Video Issue

[cmcconkey]

I have been having some issues with a G4 Mirror Drive Door for about a year now, it is running 10.3.9 Server and doing a decent job with it. My company purchased the G4 in December of '03, for the dual boot option because we were not 100% sure about the OSX switch then. We have had kernel panics off and on with it ever since it has been online, we would update the system software and when it asked for a reboot it would drop to darwin and I would have to reinstall system software, and the video card that came standard in it died one day so I purchased a PCI video card to replace it.

The video issue seems to be the only issue left. About a year ago I had video issues with it, the video would just randomly stop working until I restarted it, then one day that didn't even work. The AGP card had apparently bit the big one after only 18 months. I purchased a PCI replacement and it has been working just fine up until about 45 days ago. It started up the same thing and is just blinking out at random until it gets a restart. The AGP card is still attached in the bus but nothing is connected to it, just because I don't have a replacement slot cover.

If anyone can make any suggestions please let me know, if you have any questions for me just ask away.

Thanks
Christopher

 

[Shadow]

Sounds like the Logic board, or faulty RAM (if upgraded). Send it to Apple to have a look.

EDIT: Its probably not RAM

 

[cmcconkey]

Just as I thought.

The ram has been upgraded and was tested about 2 months ago. We recently purchased two new Seagate hard drives to replace 2 internals that we thought were going faulty because of data becoming currupt. This makes me think that these hard drives were not the issue but it was an early warning of the logic board. This server is our main file server that our 4 layout designers access for every job that is created here. Sending it to Apple is not a pretty option, we will explore other options and I will advise as to what the memory test comes up with when I run it later today.

Thanks
Christopher

 

[trainguy77]

It sounds to me like the PCI card has not been inserted the whole way. However, it does not make sense that it dies after a good bit of time. However, I would still pull the card reinsert it (preferable a different slot) and see if you have the same problems.

 

[cmcconkey]

I will be going through tomorrow afternoon and pulling every piece of ram and both cards that are in the G4. I don't believe that it will do any good. I believe that all the sticks and cards are well seated.

Christopher

 

[Sun Baked]

I will be going through tomorrow afternoon and pulling every piece of ram and both cards that are in the G4. I don't believe that it will do any good. I believe that all the sticks and cards are well seated.

Christopher

Bad RAM as in marginal, if it has been upgraded it may test out OK -- but lead to occasional or a lot of kernal panics.

However, it can be something else -- the panic logs and system logs may point to a cause.

Looking there is always a good idea.

Edit: Yank the AGP card you know is bad, if you haven't already -- a little dust may be better than a card that is dead, and may be causing problems.

 

[cmcconkey]

Well ran memtest in single user and everything came back fine. I have since opened the case and taken out the "AGP card" (that I am running on now on this machine to see if it is the card), removed and reseated all connections on the board and ran memtest again with the same result as the first time. Just about the only thing I know to do now is to call Apple and jump through their hoops to narrow it down to the logic board (99% sure at this point).

Let me know if there is anything else I should try.

Thanks
Christopher