G4 MDD freezes after startup

[Bru90]

My MDD dual 1.25 has been freezing a lot recently

To start with it would freeze when I was watching a youtube video and had spotify running in the background .. assumed maybe this was too labour intensive but have since seen 'performance' videos of G4's doing much heavier multitasking so think this maybe isnt the case

I just installed a generic PCI USB 2.0 card and 400gb hard drive out of an xserve.... 18months ago i also upgraded the ram to 2gb, converted the single core to a dual core and added a wifi pci card - the mac worked fine with all these modifications

now though..the computer now freezes repeatedly just after logging in

It worked for about 30 minutes fine after I completed the latest upgrades but now won't work for longer than 1minute after i've logged in.

Any ideas on where to start to troubleshoot would be really appreciated

thanks

B

 

[eyoungren]

Pull the USB card and see if anything improves.

I don't have an MDD, but my Quicksilver has the bad habit of burning through USB cards (my third one arrives today). You get all kinds of weird stuff if a USB card goes bad.

If doing this fixes things then more than likely the USB card is going bad.

It may not be the case, but that is where I would start my troubleshooting.

 

[Bru90]

that would make sense i guess.... as it doesnt crash at all on the log in password screen

i plugged in my external hdd as i want to transfer all my movies onto the mdd to use as a media hubb

if it is the USB card can you recommend a good one to get which will last longer than 23 seconds?
[doublepost=1452543645][/doublepost]Unplugged my external HDD and its working fine from what i can gather...... ergh thats annoying

 

[eyoungren]

I can't recommend anything specific unless I know what you want. There are two types is why.

The first type is USB 2.0 only. Most of the manufacturers who make/made them for Mac had four ports. Sonnet, SIIG, Adaptec are the main manufacturers to look for.

But those manufacturers also make Firewire 400/USB 2.0 combo cards as well. I had a SIIG 4 port USB card, then a Sonnet FW400/USB 2.0 card (the second one that seems to have now died).

The card coming today is an Adaptec FW400/FW800/USB 2.0 card. I can give you a link to the card, but the seller is out of them. One of the other members here bought the last three the seller had when I told him about the auction.

Here is the card I got (MODS NOT MY AUCTION!!!): http://www.ebay.com/itm/250437254602?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

It's an ADAPTEC AUA-3020A.

Sonnet makes the Allegro but that's just four USB ports. And the problem with SIIG cards is that not all the PCI cards they make are Mac. So you have to make sure you are getting a Mac card.

Sorry I cannot be any more specific. These cards are hard to find now. Much easier to find PCI-e cards by the same manufacturers. But of course, G4s don't have PCI-e.

CORRECTION: The card I got today does not have a FW800 port. It's actually a second FW400 port but it's one of those mini-ports. I'm ok with that as I now have a third USB port.

 

[Hack5190]

You can try running the Apple Hardware Tests - check my thread here for more information.

 

[Hrududu]

Are you absolutely sure the main CPU fan is running? Once worked on a MDD that a guy claimed was freezing after boot, and sure enough, the main fan had quit.