From: "doobisary" <tjp314@pacbell.net>

Date: July 20, 2010 10:50:17 AM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: My Powerbook G4 is dying!

Okay, it's the hard drive.

I installed a second System folder on an external 250GB hard drive and booted from there with no problems.  I restarted several times to make sure this is the case.

Then I tried running Disk Utility on the internal drive and got the same errors saying that the file structure was incorrect and that the drive could not be repaired.

I then tried booting from the internal drive about half a dozen times and best I could do was get to the gray apple screen without the swirly time thingy under it.  More often, it would give me a "we are hanging here" message, or crash with the "you need to hold down the restart button" message.

Went back to the external drive to boot several more times, and had no problems at all.

Ordered a 320GB replacement this morning.  A lot cheaper than buying a new 15" Macbook Pro (by about 15x!).

Thanks for the help!

-Tim.

-tim.

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, "doobisary" <tjp314@...> wrote:

Good idea, I'll check that!

The other computer I had that did this was a desktop G4 here at work.  It crashed frequently from the day they set it up in my office.  I had them come pick it up, and they replaced the motherboard with no improvement, both hard drives with no improvement, and then all the RAM chips.  It STILL crashed from time to time after that, but I lived with it for the next 3 years until I swapped it out for an upgrade!

-Tim.

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, "John" <jbuckley1@> wrote:

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, "doobisary" <tjp314@> wrote:

Hi Tim,

I  think you have some good suggestions here already. After verifying the HD S.M.A.R.T status in the system profiler. I would add support to a RAM issue as a possible cause.

I got a new G4 several years back and added a 2nd RAM stick with similar problems immediately following the upgrade. Not to hard to make the connection there.

Since this is an longstanding problem for you, it's possible it is an intermittent bad RAM problem. If you remove the offending RAM the issue may clear. If so, you can remove the RAM, clean the gold contacts, (I have used a pencil eraser) and reinstall and try again.

It would be nice if it something simple (and cheap).

Good luck,

John B.