Dying Mac??

[vince]

My Mac G3 350 - recently started flaking out - won't start (flashing folder[?]) - but works OK next day (or) put in a backup hard drive - works OK for a while - gradually flakes out - won't start, *but* works OK with the first drive again - and so on.

Drives are fine - new format and system. Same problem with OSX and OS9.

"Driving" me nuts - any ideas??

[yellowlightman]

About six months ago I had a similar problem. When I would start it up for the first time in the day it'd be fine, but if it froze and I need to restart for whatever reason 9 out of 10 times it wouldnt start. Same flashing ?, no whirring hard drive.

This was with OS 9, but since instally OSX it's been fine. Maybe try reformatting? I dunno. Wish I could be of more help.

[Caustic Saint]

Sounds to me like something on the motherboard is dying - or the controllers on the drives themselves. How old is the systems and the drives?

[Caustic Saint]

If that doesn't get it, then keep rebooting until you get a desktop and run Tech Tools or Norton System Works on the entire system. One of those utilities may locate the problem, or it may be, as Caustic Saint wrote above, the motherboard. If that's the case, then, well, probably its time for a new G5.

Mmmmmmmmm! G5!

[vince]

Sounds to me like something on the motherboard is dying - or the controllers on the drives themselves. How old is the systems and the drives?

The drives are quite new - since I get the same problems using either drive, It must not be the drives...

I thought it might be an overheating problem so I cleaned all the dust out of the machine and the fans. Still get the same problems

take the memory boards out, make sure they are clean, using a compressed air canister, blow dust out of the memory board sockets and blow dust off of the entire mother board.

I will try the memory cleanup idea - hope it works!

Another thing I did was rebuild the startup disk with "DiskWarrior" - now it doesn't start up at all Sometimes the more you fix something the worse it gets.

probably its time for a new G5

With (for example) Silicon Valley unemployment about 8%, it's not time for a new G5. Things are so hopeless here that local baseball team defeats have resulted in increased pressure to recall the governor!

[Taro Toporific]

Sounds to me like something on the motherboard is dying...

I thought it might be an overheating problem....

I will try the memory cleanup idea - hope it works!....

I've got eight those older Mac G3 350s (Blue & White) here in the office that have been running 16hrs/6days a week. The ONLY hardware repairs they needed since 1999 were:
--3 instances of bad memory
--3 bad power supplies
--1 cracked motherboard (temperature shifts were too great by the window)
--8 fan upgrades (too damn noisy--repaired for free under a semi-secret Apple Japan recall)

Bottom Line: It's most likely OS corruption not hardware.

As the Pongi said, run TechTools to check the hardware. Ideally you have a bootable CD with a few applications on it to check to see whether your harddisk controllers have gone crazy. Most likely nothing is wrong.

Then Bite-the-Big-Buddha: Boot off your system CD, back up your data and do a hard format and clean install of your OS. Basically, the system and software "cruft" the builds up over time in OS 9. Nothing really fixes that problem except a "Clean Install."

[Big Booger]

Reinstall the OS.. try to backup data beforehand if possible. Should fix the problem.

If not one other thing to try, other than what is previously mentioned, is a new CMOS battery in the motherboard. You can pick them up at any camera shop or convenience store.

[Taro Toporific]

If not one other thing to try, other than what is previously mentioned, is a new CMOS battery in the motherboard.

YEAH, a new CMOS battery! I forgot that one.

Can you remember if your Mac was losing the clock time and date before this problem started?

Normally, a Mac will run 6+ years before it needs a new CMOS battery. (I had an Mac SE go nine years before replacement.)

Another too-obvious-to-mention trick would be to try:

-- Zapping PRAM at startup (Do the PRAM Finger Dance: Hold
down option+command+p+r until you hear the start up chime 3 times.)

[Taro Toporific]

With (for example) Silicon Valley unemployment about 8%, it's not time for a new G5. Things are so hopeless here that local baseball team defeats have resulted in increased pressure to recall the governor!

Perhaps its time for Vince-san to do I-turn to real, true concrete 'home' soon?!

Dozens of journalists from around the world choked the ballroom...
"It's very simple -- there are so many Japanese people who like Arnold Schwarzenegger in movies, so they are very, very interested in this election," said Tatsura Nakae, a reporter for Japan's Nippon TV.
Hundreds Hit Schwarzenegger Victory Party NewsMax.com Wires / Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2003

[American Oyaji]

I'll be in Japan in December.

Making travel arrangements today.

Hope your mac gets fixed.

I have a G3 MT300 beige. Not to many problems with it except the zip drive dont work anymore. But i never used it much anyway.

[cstaylor]

Vince, you might want to use the Mac OS X disk utility to repair permissions. It actually does more than that, and as fixed many a problem for me.

[vince]

It looks like the problem was actually the FAN wearing out!!

I kept getting the symptoms of a hard drive failure - it looks like CPU gradually overheating could cause this.

Put in new fan - everything is fine - (but keeping fingers crossed - or whatever the Japanese equivalent is!)

[vince]

[Caustic Saint]

[vince]

Drew wrote...

What was wrong with it? I've still got it saved and it works fine.

Somebody told me they were having trouble with it, so I downloaded it and it didn't work for me...

Glad to hear it works for you

Who knows what is going on...