Dual-Core PPC G5 Freezing?

It'll run for around 15 minutes, then everything will freeze. All progress bars will stop and stop being animated, I can still move my mouse, but can't click on anything, can't drag anything, the keyboard does nothing. After waiting around 10 minutes, it unfreezes, sorta - if I tried to drag anything earlier, it will then drag, but it'll freeze up immediately again. Specs:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Power Mac G5
Model Identifier: PowerMac7,3
Processor Name: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 2
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.25 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.1.8f8
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-000D9358FDA0



ATI Radeon 9600 XT:

Chipset Model: ATY,RV360
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 128 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x4152
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A13602-121
Displays:
SyncMaster:
Resolution: 1680 x 1050 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Software
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Not Supported
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected

Serial-ATA Bus:

ST3250823AS:

Capacity: 232.89 GB
Model: ST3250823AS
Revision: 3.03
Serial Number: 3ND1GXN7
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Protocol: ata
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Serial-ATA
Bay Name: "A (upper)"
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: APM (Apple Partition Map)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Boot:
Capacity: 232.76 GB
Available: 29.23 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s3
Mount Point: /

It could be the amount of space you have left on your HDD, best to keep more than 15% free as it gets a little critical below that amount and defragmenting starts to occur. 15% for that drive is over 30gb so you are already there.
My suggestion, clear what you can from the drive, backup, format then re-install OSX and restore from backup!

Hope this helps

- Simon

Are you running iStat? What kind of CPU temps are you running? Fans in good shape and interior clean for good airflow?

Snipeye said:

It'll run for around 15 minutes, then everything will freeze. All progress bars will stop and stop being animated, I can still move my mouse, but can't click on anything, can't drag anything, the keyboard does nothing. After waiting around 10 minutes, it unfreezes, sorta

Click to expand...

How long have you had this computer?...you've had it for a while & it always ran fine...or did you just get it?

- Nick

I'm not running iStat, but I got rid of all/any dust in the interior yesterday. (After the problems started happening). The machine usually runs pretty cool, though perhaps the fans have been on a little bit more than usually lately...

On the chance that it is defragging that's lagging everything down, is there a dedicated tool I could run to do it, rather than letting the system do it automatically?

EDIT: In response to the post above me, I've had this computer for a number of years.

Update: I seem to have found at least one cause: It froze when I tried to verify (via disk utility) the boot drive. I used Onyx and it reported everything normal, but I'm not convinced...

Snipeye said:

Update: I seem to have found at least one cause: It froze when I tried to verify (via disk utility) the boot drive. I used Onyx and it reported everything normal, but I'm not convinced...

Click to expand...

You didn't answer "Buzzard2010" question about how full is your hard drive. An almost full hard drive can cause strange problems. If your hard drive is not almost full...then your hard drive could be failing.

One way to isolate if the problem is the hard drive...boot the computer from an OS install CD/DVD...and see if your computer still has a problem. If not...this could point to an HD problem.

- Nick

The OP had this far down in the statistics list

Capacity: 232.76 GB
Available: 29.23 GB

The hard drive is quite old, I'm trying booting off a different drive in the computer, but the copy could take a while. No clue where my 10.5 install disks are, so I'm just copying all the files from the boot drive to the other one.

Razormac said:

The OP had this far down in the statistics list

Capacity: 232.76 GB
Available: 29.23 GB

Click to expand...

Thanks Razormac...missed that in that long list of details.

- Nick

Snipeye said:

The hard drive is quite old, I'm trying booting off a different drive in the computer, but the copy could take a while. No clue where my 10.5 install disks are, so I'm just copying all the files from the boot drive to the other one.

Click to expand...

Good luck. If you can find those disks...that would make it easier. Plus you never know when you need to install the OS on a new drive...so having those disks handy is helpful.

- Nick

Razormac said:

The OP had this far down in the statistics list

Capacity: 232.76 GB
Available: 29.23 GB

Click to expand...

Actually where I got my question from lol

- Simon

OK, found the install disks, did a fresh install on a different (newer) drive, and it seemed to work... for a day. Now I'm getting the same problem. HELP!

Well with the ATI Radeon 9600 card it is not a Dual Core but a Dual Processor. From your description sounds like an overheating or logic board problem still.

OK, I took the entire thing apart (this is the watercooled version) to check for leaks, anything - seems to be fine. I tried booting it off the install CD, it gets past the grey apple + gear, goes to a blue screen, I get a mouse.... and nothing. Just stays there - when I try to boot of a hard drive, gets to the same point, but then the hard drive starts making weird sounds. Diagnostic?

Power mac freezing

Did you ever figure this out? I'm having a similar problem.

This is the original install disc that came with the machine when brand new? Should be some version of OS X.4 Tiger? Other silver/grey discs will not work.