G4 867 freezing at start-up randomly

[Armando]

I've been dealing with this issue for months now with no answer in sight.

When I start-up the G4, it gets to the Finder loading, then desktop icons like the Mac HD and then the icons and Finder vanish, leaving me with a frozen Mac. This happens randomly, not each and every time , although enough to bring sessions to a hault, especially when rebooting back to a frozen Mac.

I've tried everything from clean installs of the OS( 9.2.2) to reinitialing the drive. I've bought and tried the latest versions of Norton Disk Doctor, Tech Tool Pro and Disk Warrior. None of these has stopped the problem. I'm using the SCSI64 Kit with driver version 1.6.6 and PT Express version 2.7. I even pulled the ATTO card but this also does not prevent the problem. My system is an HD3 system with 384MB of ram. And I'm using a 36GB DigiDrive(terminated).

Any clues? I've run out of ideas. I've started a case with Apple TS on this issue but they suggest running 9.2.2 All and 9.2.2 Base to see how they react. They're thinking extension loading conflict. I even visited an Apple Store's Mac Genius. He thinks it's a bad system drive.

Any assistance in this matter will be greatly appreciated. I hope Digi Tech Support is reading this (hopefully!!).

Thanks in advance!

[jackruston]

Hi Armando
Sorry to hear you're having problems of the worst kind. These kind of issues are always such a pain when it doesn't do it every time.

I have had similar (but not identical) problems recently with a g4867. I would try...

1. Remove the Atto card and zap the pram. Taking the card alone out will not do the trick. If that doesn't help you may need to troubleshoot by replacing drives. Start with the terminator on the digidrive. They can sometimes cause probs. Replace it and see what happens. If you know that that is ok and that taking the card out and zapping pram makes no difference then it's fair to assume that the problem is with the other drive or the mac itself. Ask your dealer if they can swap the system drive with one from one of their machines. If that works ok then you know it's not some other hardware component misbehaving. Try a new system drive. I know it's a total pain with authorisations etc but it might take a day to do all this, which is much better than weeks of slightly fragile working. When you replace the drive do that thing with the button on the motherboard.
Good luck. I hope this helps as I really know how you feel!
Jack

[Armando]

Thanks Jack,

After reading my original post, it reads like I'm just having an issue with my G4 but the fact is that this freezing problem only occurs when the Digi cards(1-Core, 2-Process) are installed. And yes, they're in the correct order, even though ASP says otherwise( I know this is an older issue).

How about Digi Tech Support? I'd really like to hear from you guys. Or any other G4 867Mhz owners.

[Brave Noise]

Hi Armando,

I'm just going through a SCSI nightmare myself right now, trying to install an HD 3 on a G4 876.
I'm using an Atto DC card, the card is recognized by the mac, but won't mount any drives from the hotswap bay. It doesn't even see them. I've tried everything, updated the firmware, but no luck. I can't work like this, I love the HD system, but this SCSI thing is driving me insane.

Oh the other thing, when I run digitest, the ATTO card won't even show up.

PFffff, updating is fun

[DigiTechSupt]

Armando,
-What does DigiTest report?

-Do you get the same results when only the HD Core card is installed? (Be sure and Trash the DigiSetup File and restart whenever changing cards)

-What utility did you use to format your System Drive?

Brent

[Armando]

Brent-

"Armando,
What does DigiTest report?"

1. DigiTest passes all three HD cards and shows proper slot order, 1-AGP, 2-HD Core, 3-HD Process, 4-HD Process, 5-ATTO.

"Do you get the same results when only the HD Core card is installed? (Be sure and Trash the DigiSetup File and restart whenever changing cards)"

2. I haven't tried it yet with only the Core card installed but will try this now. I'll report my findings on this later.

"What utility did you use to format your System Drive?"

3. I used(as always) Apple's Drive Set-up.

As I stated earlier, this is a random problem, so I have to wait until it happens again. Hopefully I'll find out sooner than later. Stay tuned.....

[Lee Blaske]

Hi Armando,

If I were you, I'd first try reseating all the cards (of course using a good contact stabilant like Caig Pro Gold on the edge connectors). I would also remove, and reconnect all the connectors within the Mac itself, and also flash the software on the ATTO card. I'd also try different SCSI cables.

Then, if the problem persisted, for testing purposes, I would break things down to the bare essentials, in your case, just the HD Core card (for testing, run sessions to the internal drives). Then, if the problem doesn't manifest itself, I'd continue adding cards one at a time until the problem showed up (I'd add the ATTO card last). If the problem occurred after adding one of the Process cards, I'd swap one of the others with it to determine if it's the card or the slot.

Of course, this could be a software problem, and this testing would be useless.

Sometimes, however, hardware is intermittent, and just a little bit flaky. Substitution, and bracketing the problem is the way to tackle these things.

Lee Blaske

[Lee Blaske]

One more thought, since the drive icons are vaishing after they appear...

Is there any possibility that you've got some weird networking problem going on? For testing, make sure Apple Talk and File Sharing are turned off.

You might also want to try throwing out any prefs dealing with networking, Apple Talk, file sharing, etc.

Lee Blaske

[Armando]

OK, my G4's running with only the HD Core card and I just loaded the Digi HD Demo on the Mac System drive. So far, so good.

I can see where this is going. If all goes well, I install an HD Process card in the next PCI slot and see how that goes, and so on......an issue with either a Digi card(s) or the G4's PCI slot buss.

Here's anothing thing I forgot to list earlier on this topic. I noticed a difference in the desktop loading(startup) sequence when the G4 either loads fine or freezes. When everything's ok, it loads(displays) the date/time first, then the Mac hard drive icon and finally the Finder and any other desktop icons. A start-up which causes the G4 to freeze loads like this: Mac hard drive first, date/time second and Finder last.

Hope this is significant to what's happening.

Keep suggestions coming. Thanks!

[Armando]

Well, I started the system up fine this morning( only the HD Core card is installed). After doing a restart 20 minutes later, everything loads(time/date, Mac HD, Finder) and then everything on the desktop vanishes(there goes my theory on load-up sequence). The cursor still moves until I do a force-quit on the Finder, which totally freezes it up. I just rebooted and am up and running again.

So, what's the next course of action I should take? Is it the Core card? Or the PCI slot? How do I test these?