[HM] Re: Freezes & glitches

[Bob K]

Yes, a very reasonable speculation.  Only time will tell if Disk Warrior
removed the root source or only the results of the snowballing system
corruption.

I tried many things, while the problem snowballed from an intermittent
glitch  recurring roughly bi-weekly in October to complete paralysis by
last week.  None of them produced any observable change in  behavior.
Among them:
a) I ran with the original 512 MB RAM only,  b) with the 512 added RAM
only c) both in reversed position.  Plus, Apple's Hardware Test CD 
showed
no hardware problems what so ever.  This, though reduces, by no means
eliminates the chance of your hypothesis turning out to be the right 
one.

My thought on the most probable cause is that it was a corruption caused
either by my installation of the v10.2.8 jaguar update, (I did not
know at that time the cardinal rule: to run Permissions before and after
all system instrallations) OR a bunch of Konfabulator widgets, I also
installed around that time.

Bob K.

On Feb 19, 2004, at 9:03, Alex wrote:

>
> On Wednesday, Feb 18, 2004, at 22:34 Canada/Eastern, Bob K wrote:
>
>> My problem seems to be fixed, with a run of my newly arrived
>> Disk Warrior v3.0.1.   But, I tried among the first things the
>> "test" user account, and also my problem started in Jaguar,
>> and the Archive & Install installation of Panther didn't help
>> either.  The freeze happened even with starting up from the
>> Panther Installation CD.
>
> Here's a working hypothesis (or perhaps just a speculation, at this 
> stage), based on several user reports.
>
> (1) Apple has been using lately some marginal RAM chips (especially 
> Samsung).
>
> (2) Mac OS X is particularly sensitive to bad or marginal RAM. RAM 
> functioning at the limit of the specs may cause occasional, and 
> apparently random, problems.
>
> (3) This issue is much more noticeable in DP Macs, because SMP imposes 
> tighter RAM requirements.
>
> (4) RAM problems lead to file system corruption. Fsck at startup 
> should catch and repair such corruption, but that doesn't always 
> happen (and fsck only runs if the dirty bit is set).
>
> (5) File system corruption snowballs to more and more problems. 
> Eventually, the user employs a utility such as DiskWarrior to repair 
> the file system, but the cycle will begin again.
>
> f
>
>
>
> ----------
> Check out the HomeMac email list FAQ
> http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/HomeMac.html
>
> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <HomeMac-off at lists.themacintoshguy.com>
> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to 
> <HomeMac-digest at lists.themacintoshguy.com>
> Need help from a real person? Try.  
> <HomeMac-request at lists.themacintoshguy.com>
>
> ----------
> Now shipping! Farallon Wireless SkyLINE PCI Card for Mac Desktops!
> http://www.farallon.com/le/skyline/pci/index.html
>
> $14.99 Unlimited Nationwide Mac Dialup and Mac Web Hosting from your 
> Mac ISP Serious Mac Internet Solutions From NineWire!   
> http://macinternetaccess.com
>
> Monsoon  | Flat panel speakers that deliver crisp, accurate sound!  
> Dr. Bott |   <http://www.drbott.com/prod/speakers.html>
>    Cyberian   | Support this list when you buy at Outpost.com!
>  Outpost    |         http://www.themacintoshguy.com/outpost.shtml
>