03-12-2007, 12:04 AM

So,

I have 2 questions I am hoping you great Mac Users can help me with.

1. What would cause a Mac to not have a serial number

2. can anyone recommend good tools/utilities that will help me find the source of a constant kernel panic problem. perhaps something to help decipher KP logs.

Back Story:

I recently got a PowerMac Dual 1.25 G4 MDD FW800 from the IT guy in my department. He was going to retire it and throw it away so I took it instead. The stated reason for pitching this gem was "it is unfixable"

He said that this machine had been a problem for a very long time and had constant Kernel Panics. He said he "replaced everything except the Motherboard"

Now you should know that this guy is a dunce and I would not be surprised if he never really tried to fix her at all. He is not exactly a friend to the Mac side of life.

So I don't really know what has been done to this machine so far but I am going to start from scratch and see what I can do. Hope I give this baby a new lease on life.

It does in fact KP very often and usually with little to no heavy lifting. usually just in finder.

Thanks everyone!

03-12-2007, 12:19 AM

Did you get the OS install CD/DVD? What version of OSX is it?

Kernel Panics are often caused by bad RAM. It could be something wrong with the OS also.

That machine should be very stable.

03-12-2007, 12:41 AM

More Info I should have included:

The current OS is 10.4.8.
I started testing the machine booting from my external which has a clean copy of 10.4.8 for situation such as these. Under these conditions the KPs still happened.
I then Dupped that clean version to the bootdrive of the PM using Drive Genius after shredding both the internal drives. Still get the panics. (this is the current status of the OS)

I realize RAM is high suspect. I have RAM coming to rule it out. The clean version of OS should rule out an OS problem.

I have recorded all panic logs if anyone is interested

03-12-2007, 01:33 AM

Sure, post the logs.

03-12-2007, 03:18 AM

Normally a Mac doesn't have a serial number if the logic board has been swapped.

I realize that you said that's what he hadn't swapped but I can't think of any other reason...

03-12-2007, 03:39 AM

Interesting about hte Logic Board... I'll look more into that.

Thanks

The current Log file can be found at <Here>

03-12-2007, 05:59 AM

Have you tried the wipe button on the actual motherboard? It's a small black button that's in different places on various motherboards. Hunt around for it and press it down for 2 seconds. Then power up.

03-12-2007, 03:01 PM

Alexis,

do you mean the PMU reset button. If you do then yes. I have reset PMU via button and battery removal.

I continue to plug at it.

I have come to the point where I am trying to eliminate hardware devices. I am going to strip the computer dowh to its necessities and work back from there.

Fingers Crossed