G4 very slow, sometimes shuts down

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So i've had this G4 (800 Mhz 512 Mb RAM) for a while now. It came with OS 9 and we upgraded to 10.4. After the upgrade it slowed down considerably but still functioned quite well (surprise? go mac!) Then it started to get slower and slower... and slower..... and slower. Now, whenever I do something moderately "taxing" on the system, it shuts down. Ex: Importing pictures to iPhoto, playing graphical games on facebook, any Flash game. Firefox tends to crash all the time. I reinstalled Firefox only to find it crashed even harder! Now the whole system dies when I'm in the middle of doing stuff. The screen freezes and starts whippin' out all this coded technical jamble. I would obtain a screenshot if I was able, but seeing as how it freezes.. I'm left hopeless and placing my frustration in the hands of this forums users.

For the sake of my sanity, please help me keep my mac alive, I can't even back up my hard drive without crashing it!

With thanks and peace,
Luke.
 
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2xiMac24 w Parallels 6 (1x White, 1x Aluminum), iPhone 3GS with iOS5
How large is the HD and how much is left on it? Run Repair Permission is a saviour in Tiger. Run Onyx fixes little cache issue.

Last call may be the battery is dying on the MBoard. These are great machine, I have one as a spare and it is the same generation.
 
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20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.
Ok. As a start run Disk Utility form your Tiger install disc and check permissions and repair the Disk.
That should highlight and repair anything that it can.
If you have access to it, run a hardware test too, as this will check for faulty RAM, which could be the cause here.
Your G4 is capable of running Tiger without any problems, I have done so on a couple with less RAM, so your spec shouldn't be an issue.
Come back again once you've tried this and let us know the results.
 
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Mac Mini Core 2 Duo 1.83 ghz
Do like Chilbear says and do into the Disk Utility and run Repair Disk Permissions. That may sort out the problem, but i am guessing it is your hard drive on it's way out, in which case you will need to replace it. Also, when your computer started freezing, was it a message that told you to shut down the computer or computer code babble? Because if it was the first one, it is a kernel panic, which is usually just a software problem.
 
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Yes. In fact now that you mention it, it did say something about the Kernel when it crashed. Then it asked me to restart. I just ran the utility and I'm going to test the results.
 
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Well... I've ran the repair disk permissions only to find no increase in my performance and my problem yet persists of crashing. I haven't tried running it from the disc because I can't find it. Chilbear - I'm always monitoring my HD space. its a 60 Gb Maxtor with 16 Gb of free space. If I could get more information on the Kernel panic issue, I'd be most grateful.
 
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The systems gotten courpted. You may have to do a clean reinstall. Have you installed some kind of rouge Apps. Like file sharing Apps ETC.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.
Run FSCK.
This generally fixes Kernel panic issues very successfully.
There are loads of "how to" posts here. Seek and ye shall find, I've written at least 5!
 
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alrighty. so. i've ran fsck. zapped my pram. reset my nvram. and my problem persists. when it freezes it says system failure yatta yatta "unaligned stack". further assistance would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Looks like a demented search for your install disc as it is the best troubleshooter about. Another option is DiskWarrior, but at US$99 may be cheaper to bite the bullet and consider a newer, faster, larger hard drive and a clean system install.
 
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well, i suppose there's always pirating :) then comes the dilemma if its really the harddrive. i've heard kernel panics can be caused by the ram or hard drive or many other things. what exactly is an unaligned stack?
 
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well, i suppose there's always pirating :) then comes the dilemma if its really the harddrive. i've heard kernel panics can be caused by the ram or hard drive or many other things. what exactly is an unaligned stack?

To understand this question, you need to understand the concepts of User mode and system/privileged mode of operation. In an operating system, there are (generally) two modes of operation: user mode and system mode. User mode is where all the user (program) code is executed. System mode is where the kernel/operating system code is executed. When a user program requests a service from the operating system via a system call, a switch happens from the user mode to kernel/system mode.

For any program to run (user or kernel), a program stack is essential for all stack based computer architectures. The stack is where local variables are stored, function call stack frames are created, etc So, when in user mode, a user program has a stack. But, when the kernel code starts executing, it needs its own kernel stack.
 
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20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.
Reinstall your software, that's it really now.
And no pirate talk please!
 
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sorry :) when i re-install os x, would i be able to keep all of my data? like pictures, music etc. like i could with windows?
 
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sorry :) when i re-install os x, would i be able to keep all of my data? like pictures, music etc. like i could with windows?

DO NOT format the drive first that erases everything. Now if the install breaks down and stops theres a problem with the hard drive and you may have to try and reformat and lose everything.
 

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