your
RAM.  I haven't used one, but maybe someone else on the list can give
recommendations.  (I think Norton Utilities might do that...?)

Of course, if you have anything specifically weird with your system set-up
(such as the phone cord settings that other people were discussing), then
check that out first.  But if all that works out, it's probably either your
system or your RAM.  OS X is a very reliable system for most people -- I've
had it for just over a year, and in that time I've had 1 "graphic freeze"
(which I could have fixed if I'd been set up to ssh into the computer and
kill processes from the command line), a couple times where Java bugs made
all my programs quit (but I haven't seen that in recent versions of the
system), and 1 real crash (that I can't explain away in parentheticals).
Over all, it's been more reliable than the Unix system I rely on at work :)

Good luck.

Nevin