Extreme system slowdown
 

Hello, this is my first post on these forums and I am in dire straits with my G4. It has Dual 1 GHz processor, 1 GB SDRAM and 35 Gigs left on the hard drive, and is PowerPC. It has been working smoothly until i packed it up and drove to my parents house a few hours away. When I set it up here, it took at least 5 minutes to start up and takes a long time to run anything. Additionally, the colors displayed by my monitor are all screwy. For example, if I open Safari (because Firefox wouldn't even start), the browser window where text is usually displayed is completely red.

In hopes that it would help pinpoint the issue, I opened the console and found the following error message repeatedly displayed:
Couldn't cache colorspace 1

It is displayed over and over in the console and it keeps refreshing and displaying constantly.

If anyone needs any more information or can give me any advice, it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Try to open up your PowerMac and re-seat the video card and any other PCI cards you have in there. Also, reseat the memory DIMMs.

Try a different monitor and monitor cable to make sure that those aren't at fault.

Run Apple Hardware Test on the computer (if you still have it), and let us know what is reported.

Run a good memory checker overnight continuously: http://memtestosx.org

Trevor

My guess is that the PRAM battery is dead. You probably haven't unplugged the computer in a while, so it hasn't been an issue. Try going into System Preferences, Displays and selecting the appropriate settings for you display.

I reseated all of the memory but when I tried to reseat the video card it wasn't really coming out so I left it alone. I am going to try the memory test tonight and I'll bump this thread with some results in the morning. Thanks.

And in response to cwtnospam's post, I don't see how changing the display settings will help.

By changing the display settings, as well as any others like network preferences, you'll keep the Mac from trying to create them from scratch, which can take some time. It will also keep your screen from displaying images improperly if the Mac chooses the wrong settings for your monitor. Of course, this only applies if it is your PRAM battery that's dead.

Ran the memtest and here is the log:


Memtest version 4.13 (32-bit)
Copyright (C) 2004 Charles Cazabon
Copyright (C) 2004, 2005 Tony Scaminaci (Macintosh port)
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 only

MacOS X (Darwin) running in multiuser mode
POSIX version 200112
Pagesize is 4096
Requested memory: 825MB (865361920 bytes)
Available memory: 825MB (865361920 bytes)
Allocated memory: 825MB (865361920 bytes) at local address 0x02008000
Attempting memory lock... locked successfully
Creating test buffers...
Buffer A: 412MB (432680960 bytes) at local address 0x02008000
Buffer B: 412MB (432680960 bytes) at local address 0x1bcab000

Running 1 test sequence...

Test sequence 1 of 1:
Stuck Address : setting 1 of 16ok
Random Value :  ok
Compare XOR :  ok
Compare SUB :  ok
Compare MUL :  ok
Compare DIV :  ok
Compare OR :  ok
Compare AND :  ok
Sequential Increment:  ok
Solid Bits : setting 1 of 64ok
Block Sequential : setting 1 of 256ok
Checkerboard : setting 1 of 64ok
Bit Spread : setting 1 of 64ok
Bit Flip : setting 1 of 256 Walking Ones : setting 1 of 64ok
Walking Zeroes : setting 1 of 64ok

All tests passed.

I'd advise you to run memtest continuously overnight, not just one pass.

Also, I've not seen any response to the following:
Trevor

Yeah, I don't have the disc for Apple Hardware Test and I don't have another monitor I could test it on. I'll keep memtest going all day though.

Also, have you zapped the PRAM, reset Open Firmware, and reset the PMU button since moving the PowerMac? (directions)

Trevor

No but I'll go try that now.

Tried zapping the PRAM and the Open Firmware and it didn't help. The PMU button is for portable computers only according to that link.

No, I wrote that link :-). Look under the "Hardware" heading for directions for pushing the PMU button.

Trevor

Be sure to backup your work, just in case your HD fails or something.

Didn't work :-/

edit: A few more error messages that console is giving me.

2007-08-05 18:27:50.635 SyndicationAgent[195] WARNING: SQLite error 5: database is locked
2007-08-05 18:27:50.635 SyndicationAgent[195] WARNING: SQLite error 5: database is locked
2007-08-05 18:27:50.635 SyndicationAgent[195] WARNING: SQL query failed:

2007-08-05 18:29:35.492 Safari[189] WARNING: Syndication database thread didn't close in 10 seconds. Timing out.

That looks like a Safari error. SyndicationAgent is used by Safari to monitor RSS feeds. I doubt that that has anything to do with a messed-up colorspace.

Trevor

I don't think so, the entire system is really slow and the Safari errors only pop up when I open Safari. I usually use Firefox but it won't even open. And I don't have any RSS feeds on Safari.

Well, SyndicationAgent also handles .Mac bookmarks: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304340
and iCal: http://lists.apple.com/archives/Coco.../msg00003.html

But it is not related to color. Therefore, I don't think it's related.

Trevor