I have questions about Mac Power PC

2/24/02 | Pakrman

[Pakrman]

I purchased a used Mac Power PC 8100 with a G3 from work during an equipment sale. There is a glitch and I was hoping I might find a Mac user who could walk me through a solution

The screen will freeze on the desktop, with no icons showing, the first time I start it up. However when I reboot, it will start normally and it runs very well after that.

I have tried some troubleshooting techniques from various books, but they do not apply. I don't have a lot of $ involved in the box (it only cost $100.00) and I don't know yet if I want to dump a lot of cash into it. My wife uses it for some work related things and she wants to learn Quark Express and other programs for work advancement.

Thank you in advance, please feel free to email me directly if you need at louiswu@indy.net

Thanks again

[SamAdams76]

Take it back and buy a real PC.

[RnMomof7]

When that happens to my G3 it is usually a problem with the computer " finding" my cable ISP. It is usually at times of heavy net use or when my ISP is having problems..do you have a cable hook up?

[Utopia]

What version of the OS is it running? I'm on X. The last release (prior to X) was 9.2. If you're on something older say - 8.0 and are running software design to work on a system later than it is (say 9.0), you could run into trouble (but then you'd run into trouble regardless if it was a Mac, PC or Linux box). Have to think about it.

[Mixer]

Utopia is on the right path. I think you should upgrade to MAC X first and see if that solves your problem it may not be a hardware issue at all. At least if you upgrade the OS you will know for sure.

[Mixer]

Ping

[johnny7]

Do you have a lot of fonts?

That could be the problem.

Do you run PhotoShop? Preferences could be the problem.

I would start with extensions off and delete fonts that you loaded and

delete any PhotoShop preferences. Re-boot and see what happens.

[zog]

--Here is a nice overview of your system

If it is truly a g-3 now it seems it's been upgraded with a card, but no way to tell from your post. Check the caution at the bottom of that page for a possible reason why the machine might be experiencing problems. Also note that osx is not recommended, stick to the classic OS's up to 9.xx even if it has an upgrade card in it. In addition, most macs that I am aware of have a motherboard battery installed. It's a good idea to replace them every few years, once they start to run down you will experience weird problems, I noted a dramatic improvement on one of my machines once when I neglected that, and then replaced the battery. It ran much better with a new battery. They are weird sized, but I've found radio shack has usually carried what I needed in that regard and was actually cheaper than buying them at a computer store or via a computer sales website..

You said you read the manuals, etc, but I'll ask anyway, have you zapped the pram and rebuilt the desktop? You can do that with keyboard commands, but techtool does a better job of it. There's a free version as well. It also analyses your system to a certain degree, as will the built in disk first aid. Unfortunately disk first aid works much better if it's on another volume, like if you have an actual install OS disk. or better, use another disk repair utility like norton.

Zap the pram after installing a new battery on the motherboard., but you can try that and the desktop rebuild before hand, it won't hurt anything.

With all that said, and if none of the previousworks, I would be suspicious of one of the ram chips. Don't know why exactly, just am. Try the cheap stuff first. And once you have the problem resolved, always max the ram out anyway. follow the guidelines on that first page I linked to on exactly what you need in that regartd, then shop around for peices, there's some big differences out there in ram prices for the same stuff a lot of times.

[zog]

--addendum-the advice on extensions is good, too. Hold down shift key on reboot to turn them off, see if it boots normal then. If that's the case you have an extensions conflict, need trial and error to see which one that is. Worst i have ever seen is zero desktop on boot, on a friends computer, and zapping the pram fixed it.

I've never had this exact problem you site, so anything I say take it as an educated guess. There's also a forum at maccentral.com you can drag and drop your question to, weekdays are much better than weekends, your question won't get lost off the front page before someone who might actually know the exact answer sees it.

From everything I have read, honestly, osx really only runs all that well on much newer machines. You can install it on older machines, some of them, but it won't really do most tasks for you any better than a good classic OS, and it might actually slow your machine down. it's extremely ram and processor intensive and the 8100 is sorta kinda real old now.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Impossible. Macs don't have problems.
It must be because you are still used to IBM's.

Maybe if you build an altar with some nice aromatic candles and a silk cloth to set it on and bow to it like some have done. That should help. :)

Hope it works, let us know.

[Pakrman]

: )

Thank you all for your good advice. I have a lot of things to work on.

As for getting a real PC - already got one - but lot of what my wife needs to do is Mac based for some reason graphic artists like them (don't know why myself)

I really like FR everyone is very helpful and has a lot of real world advice

[SamAdams76]

I was just being provocative with my last reply! What I'm trying to say is either buy a Mac or a PC. If you want to own a Mac that runs like a PC, then just get a PC! From all that I've heard, these Mac Power PCs emulates Windows poorly. I'm sure it's a tactic by Steve Jobs to get Mac users to hate Windows even more.

[Key]

check out Apple Support. Sign up and click on discussions .... you'll get some good advice there

[Vermonter]

From everything I have read, honestly, osx really only runs all that well on much newer machines. You can install it on older machines, some of them, but it won't really do most tasks for you any better than a good classic OS, and it might actually slow your machine down. it's extremely ram and processor intensive and the 8100 is sorta kinda real old now.

The 8100 did not come with a G3 processor and from what I've heard, machines with third party upgrades are not officially supported under OS X.

Don't think I'd even attempt using OS X on this machine.

[I got the rope]

Power PC 8100 with a G3...hmmm...this seems fishy to me. I had a g3 powerbook that did this while I ran 9.0. I later upgraded to 9.1 and this took care it. I suspect that your computer is searching for an outside connection. Try turning off appletalk and see what happens.

[Ben Hecks]

The advice Zog gives in posts 8 and 9 is good. Rather than spend $100 on OSX, consider buying a diagnostic and repair utility. Other World Computing (www.macsales.com) currently has a version of Norton System Works for Macintosh for about $10 plus shipping (Symantec has released a newer version but this one works with 9.2 and older). Boot from the Norton CD (hold down the "C" key), select Norton Utilities and use "Examine Disk" to correct problems on your hard drive.....then use "Optimize" to defrag your hard drive and allow Norton to rebuild the desktop before a normal reboot.

[zog]

--excellent advice and that's a killer price on that cd utility. If I already didn't have two copies I paid full release price over the past several years for I'd buy it myself. Worth every penny and more, IMO. I run norton every month or so just for the heck of it, always seems to do the job, which is preventing glitches before they show up in a major way. The fixing after failure and speed optimization is a bonus.

[Vermonter]

Norton just announced the OS X version of their SystemWorks. They are taking pre-orders for it now, but it has not yet begun shipping.

The $10 for the older version (which can be run on OS X drives, just not under OS X*) is a steal.

* The way to do this is to have a full OS 9 partition to boot from and download all of the upgrades from Symantec to the Norton Utilities App on that disk. Then run Norton on your OS X volume after booting from the OS 9 volume.

[clodkicker]

My guess is that you have a microsoft program somewhere on your drive. I find that eliminating all microsoft software makes for a healthy Mac.