It started saying "Kernel Error"

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I have a Power Mac G4 and It was working until a friend of mine tried to grap some info off of it. It started saying "Kernel Error". So Then I took out the hard drive, put it in my eMac, erased the Hard Drive, tried to format it with 10.5 leopard, put it back in the Power mac and it didn't work. So then I put an 10.3 Tiger installation disc in and when it is done installing it prepares the disc then it freezes and gives me the "You need to restart your computer" warning.


Help?:\
 

pigoo3

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Kernel errors or Kernel panics are most often caused by bad ram or maybe a bad video card.

Have you replaced or changed either of these recently?

- Nick
 
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And it may be the hard drive. Boot from the Leopard disc with the drive in the G4, hold down 'C" after the chimes, go to Utilities, select Disk Utility and run Repair Disk and see what is reported.
 

dtravis7


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Do what harry suggested. If you get a Kernel Panic from the Leopard DVD then I would guess bad RAM.
 
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I don't have the Leopard CD with me. The only way I'll be able to get a hold of a new one is if I buy one.

For now I've been installing 10.3 from an iBook disc. It says Kernel error when it's done installing and it's in the middle preparing the hard drive.


I ran disk repair and they're fine.


BTW: I have two Hard Drives One 10 GB and one 160. I partitioned the 160 Drive in half, so I could have two 74GB but it still only recognizes 120GB. I have an ATi Graphics card inside it. It has three sticks of 128 GB RAM and a fourth but I don't know how much it is. Here are some pics

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The mac was working the first day I got it, unfortunately my friend was there the same day and he got the kernel panic started. I've taken the hard drives out and taken all the information off that I needed then I erased them.


I'll check if it's bad RAM or something...
 

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How come the modem board is laying there on an angle and not mounted on the board and plugged into the slot?

Also the iBook CD is made for the iBook. The CD/DVD's that come with a Mac are model specific.
 

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I don't have the Leopard CD with me. The only way I'll be able to get a hold of a new one is if I buy one.

For now I've been installing 10.3 from an iBook disc.

I'm sort of surprised that you were able to use an iBook CD to install the OS on a Powermac G4.

These grey/silver disks as "dtravis7" mentioned are model specific...and usually do not work very well (if at all) on other Mac models.

It seems like you got lucky (in a way)...but because that iBook CD is model specific, it may not be installing the "exact" files that a Powermac G4 needs...which could lead to problems.

It would really be best to get a "retail" install CD/DVD (black colored) to install the OS.

BTW...in your initial post you said that you: "erased the Hard Drive, tried to format it with 10.5 leopard". Where did this DVD install disk come from, and why don't you have it now?

Also in your initial post you mentioned: So then I put an 10.3 Tiger installation disc in and when it is done installing it prepares the disc then it freezes and gives me the "You need to restart your computer" warning.

OS 10.3 isn't Tiger...Tiger is OS 10.4.

Hope this helps. Good Luck,:)

- Nick
 
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I'll look for a CD for the Power Mac. The modem board has no screws so it pops off occasionally.


Is it worth the money to upgrade this thing? or get a new computer?
 

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I'll look for a CD for the Power Mac. The modem board has no screws so it pops off occasionally.


Is it worth the money to upgrade this thing? or get a new computer?

You never told us what model Powermac G4 it is, and the specs (CPU speed, ram, HD, etc.).

EDIT: Sorry...just saw you have the info in your avatar...I'm assuming it is a 1 ghz Powermac G4?

If so...I guess it depends on what you want to do in terms of upgrades.

- Nick
 
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You never told us what model Powermac G4 it is, and the specs (CPU speed, ram, HD, etc.).

EDIT: Sorry...just saw you have the info in your avatar...I'm assuming it is a 1 ghz Powermac G4?

If so...I guess it depends on what you want to do in terms of upgrades.

- Nick

I have four macs, the one I'm using at the moment is an eMac 1ghz ATi Graphics edition.

The Power Mac is a gigabit Ethernet. It came with a 400 MHz processor but it was 800 MHz when it was given to me.

I got Leopard illegally and I'm going to erase it, doesn't seem right...
 

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The Power Mac is a gigabit Ethernet. It came with a 400 MHz processor but it was 800 MHz when it was given to me.

So I assume that this is the G4 you are thinking of upgrading. I not sure what you mean about it came with a 400mhz CPU & now is 800mhz?

Does it have an 800 mhz CPU upgrade in it?

And what sort of upgrades were you thinking of doing?

Thanks,

- Nick
 
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So I assume that this is the G4 you are thinking of upgrading. I not sure what you mean about it came with a 400mhz CPU & now is 800mhz?

Does it have an 800 mhz CPU upgrade in it?

And what sort of upgrades were you thinking of doing?

Thanks,

- Nick

I think it has a 800 MHz upgrade but I'm not sure.

I want to upgrade the processor, RAM, disc drive, Graphics card and Hard Drives.

Should I do the upgrades? or Should fix the mac to minimum, sell it and buy a new mac?
 

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The upgrades (especially a much faster G4 CPU and good video card like an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro) will cost you so much you could purchase a G4 Mini and it would be a better machine leave alone the low end Intel Mini.

I would sell off that machine and go for a newer one. You will pay way too much for the upgrades and then that Gigabit Ethernet G4 will still not even be worth $50 on Ebay. Now a days it's not worth throwing that much $$$ into such an old Mac.

I speak from experience. I own a Digital Audio G4 which is a much better machine to upgrade with it's 133Mhz Bus Vs your machines 100Mhz Bus, AGP 4x Vs AGP 2x on the Gigagit and my G4 1.5Ghz Mini keeps up with it and my Intel Mini blows it apart! I did this as a project for fun so did not really care about the $$$ and got a very good deal on all the parts.

My upgraded G4 is a very useable machine overall for day to day computing, but will not play HD video without choking. It does do well on You Tube videos though, and the upgrade cost was very high for what it does.
 

pigoo3

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I think it has a 800 MHz upgrade but I'm not sure.

I want to upgrade the processor, RAM, disc drive, Graphics card and Hard Drives.

Should I do the upgrades? or Should fix the mac to minimum, sell it and buy a new mac?

My quick answer without researching...and considering you already have 4 Macs...that upgrading this computer probably isn't worth it.

As it is now, it's probably worth less than $100 bucks, and after you've purchased everything you want to upgrade(ram, HD, graphics card)...that's going to probably cost at least $100-$150...then it's going to cost you a bunch more for a CPU upgrade (because even used they can still be pricey).

You would be better off just buying a better computer. Recently another member on Mac-forums (like yesterday) is going to be purchasing a Dual 1.25ghz Mirror Drive Doors Powermac G4 for $150.

So you can see how that is a much better computer for the money than an 800mhz G4 (that was upgraded from a 400mhz G4 (old architecture)).

Your 800mhz G4 is definitely good for a lot of tasks...it's just not good financially to upgrade it, when you can get a better computer for the cost of the upgrades.

Hope this helps,

- Nick
 
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Alright, I'll sell the G4, get some money and buy myself a mini. The best mac I have at the moment is the eMac.
 

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