10.5.8.boot drive does no longer boots onto 10.3.9 PPC mini

I boot my workplace Mac Mini from an external drive. I have been booting 10.5.1 successfully for a long time. Now I have updated to 10.5.8 and the drive usually does not boot (it did once in many attempts). After the Apple logo appears, but before the spinner, I get a crash "you must restart . . ."
The Mini is OS 10/3/9, 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4, 256 MB RAM, boot ROM 4.8.9f1.
The drive boots reliably on my home Mac Mini running 10.5.1.
I am wondering if the memory might be the problem. I am willing to increase it to 512 MB, if need be. Any other suggestions?. Any good means to debug this? I am surprised that it booted once, but also encouraged.
Thanks!

Hi
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/10/16/leopard-system-requirements/
Tony

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