Tim wrote:
-snip-
>I have a PowerComputing Powerbase 200.
-snip-
>It came with OS 7.5.3 and a 1.3G IDE hard drive. Things went okay for six
>months or so and then the crashing intensified. I applied Conflict Catcher
>and it kept catching everything but the problem.
>
>I added 128 megs of RAM hoping that would help. It helped some.
-snip-
>Finally someone advised me to start up from the System CD, then open the
>system folder on the hard drive, trash the system suitcase, trash the
>finder, empty the trash, then copy the system suitcase and finder from the
>startup CD onto the system folder in the hard drive.
>Then, when things began acting buggy again, just repeat the procedure.
>
>Things worked well for about three months, but then the crashing
>intensified again.
>
>I was about to shoot it, when I tried one more thing. Instead of the system
>7.5.3 CD, one day I tried the same trick using my Norton utilities CD,
>which has system software and the finder from system 7.6.1.
>
>From this point on things worked well--though slow--until finally the IDE
>drive crashed never to be trusted again as a start-up disk.
-snip-
Yeow...nightmare on elm street...
Norton recommends against using the system and finder on it's disks on the HD.
Apart from that, this sounds like a double problem, one masking the other.
The powerbase came with a 256k cache card (standard, although bigger ones were
available). A standard procedure for random crashes is to remove the level
2 cache card
(which saves recent commands for faster retrieval) to see if the problem is
cache related.
Cache is susceptible to damage from static, and can cause the sort of
problems you've
experienced, finally giving a blank startup screen when it does give up the
ghost.
There may also be corruption in the system folder, but the most I would do
is trash
the finder preferences if the problems resurfaced after a fresh install of
the Mac OS.
-snip-
>A couple of months ago I tried to add an Ethernet card so I could go to
>DSL. Only thing was, I didn't have the system software to support it with
>my hybrid system. I called a used Mac place from the back of MacAddict and
>the guy said my machine could support 8.1.
>
>I did a clean install of 8.0, then an update to 8.1 off a CD update disc.
>
>I appreciate the increased speed and other system enhancements, but it
>began crashing nearly as frequently as the 7.5.3 did. I did another clean
>install, but things got buggy again after a few days.
-snip-
Another lister has suggested cleaning out the case, and this may be a good
bet too,
especially the fan. Heat can cause a lot of problems for the delicate IC's
in a
computer.
>From your description, which was excellent, I'd be more inclined to look for
a hardware fault. You said you had upgraded the ram by 128 mb, and that it
helped some.
the PowerBase uses the 3 slot Alchemy board where the first slot addresses
up to
32 Mb and the second two slots address up to 64 mb dimms. Are the three dimms
the same speed? (ie 60 ns). as ram with different access speeds or refresh
rates can also
cause random freezing/crashes.
Cheers...Michael
--
Power Computing is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and...
123Inkjets.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/123inkjets.html>
Save on Mac software -- Shop Software Outlet.com
<http://lowendmac.com/ad/software.outlet.html>
Star Trek Collection: Movies 1-7 on VideoCD, $38.88 from CoolVCD
<http://lowendmac.com/ad/coolvcd.html>
- - - - -
Power Computing list info: <http://lowendmac.com/power/list.html>
Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
List archive:
<http://www.mail-archive.com/powercomputing%40mail.maclaunch.com/>
Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks!
<http://www.applelinks.com>
