Have been having a really bad time recently!
My eMac has suddenly started to:

a) "Unexpectedly Quit" - Very, very often with most programs, most often when starting the program, though sometimes I get the message after I've purposely quit.

b) Refuse to Boot-up - Almost every time.

c) Scrap my iTunes Library - 2276 songs wiped. (still have original iTunes folder though. Songs are easily replaced but, shouldn't have to be.)

d) While downloading a file it keeps losing the last few megs and repeatedly downloads those 'last few' over and over. It also say's (on occasion) "Data corrupted on disk".

e) iTunes sometimes fails to recognize the DVD writer (I have PatchBurn 3.1.2) - although a rare problem, it still needs addressing! :confused:

Having ran the disk - 'Hardware Test' which came with my mac, It says there's only an error with my additional 128 Megs RAM. The computer has never had a problem with this extra RAM. Only the Hardware Test disk thinks there is! I have removed the chip (back to only 256), 'Test disk' says everything's fine.
- Problems are still there!

I have run 'Disk Warrior' and (on original system-disk) 'Disk Repair'. This is a problem in itself as the damned computer doesn't want to start up properly. I have been to Apple's 'support' (What a joke), no support at all (just more adverts for iPods an' stuff).

I have managed to back-up almost every program, game, song and picture, (all 70 Gig) and am ready to re-install OS 10.3.2.

Will this clear my woes or not?

PLEASE HELP?
Please help me before I put my head through the 'frigger'! :mad:

System specs:
Machine Model: eMac
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 256 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.6.4f1
(Please let me know if you need more system specs.)

Have you tried the various steps from this thread?
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...04011205473937

Why do you need Patchburn? That is not needed for Apple-installed drives. Have you replaced the original optical drive?

Have you considered adding more RAM - 384 MB is not too much for OS X.
There is no down-side to adding more memory, except for the cost (which is not much.) Check at ramseeker.com for plenty of choices for more memory, most of them are good.

It is possible (although a bit unusual) for RAM to go bad after a while. E.g. it might just be a bad connection in the RAM socket.
The hardware test CD is not a very strenuous test of RAM - it has been reported to miss problems that exist with RAM.
A better test is the 3rd-party utility 'memtest':
http://www.memtestosx.org/

You said that you ran DiskWarrior and Disk Utility's "Repair Disk" but you didn't say what they reported. Did they find anything that needed fixing?

You should try the standard troubleshooting suggestions:
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/ (see the "My Mac needs help" section)
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...04011205473937
http://forums.osxfaq.com/viewtopic.php?t=7269
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/faqs.html

In particular, be sure to try logging in as a different user to see if the problem exists there. (Create a new user via the Accounts preference panel if you only have the one user account so far.)

I had similar a problem once and it did, in fact, turn out to be bad 3rd party RAM that had been working fine a good 6 months before my system started acting like yours.

No, but I will. Thanks.

Yes. I have replaced the Pioneer 109D, with a Pioneer 110D.

What do you mean???? I had more memory. It was on 384, now it's on 256 again. Please explain?


Sorry. No problems were found with either test. Reports were unhelpful.

I have been all over the Apple Support pages. I found nothing like this. I went to every link on the support page to make sure. All I found were adverts and iPods (and other "i" products). I will check this out though. Thanks.

Ok, I'll try that too. Can't see how it would make a difference though.

Thanks guys. Please keep the suggestions coming.

i second solipsism's opinion. rip out the RAM. go out and get 512MB (or more).

if you have access to a second mac, then you should use it to back up your data and also to run hard disk checks:
1) boot your emac while holding the T key down until you see a light blue screen with a yellow firewire symbol on it.
2) plug in a firewire cable between your emac and the other mac (which is on and booted into OSX)
3) run disk utils from the other mac to check that your emac hard disk is ok
4) copy your data and make a backup. do your whole home directory if possible.

