PowerMac G5 - Disk keeps getting corrupted?

[cleaner416]

Hello,

I've had my G5 Dual 2Ghz Powermac for about 3 months. After about a month and a half of use, one day the box wouldn't boot and stayed stuck in the gray screen interminably. The fans began to howl and got so loud I thought the box would explode. I called Apple support and booted from the installation DVD and attempted to repair the disk. It didn't work. I backed up the data via firewire and reinstalled the OS per Apple's instructions and received some advice that I need to repair permissions more often. Ok.

Well I've been repairing my permissions often (a huge design flaw in my opinion to expect the average user to do this all the time or risk a useless yet sleek hunk of metal) and then yesterday couldn't log in anymore. "Permissions broken see your Administrator" (or something to that effect) when the login screen came up. Then the machine would freeze. I attempted to boot repair permissions from the installation DVD - it hung. I attempted to repair the disk - I got error -9972 invalid node structure couldn't repair disk. Arg. I backed up via Firewaire and reinstalled.

Within 2 hours it happened again!!!! Gray screen lockup on boot. Repair permissions hangs. Repair disk returns error -9972 couldn't repair disk. I booted up in single user mode and tried to run fsck -f. It started to run and then the fans got so loud I though the box would explode. I turned off the box after 10 mins and gave up.

Any suggestions? Why is this happening? What can I do to fix it and avoid an entire reinstall again?

Many thanks!

 

[Sun Baked]

Re: Maybe...

Are you getting a lot of force quits, freezes, crashes, kernal panics, etc.?

If you are you should be running fsck -f when you restart, to check for orphaned nodes and the like. But it also doesn't make repairs in a single pass, sometimes it'll takes several.

However if the machine keeps crashing and you don't run fsck, you run the risk of the catalog/file problems getting worse until the machine just won't start.

---

Of course this is the opposite of the typical, just repair permissions advice.

 

[mpopkin]

that takes skill to have that happen that often, one thing i have learned from OS X( I have a pmac g5 dp 2 that had the same prob as you in november) is that 1) OS X is corruptible at only one point in time, and that is when you run Software Update. When Running Software Update, You Never want to run any other apps with it, this was told to me my by the applecare rep and it has worked since then, 2) dont mess around with system files, while not as damaging as windows, deleting them, adding third party mods and apps that affect computer/OS X performance directly can lead to problems. 3) You should run disc utility and clean format your harddrive and reinstal osx, make sure when you load it up and run update to let it be and give it time to install/update. If you keep having these problems, you should 1) take it to an apple store and have them diagnose it 2) get a book about os x

Hello,

I've had my G5 Dual 2Ghz Powermac for about 3 months. After about a month and a half of use, one day the box wouldn't boot and stayed stuck in the gray screen interminably. The fans began to howl and got so loud I thought the box would explode. I called Apple support and booted from the installation DVD and attempted to repair the disk. It didn't work. I backed up the data via firewire and reinstalled the OS per Apple's instructions and received some advice that I need to repair permissions more often. Ok.

Well I've been repairing my permissions often (a huge design flaw in my opinion to expect the average user to do this all the time or risk a useless yet sleek hunk of metal) and then yesterday couldn't log in anymore. "Permissions broken see your Administrator" (or something to that effect) when the login screen came up. Then the machine would freeze. I attempted to boot repair permissions from the installation DVD - it hung. I attempted to repair the disk - I got error -9972 invalid node structure couldn't repair disk. Arg. I backed up via Firewaire and reinstalled.

Within 2 hours it happened again!!!! Gray screen lockup on boot. Repair permissions hangs. Repair disk returns error -9972 couldn't repair disk. I booted up in single user mode and tried to run fsck -f. It started to run and then the fans got so loud I though the box would explode. I turned off the box after 10 mins and gave up.

Any suggestions? Why is this happening? What can I do to fix it and avoid an entire reinstall again?

Many thanks!

 

[DarkNovaMatter]

Well I hate to say this to you, but you should have the processor(s?) checked out. This isn't normal, When I got a cube upgrade it did the same exact thing to me (slowly corrupting the HD, permissions corrupted beyond belief, and also kernal panics- even in the middle of installing OSX from CD!). My problem was that the processor was slightly overclocked (timing errors more than likely) so that it would end up corrupting slowly anything that it accessed (which would be much since the disk permissions,etc.). Now I am not saying your problem is exactly like mine, but the symptoms are verry similar- but more than likely it has something to do with the processor- wether direct, or inderect- hope this helps somewhat.

 

[cleaner416]

Thanks

Thanks for the responses.

I actually did run fsck -f and shut it down after about 7 mins because the fans were blowing and howling VERY loudly, increasingly so after each minute. Which leads me to believe...ugh..that it could the processors as mentioned above.

I may have run things when I ran the software update after the second reinstall . Clearly that is a no no but the machine didn't crash for another couple hours?

Looks like I'll be on the phone with Apple for a long time.

 

[mpopkin]

i should have read deeper man, yeah that was the problem i had with my g5, i had to have both CPU's replaced because of guess what...the thermometer's built into the heatsink/cpu's on only one of the g5"s was broken and because of that the fan's were going apes___t and wow, talk about a good air condition. all they need to do is put a refrigeration coil in and you could cool a room with that current of air. that was the problem, but corruption also turned out to be the problem, you should take it to an apple store and don't let them "oh lets format and give it back to you to try again crap" and tell them straight up that u have done that and u want them to do a full test etc

good luck

Thanks for the responses.

I actually did run fsck -f and shut it down after about 7 mins because the fans were blowing and howling VERY loudly, increasingly so after each minute. Which leads me to believe...ugh..that it could the processors as mentioned above.

I may have run things when I ran the software update after the second reinstall . Clearly that is a no no but the machine didn't crash for another couple hours?

Looks like I'll be on the phone with Apple for a long time.

 

[stevehaslip]

i had a similar thing happen to me with my g5, though not as serious as yours.
i fixed it by repairing the disc off the panther boot cd, fsck -f was the next step. i agree with the previous post take it in to an apple centre and get it check asap. don't let them take the easy option, talk them round if need be. stress how this is costing you money, that this is your work computer etc.