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Lombard locking up

Submitted by bfutrel on December 6, 2007 - 11:07am. PowerPC Macs

A couple of months ago I purchased a Lombard off of eBay with 128MB RAM, 6GB HD and MacOS 9 installed. After receiving it I wiped the drive and installed 9.22.

Later I replaced one of the 64MB SODIMM modules with a Kingston 256MB PC100 module, upgraded the hard drive to a 40GB model and installed Tiger by putting the drive in a PowerMac G4, installing it then moving the drive back to the laptop.

Lately it has been locking up at random intervals doing different things. Sometimes it is while having several OS X applications running. At other times I am running Warcraft II under Classic mode. It can be anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours after being powered on. Each time this happens the only way to get it going again is to reset it using fn-ctrl-command-power.

Any suggestions besides wiping the drive and installing Panther?

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Almost forgot

Submitted by bfutrel on December 6, 2007 - 1:00pm.

I also got a wireless card with the Realtek RTL8185 chipset in it. I can't remember if the laptop has locked up while it was at work - I use ethernet there since the MAC address of the card has to be entered in the router to be able to use it.

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dankephoto's picture

failing L2 cache?

Submitted by dankephoto on December 6, 2007 - 2:55pm.

Common problem with Lombards, cure is to replace the CPU. It might be possible to disable the cache using one of the aftermarket cache control softwares.

Bad RAM? Swap out module for known good part and retest.

Bad MOS install? Boot from another installation and retest.

Bad HD? Replace and retest.

Total RAM is? If only 256, then you've got waaay too little RAM for Tiger.

dan k

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I'll second dan's diagnosis -

Submitted by resman on December 6, 2007 - 3:07pm.

I'll second dan's diagnosis - L2 cache. Very common failure. I bought two on ePay before getting one that worked. Oddly, they would work OK in MacOS 8.x and 9.x, but crash in Linux and OSX. Perhaps 8.x and 9.x weren't really enabling the caches? If you do try and buy one, make sure the seller tests the CPU under OSX. And buy another 256 MB for Tiger.

Dave...

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Re: I'll second dan's diagnosis -

Submitted by bfutrel on December 6, 2007 - 3:23pm.
resman wrote:
And buy another 256 MB for Tiger.

Dave...

It actually has 320 MB (1x256MB, 1x64MB). I'm having to wait on buying more RAM for now.

How do you test the L2 cache to see if it's bad?

Also can a Pismo processor card be used?

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dankephoto's picture

Disable cache to test. Pismo? No.

Submitted by dankephoto on December 6, 2007 - 6:55pm.
Quote:
How do you test the L2 cache to see if it's bad?
I'd try disabling it, if crashes stop then you've got the culprit. I think Xpostfacto can disable the L2, otherwise try one of the CPU-upgrade vendors' control panels, those can also be used to disable the L2, even on an original CPU module.

Of course, without the L2 you'll see a noticable speed hit. Better than random crashes of course, but in a Lombard running Tiger, you need all the speed you can get.

Quote:
Also can a Pismo processor card be used?
Nope, sorry, totally different beasty.

dan k

» || web page | Applish goodies servers Carracho (port9700) & Hotline (port9500) ||
» email macdan at comcast.net

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Some other possibilities

Submitted by bfutrel on December 7, 2007 - 4:14am.

In the past the fan would turn on. At the moment it has not turned on in some time and is somewhat warm.

I've had it on for about 3 hours, but haven't done any heavy work with it.

Before installing MacOS X on it I tried using Connectix VGS to play some Playstation 1 games. It would eventally lock up with the bottom of the case near the PC Card slots being hot.

I've just ordered one through Powerbook Medic. Hopefully it will do the job. Lots cheaper than a replacement daughtercard.

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Getting worse

Submitted by bfutrel on December 12, 2007 - 2:16pm.

It now boots to the classic MacOS screen (a checkerboard pattern with individual pixels often seen before the MacOS logo appears) with a cursor to the upper-left of the LCD panel and does nothing else.

Is this still a common symptom of bad L2 cache?

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Possibly found the culprit!

Submitted by bfutrel on December 15, 2007 - 7:05pm.

It appears to be the wireless card that is causing the problem. When the card is inserted, it will randomly lock up. So far without the card it hasn't had any issues. Initially it worked OK under Tiger, but it gradually locked up with greater frequency.

The fan arrived yesterday and when I get a chance I'll disassemble the Lombard to replace the fan.

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Also happens on my Blue/White G3

Submitted by bfutrel on January 4, 2008 - 5:27pm.

Recently it has also started to do this on my G3/400. It so far only occurs in iTunes or when using Stella.

This is using 10.4.11 with 640MB RAM and a 30GB hard disk.

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