If all of that works ok, it suggests that your hard disk is ok, and that it is the memory or something else in the emac which is screwy.

Get new memory and chuck the old stuff out - see if that fixes it.

If you are in warranty, you could send it back to apple.

OK! First off. I have already stated twice that I have removed that RAM. I have just bought a 512 chip (about 1hr ago). I'll be installing it today.
As for the second Mac idea... Haven't got one. Have pretty much everything backed up on disks. Warranty was over 1 year ago.
Thanks though.

Is there any other possibilities for these problems, or are we all sure that it's a "RAM thing"?

Ok Ok! I misread your post and dived in following hayne! I have now spotted the "-problems still there" line...

hmmm. let me give you some guesses (which might be complete rubbish, but would at least give you more things to check...) here goes:

random crashes n stuff are usually ram-related, but there could be a problem with
-the motherboard
-or the CPU could be overheating
-or maybe even a dud battery that helps the machine remember the time etc.

check out this site for an app to give you readouts on the temps:
http://www.bresink.com/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html

I dont mean to keep banging on about the ram, but can you remove the 256 or is that soldered on? (i do realise hardware test said it was ok...)

good luck!

The general feeling on these forums is that Mac OS X shouldn't be run with anything less than 512MB although Apple says a minimum of 256MB is required.

384MB with a lot of apps will need a large amount of space on your HDD. How large is your hard drive? With 384 MB, you will want about 1-5GB free on the drive, depending on how many apps you are running. Otherwise virtual memory does start to overwrite parts of the hard drive containing your data.

I had the RAM chip tested at a computer shop... It failed. Gonna try my new one in a bit. Have checked out the links provided. Helpful only to a point though, so no luck there. Just restarted and everything has gone well so far. I'm just checking I've backed up what I wanna keep. Then I'm gonna re-install. I hope this will end the crisis. I've also been advised to 'partition' my HD to keep the OS seperate from my apps.

Is this a good idea or not?
If so How? (Not "how do I partition", but how do I ensure it puts things in the right places and has enough space for the OS?)

:confused: :o

ps: Bramley - HD is 80GB. Got 5GB left.

Wha...?! If this is true do you have a link that explains this is further detail, as I often push my hardware to it's limits?

hi DEICIDE,

you can partition the drive using the disk utility, which you must run from the OSX install disk (CD or DVD). When you reboot to reinstall, go to the menu (i think its called tools or utilities or something) and hit disk utility. you can use that to partition the drive and then format the two partitions.

im not sure of the benefit of this. its a bit tricky to get your home directory to reside on a partition other than your boot partition. hunt around on the hints site for tips - i seem to remember the technique is more popular in the windows world, where re-installing the OS is a more common practice.

regarding the spare space on your hard disk, you could do with at least 10% free, and more if possible. i disagree with the point made by bramley - the virtual memory would NOT start overwriting your files. I would suggest doing an 'erase and install' of the OS, and hit the 'customize' button so you can deselect all the items you dont need (to save space) such as unnecessary printer drivers, and all the languages and fonts you dont use.

good luck

hi bramley, you are surely mistaken. how could a system be considered 'stable' if it overwrites your stuff with virtual memory???

Thanks chris_on_hints.

So the 'Erase and Install' will allow me to keep files if I re-install the OS?

Sorry, just need to verify this before I lose stuff and have to start crying. :D

Partitioning not generally required...
 

I can think of no particularly good reason to partition a Mac disk unless you really want a different OS on another partition. If your drive has physical problems, both partitions are endangered, and if, as in this case, the problem is RAM related, it will affect your system regardless of where the data resides.

On the other hand, you ARE beginning to push the limits of what is a safe amount of "free" space on your drive. You may need to consider either replacing the drive with a larger one, adding a second internal drive, or getting an external drive and off-loading as much data as you reasonably can.

