10-07-2004, 06:21 PM

Seems I can go for days without a crash on the Powerbook, but sometimes they'll happen in bursts.

I've had a good few kernel panics (mostly the multilingual 'restart your computer' message) since getting the PB for no particular reasons, just suddenly it'll dump. It's not too often, but it is annoying when it happens.

Today, Safari crashed 3 times randomly whilst typing messages etc (not even using it heavily), later on iTunes crashed for no apparent reason other than being in the middle of playing music.

Skype also crashed at one point today.

Is this normal, or does my Powerbook have a problem? I love the Mac, but must admit my XP-based PC has been far more stable.

I do the ol' repair permissions and Onyx thing once in a while (few weeks to a month). There is a 512MB chip fitted by Apple's own G4 tech department, Kingston branded, and the correct speed. I've ran some thorough memory testing program from the terminal (similar to memtest86 on the PC) and it seems fine.

The PB replaces one which was stolen, I've had it for a couple of months now but the first one didn't seem too stable either.

Any suggestions appreciated.

10-07-2004, 06:28 PM

It really sounds like you have bad RAM, try taking it out, as long as you have another chip in there and do some tests that way.

10-07-2004, 06:32 PM

It's difficult to tell as sometimes it can go for ages without crashing - one of the most annoying types of fault ever! But will give it a try.

10-08-2004, 01:02 AM

Mine has never crashed and I have had it for well.. 3 years now.

10-08-2004, 10:58 AM

Yea I have had mine 15 months now with 0 kernal panics

10-08-2004, 05:20 PM

Occasionally a program will "quit unexpectedly" (mainly Safari), but otherwise both my iBook and my 6 year old G3 AIO have been solid as a rock.

I agree that you should investigate the RAM, and also do you have any peripherals plugged-in? If worse comes to worst, you can always try a complete format and re-install of the OS, because it sounds like your machine is far less stable than it should be.

10-08-2004, 07:12 PM

I will try removing the RAM, though it's stable at the moment so it's one of the most awkward ones to try (plus it makes it extremely slow running on 256MB!)

I have tried the Apple Hardware Test in extended mode and it didn't come up with anything. Will try looping it overnight.

In the mean time I'll attach the panic.log and safari.crash.log files (as .txt)... if anyone has any ideas from those please do let me know. Almost
everything seems to be "Data Access" (panic log) or "Bad Access" (safari log) if that means anything. I must admit, 'access' does tend to say 'memory' to me.

BTW the crashes happen without any peripherals attached.

Edit: Someone over the Apple forums was kind enough to analyse the logs quite closely and noticed that a lot of the problems are caused by Logitech drivers. Of course, I forgot about those but I did install some drivers for a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse. It doesn't seem unreasonable to believe that it could even be the root of most of the problems, even those that don't mention Logitech directly.

Otherwise things seem to point to possible RAM issues, though an overnight loop of Apple Hardware Test came up with nothing. An interesting idea was to try recreating the swap file, which after uninstalling the Logitech drivers will be next on the agenda.