Mac G4 Tower/OS 10.4.7 Locking up

I hope this is the correct forum to ask;
I have a Mac G4 Tower with OS 10.4.7 that has run flawless for years. Within the past week it is starting to lock up while only on the web. Either the cursor will freeze requireing a shutdown and restart or the Pin wheel will be turnign also requireing a full hard shut down and restart. After the restart in either case, it may be fine for a few days until the next lockup. Any idea what is happening, am I facing a melt down.
Thank You
Paul

Try using Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, while booted up on your install disk. This should be done especially after a hard shutdown (I run it once a month).
You could have some directory corruption. Let us know what errors Disk Utility reports and if DU was able to repair them.
It also could be this (please do the repair first!);
The original Apple Pro mouse cable frays in the chord just as it exits the mouse, over time, and shorts out causing symtoms similar to yours. You can't see the fray by looking at it thru the exterior covering. This can happen to third party mice over time too.
Mine did it. I plugged it into a different port, so the chord exited the mouse in a different direction, and had very few freezes after that. Once I got over my frugalness (cheapness!) I bought a new one. Eventually it got to where I couldn't even work for more then a few minutes without a freeze.
So, try a known good mouse to see if that's the problem.
Don Archibald, a Level 5 here, said the USB ports on the keyboard (for you desktop users) are underpowered and can cause this problem also if the mouse is plugged in there. This can even fry the keyboard sometimes (happened to him). Try plugging your mouse into a port on your monitor or tower.
If you still have trouble post back!
Cheers!
DALE

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