I'm not certain that Bramley is right about swap files overwriting data files on your disk. I've certainly never heard of that, and it would be a shocking piece of OS design to allow a swap file to use any space marked as "in use" by the OS. But it is certainly possible to get to the point that the OS can't create the swap files it thinks it needs, which would have unpredictable results, possibly including unexpected program terminations. That MIGHT indirectly lead to data corruption.

So, while I think replacing the defective RAM should solve your immediate problems, you do have other problems on the horizon that you should think about the best way to address them. But I don't think putting your OS on a separate partition from your applications is a particularly good idea.

Joe VanZandt

Archive and Install...
 

Yes, it is designed to protect YOUR USER folders and data, but NOTHING will take the place of a good backup of the existing data in some form or another before undertaking the process if you really want to be sure that crying isn't necessary!

Joe VanZandt

Nice one. Thanks Joe.
I won't be partitioning.
Saves me some screwing around.:)

1) I wouldn't recommend partitioning the hard drive unless you are an expert and know precisely why you are doing this. I.e. if you need to ask, you shouldn't do it. There is no particular benefit to doing it and lots of downsides. In particular, if you only have 5 GB left free on your disk, you are nearing the safe limit. If you partition the disk, you will have even more trouble with inadequate disk space.

2) You should always maintain at least 1 GB free disk space, preferably at least 2 GB. The issue of files getting overwritten when disk space gets too low (often acerbated by large swap files caused by an inadequate amount of RAM) is not an OS problem - it is an application problem. It seems that many applications (even some of those supplied by Apple) don't do proper checks for available disk space when writing out their files. This has been reported to be a problem in particular with preferences files - which tend to get re-written quite frequently, even without you having changed anything in the app preferences panel (since other things like window positions are also stored in the preferences files).

And disks tend to get a lot slower as they fill up. E.g. a disk that is 80% full might effectively run at half speed.
Bottom line is that you want to keep your free disk space as high as possible.

There are a number of threads in these forums reporting crashing applications caused by the users preferences not being written to the hard drive. Which is what keyed me into a possible cause of DEICIDE's problem.

Mac OS X apps have a policy of opening data files on the hard drive, reading the contents into memory, and closing the file. This protects the data in the event of power failure, etc.

Unfortunately, when alterations to the data are written back to the disk, not all applications check to see if space is available to save the altered file. They erase the original, and then find the data will not be saved. The data is usually dumped. In effect the file has been overwritten.

The same situation would apply to document files being saved.

DEICIDE is better sticking to the 1-5GB free requirement, since this is the space he is likely to need. Note that limit should be maintained at all times.

I owe you all a beer.
 

Thanks to all you guys for your help.
I'm gonna try and sort this bleeder out now. Fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed while touching wood.
;) :D :)

JDV has made some good points there.

STOP!
'erase and install' wipes you hard disk, and then installs a fresh system, so you would lose all data on it. i suggested this option to you as it would ensure you removed all the unnecessary stuff on your hard disk, and you could re-fill it with only the stuff you need. if you do this, you must ensure that you have backed up everything.

burn your Home folder onto a DVD if it will fit... otherwise just grab your documents and library folders...

Thanks mate. Glad I hung around for a few mins.
Ok, 1 more disk to write first.
Thanks again.

for what its worth......... their have been quite a few reports on mac news sites of eMac's starting to fail in quite big numbers due to dodgy capacitors on the motherboard (like the first gen iMac G5's).

This usually cause freezes, crashing and bad performance... http://www.macintouch.com/readerrepo...116.html#mar02

hope this doesnt apply to yours! :eek:

Like everyone else says... good ram and a spring clean can work wonders on any computer!

Glad someone else said this. While it does sound like a RAM issue, I always suggest people going through as many problems as you're seeing, that they start from zeroes. When I moved from Panther to Tiger, I saw a bunch of errors and crashes. I finally bit the bullet, and spend a full day reinstalling everything from an empty drive. Been extraordinarily stable ever since.

