EMac Freezes in Normal Start Up - OK under Safe Boot 10.3.9 or 10.4.11

Question

In helping a charter school get its eMacs back running, one of these eMacs [(ATI Graphics w/32Mb VRAM), 1.25GHz G4, 37GB HD, 1Gb RAM, and whose SN = G8429CDSQJ8] is displaying very unusual symptoms. It simply has to be software or a very weird RAM or VRAM memory issue, but I am mystified as to whose since I found no Firmware Updates at Apple or ATI. Here is the gory story.
I had replaced its battery and added a 1Gb DIMM (About This Mac and System Profiler show this is OK). I repaired the HD from a “Gray Restore DVD that was shipped with these eMacs” (got a “No Repairs Needed” from this) and its Permissions from the DVD set of 10.3.x system SW, and initially did an "archive and restore" installation. This had worked fine for all the other 10 eMacs as had going up to 2 Gb RAM.
On re-start the eMac froze and refused to eject Restore DVD. I hooked up a Firewire Cable to the ailing machine and ejected the Restore DVD after starting the ailing eMac in Target Mode. After this, I started up in Safe Boot and updated the 10.3.x Restored SW to 10.3.9 using Software Update ... things seemed fine. So, I started up in normal mode, opened System Preferences to Accounts to make sure the Student account was under agreed restrictions. As soon as the Authentication panel opened, the eMac froze, needing a Power Button shutdown … it kept doing this, and it behaved itself under Safe Boot after each freeze. I installed YASU (from a CD in Safe Boot and have used for years on my home PMMD, dual 1Ghz G4, 10.4.11), which I understand is simply a group of Unix scripts under a nice GUI and had it do all the system and web browser tasks (i.e. crons, permissions, prebinding, swap filesetc) but saved the logs and their archives.
We were upgrading all the eMacs System SW to Os 10.4.11 (starting from a 10.4.3 "Black X" commercial system disk … so from a Safe Boot, I loaded the 10.4.3 DVD, started up from it, and did an Erase and Install, so all the SW on the drive is Apple’s own. PRAM was reset and amazingly, on this re-start, this eMac froze a few seconds after a App’s window opened. From a new Safe Boot, Software Update took me to 10.4.11 (I refused to allow Safari, iTunes and Quick Time update until it had also updated all the other security and Java (9 Javas of these in numerical order from SUD).
Under Safe Boot, I found I can open as many as 10 Apps or Utilities, flip between the windows … nothing wrong. After some thought, I used Activity Monitor, Disk Utility (to perform “Erase Free Space, 7X” and with Screen Saver’s Flurry at maximum in the Choice window, and this places the processor use at almost 100% (~70-75% user + ~20% system) … but this does not test much of the memory (couldn’t figure out how to do this). I kept things going for over 7 hours while randomly using Safari or Text Edit. But as soon as a Normal Restart is done and a second window opens (even Activity Monitor’s little floater), it freezes again.
The Web is full of symptoms that usually blame memory, but it seems hard to believe that the 1Gb DIMM would “know” when the system is booted Normal vs Safe. So, tonight, I am going to run Rember (v. o.2b) that I dragged off my PMMD … an have used it under 10.4.11 over the years.
BTW, contents of Trash after two (2) hard freezes are always the same system files [annex_aux, annex.db, filetoken.db, fonts.db, and qdfams.db]. The mention of “fonts.db” seems to suggest a font problem, but why … all are fresh 10.4.3 stuff.
It’s my understanding that Safe Boot allows ONLY Apple extensions and Apps to load and this is why it seems to me that the problem must be SW … somehow, somewhere.
Is there a utility that can list third party components? Does this make sense? In looking into the Preferences and Application Support there are Adobe, Macromedia prefs, fonts … which I assume came in w/ Safari since I have not added any 3rd party programs other than YASU, who tells you truthfully where its stuff is loaded
When back at the school, I plan to swap out 1Gb RAM DIMMs and/or replace the old 256Mb DIMM that was original. Also, plan to go back to the Restore Software DVDs (10.3.4 since these have more Apps that are needed): Erase (Zero Out Deleted Files) and Install to rebuild a “virgin” set of 10.3 after restarting. Then Check to see if Safe Boot is stable BEFORE trying to update to 10.4.11 (via 10.4.3 Black X).
However, if this does not make sense, I would be grateful for readers pointing out my errors and/or flawed plans.

Answer 1

Hi Cosmic (and, per my Southern US heritage, hope yawl are doin fine down under),
Firstly, thank you hugely for guiding me through this eMac puzzle. Your insight that under Safe Boot the ATI video extensions are turned off now has the symptoms I see matching a cause.
Last evening, I did an Erase (Zero out the HD, 1 pass) and a virgin , custom install from the eMac Media DVD that came with the machine; this took the system to Os 10.3.6, and it seemed to let me open more windows than two(2) for several passes, but it still froze, these times leaving no recovered files as a trail.
I decided to use only Apple’s Software Update, under Safe Boot, to sequentially load only system or Java UDs and not let Safari or any iApp stuff bring in foreign SW components(tis strategy caused by finding, last evening, strange troubles with the Font book not validating any font and it displaying most of these incorrectly. This font finding kept me thinking SW had to be the problem instead of heeding your and Alan Jones experience …
All well and good, and when I got to 10.3.9 with all the Java and Security Uds, I could open as many as 4 Apps, but the killer was always testing the “Flurry” screen saver … lots of video here. Yet in Safe Boot, I could open all the Apps in the folder and randomly switch between them with no issues.
Lot of driving chores today kept me from seeing your second reply till late this afternoon, but as I drove I remembered that on my now ancient Power Mac Mirror Door, 2x1Ghz, one of my partitions had 10.3.9 loaded with free Unix scientific SW and Xbench 1.1.3 and Cinebench 2003, both of which test video cards, etc. So, I loaded and made DVDs of these testing apps after running them on the PMMD in the 10.3 partition as well as my normal 10.4.11 main drive. Got them over on the eMac, checked to make sure its fonts were OK, ran the tests under Safe Boot, then saw immediate freezes under Normal Boots, and finally, logged into the Apple site and read your reasoning. Bingo!
I again checked the caps I could see and they matched your ID of them, still, even with a machinists mirror could not see the ones further in … called the school marm and told her we should consider this eM as nearly dead, use its internal organs (HD, RAM, ATA drive) and externals (Keyboards, cables) in our organ donor program. She’s agreed, so it’s a done deal.
So, tomorrow I’ll satisfy my curiosity and do the surgery to remove the innards and see if there is evidence of the caps … sure there will be. BTW, I made my living, till a good severance package induced early retirement , as a PhD level Materials Scientist/Elec Engineer (mostly in chip level packaging and several forays into flat panel electronic displays (LCDs and OLEDS(Orgainc Light Emitting Diodes)). As I looked at the circuit board, these electrolytics seem to be surface mounted, an unusual design even for its day, and I cannot imagine any “shade tree” electrician having much success trying to replace them.
Again, a thank you for your insight. I’ll just have to owe you a beer since I’m doubtful you would get one I’d drop along the seashore. Take good care … and without checking a map, I hope Brisbane is not being flooded.
drsax
PS I forgot to mark your and Allan Jones earlier replies as Helpful which they were ... just did so. Sorry for the oversight. Owe you both a beer for sharing your experience.