[X4U] DRAM failure (was Hard drive or hard drive controller gone)

[Jim Robertson]

On 1/18/06 2:22 PM, "Linda" <XPressoBean at mac.com> wrote:

> Are the jumpers on the new drive correct? Master, Slave, or CableSelect?

Originally, there were two drives in the box (it can hold 4, in 2 separate
bays). I had them in the same cage, both jumpered cable select. One drive
showing signs of failure was what started this debacle. I've installed the
new drive by itself, jumpered cable select, and it's on the end of the
cable. Since the machine worked for more than two years with the drives set
that way, seems unlikely that cabling is the problem. However, now there's
only one drive. I guess I could change the jumpers to "Master", but it's
hard to believe that would make any difference (I'm assuming my hard drive
isn't the problem because the Mac runs for 10-30 minutes before it freezes,
passes the Disk Utility interrogation, and allows the entire OS X Tiger
installation from the DVD followed by all the software updates. Indeed, one
of the striking things here is that the Mac freezes when it's NOT really
doing anything but resting.

I was wrong about one other detail in my earlier posts. I had thought that
one of the DRAM sockets was bad, because with only on module in the box, in
that socket, the Mac had emitted the monotone alarm on power-up. However,
I've put a DRAM module in that socket again, and the Mac will boot.

Jim Robertson
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