Imac On Deathbed!!!

[justinc93]

Hi. I recently got a imac g4 off of ebay. For the past week or so, every time the computer runs for over 2 hrs. it either freezes or a strange message comes up on the screen that tells me i need to restart the computer by holding down the power button. Before this happens, the graphics do very strange things and then freeze. Is it a logic board problem, or something else? If so, can i get a new logic board that is faster than the one i have now? (i got 700 mghz...slow i know, but it was a good price...i wonder why?!?!?!)

 

[EB66]

such a sad story i hate to hear it

 

[inkswamp]

Hi. I recently got a imac g4 off of ebay. For the past week or so, every time the computer runs for over 2 hrs. it either freezes or a strange message comes up on the screen that tells me i need to restart the computer by holding down the power button. Before this happens, the graphics do very strange things and then freeze. Is it a logic board problem, or something else? If so, can i get a new logic board that is faster than the one i have now? (i got 700 mghz...slow i know, but it was a good price...i wonder why?!?!?!)

Kernel panic. It can be either software or hardware related. Chances are that if it's the motherboard, your machine would have a hard time starting up, if at all.

Have you installed any software on the machine that may have started the problem, especially things like drivers for peripherals (mouse, printers, keyboard)? Uninstall it and see if it helps. Try the standard troubleshooting moves: zap PRAM, repair permissions, run disk repair. Log in under another account to see if it's isolated to one user account.

If that doesn't get you anywhere, then reinstall the OS (either a clean install or an archive and install) and see if that helps. If that doesn't do the trick, get all your data off the machine and do a full wipe and reformat of the hard drive, then reinstall the OS. After that, you need to test your RAM. Corrupted RAM modules are a typical source of hardware kernel panics.

If after all those attempts at fixing the problem fail, then you can start looking at the possibility of a failing motherboard. However, that's pretty rare so I would go through all the other tests first to see where that gets you and not worry too much right now. In my experience, most kernel panics are software related and relatively easy to fix.