Random Freeze Solution |
December, 31, 2002 10:53 AM |
sprocketworks |
Machine Specs: 9600 XLR8 SSE MPe - 1 OWC G4/450 384 megs Ram (non interleaved) WD 80 Gig caviar Toshiba 1202 CD-R/DVD Drive Utratek 66 IDE CARD Radeon 7000 ATTO PCI/Express SCSI Card MacAlly Firewire/USB combo card Turbo TV Tuner Card Ok, so I am wiring a tech document to explain how to upgrade a 9600 and in the middle of it I write, "Placement in of the PCI cards does not seem to effect the operation of this machine." Let me tell you, I was wrong. The machine worked relatively OK with the PCI cards placed randomly, however it was definitely the cause of my random freezes. The real kicker to all of this is that I thought I had solved the random freezes by replacing all my RAM with OWC approved RAM. The new memory did improve my situation and solved many kernel panics and let me run the machine freeze free: I ran Internet Explorer with no problem, installed system software with issues. However, when I started putting the machine to the test, operations that required disk intensive tasks, or perhaps memory intensive ones as well - like network copying, disk copying, and using the Finder's CD-R's function of copying to a blank CD (not the burn but just the copy), I would get a freeze. I came literaly a second from selling off the parts of my machine and buying a DP 866. Well after cooling down, reading some more posts, I decided to rearrange the PCI cards and with only 2 - Ultratek in Slot 1 and Radeon in Slot 3. Without going though all the iterations, this solved my freezing problems. I now run: 1: Ultratek 2: ATTO SCSI 3: Radeon 7000 4: MacAlly FireWire/USB 2.0 5: Empty 6: Turbo TV Tuner Card (works in 9.2.2) This set up also solved the problem I had with booting up with a CD in the machine. Before, if a CD were in the player upon a power up, the machine would freeze on the blue screen. Now, no problem. Also note that the older Asante Fast Ethernet10/100 Card (not the 510 or the 610 will freeze the Mac in OS 10.2. I do not know if it works in earlier version, but just having it in the machine would cause a freeze. It works fine in 9.2.2. One side effect of the rearrangement the cards is when I start the machine, I am staring at the gray apple screen with no spinning 'wheel of fortune' for about 60 seconds, then go into verbose mode - where things seem to load more quickly now - and then to the blue screen. Before, there was no gray apple screen, just the verbose mode, and then the blue one. Perhaps I will be bold to play with the Throttle - currently set to 8. Doug PS Here are the excerpts from the tech document 1. Get NNVRAM emergency disk made before installing G4 card or using XPF (this might becoming a moot point but it wouldn't be bad to have around anyway) 2. PCI Card placement ** see the above. Apparently it is important 3. Memory, Memory, Memory. If in doubt, get OWC OS X approved memory. RAM that worked in older systems, sometimes is just unstable in OS X (although this might just be an aggravation of the PCI slot problem) 4. HD - DVD - CD-R and the IDE PCI card. This is a complex issue. But it seems like cards with the Promise Chipset and the ACARD 100/133 seem to work best in the 9600 allowing the DVD and CD-R to work. As for HD, the only bad combo I had was a cheap Maxtor 60 gig and a SIIG 133. The drive would work for a little bit and then crash. The drive then failed to be reinitialized. (Error -64) Again, could this be a PCI slot issue? Well that’s it for now. I just want to say, I will never do this kind of upgrade again. Fun, but way to time consuming and stressful (I just want the machine to work). This must be what it is like to be a PC owner. |
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