Thought I'd check out the new RAM first.
Damn thing doesn't work. Hardware test showed it as being installed but is unable to use it. It shows:
DIMM1/J1601 - 256/256MB
DIMM1/J1600 - 0/512MB

Memory - 256/768MB

"About this Mac" info says the slot is empty.
Have swapped the 256 chip to the other RAM 'slot'. No probs with it so I know it's not the 'slot' that's faulty. Gonna take it back in the morning. Get it checked and swapped. :mad:

Any other possibilities other than dodgy chip?

(NB: All proper care was taken on my part.)

Did you also try the 512 MB chip in the other slot (where the 256MB chip was)?

:eek: YES.

Have just swapped that chip for another... same problem. Macs are too damned fussy.
Have just ordered one from www.crucial.com for £50 (inc. shipping). (unusable ones were £35.) Apple store wants £160. the theiving @£$@%£$%!:mad:
This should be guaranteed 100% to work. Shame it's gonna cost me to take this other chip back again though (£2.40 there, £2.40 back - twice), could've saved time and effort for almost the same price. -
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!! :(

Yeah, this is a shame...
 

It has never been clear to me why Apple-branded RAM is so outrageously priced, given that they don't manufacture it. I suppose they may do extra testing for compatibility, but quite frankly, their RAM is just as apt to go south as any good-quality 3rd party RAM is. I guess they do it because they can. As to why Macs are so picky about RAM, that seems to be partly a function of the exact models under discussion. Some are a lot more tolerant than others. I certainly know the feeling. Hope your luck with Crucial is much better.

Joe VanZandt

Apple's not the only one with some tricky memory selection. It took me 4 tries to get the right memory upgrade in a Dell Dimension XPST system about 3 years ago. I recommend asking about return policies before you purchase upgrade memory, especially on the internet. Crucial has always been good, and they stick with you if compatibility problems happen, (and they will in a service shop).
Most people justify the usually-higher prices for Apple RAM, by expecting that to be part of the warranty without question. 3rd-party memory will often get the blame from Apple (not always with good reason, but, there you go!)

Yup - Macs are picky about the RAM they accept. According to apple, this is to make sure you dont put cheap-ass RAM in which leads to system instability.

Crucial are always the place for me - much cheaper than 'direct' from apple and they are of the best quality.

YEAH!! YIPPIE!! WOOHOO!!

My new RAM turned up this morning.
Crucial are the bomb.:D Will be putting it in very shortly. Nice lovely extra 512MB. Yummy.:p Did compatibility test first, made sure. Might get another 512MB in a couple of weeks.
I think I might spend the day on Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. I can even turn up the graphics on Postal 2.:D :cool:

Couple of weird things still happening but nothing worrying or 'detrimental'!
Damn-it I'm so happy.:)

Will let you know if probs re-surface.
Thanks guys.
;)

MEMORY = 768MB SDRAM.

YEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!
:p ;) :D :) :rolleyes: :cool:

haha. beat you. me gots 1.25GB(~1208MB) SDRAM :)

Not that big of a deal though. I do some GIMPing and stuff.

ahem. iBookG4 maxed to 1.5GB.

Deicide - RAM is the cheapest way to get more performance out of a machine. OSX just loves the stuff.

hope this solves you problems - but i think freeing up at least 10% of your boot drive would be a good idea too. external hard disk, dvd / cd whatever!

if you still get problems, do an archive & install so you have a nice clean system. note that to do this you will need 5GB spare space for the transition.

New Ram is still working great. No probs so far.

Is there any way I can upgrade my graphics card?
I've heard (from a PC user) that you can't upgrade the internal hardware in an eMac. Is this true?

this is definitely true. in fact the only mac you can really upgrade is a desktop which limits you to the current desktop tower (g5, mac pro). You can upgrade things like ram and HD and optical drive but you can't upgrade the video or add any pci cards are anything like that.