Powerbook G4 hangs after few minutes of usage

Question

Since February 06 I have a PB G4: 1.67GHZ, model Powerbook5,8
Since this weekend it hangs after a few minutes of usage.
I tried a whole load of possible solutions, like resetting the RAM, removing the battery and holding the powerbutton for 5 seconds...I even held it once for half a minute, but that didn't help. Checking the harddrive with disk utility (tried it often, but only once did the PB work long enough to get the end result: hard drive is healthy).
Often, when it hangs, I can get it to work by simply turning it off and on again. That gives me another window of 2 minutes of usage! Handy throughout the day when I need a file, or a document: I simply boot the machine, get the file and shut it down.
Carbon copy to an external HD does not work: the system hangs a few minutes after copying.
I installed a utility named applejack, and the first time I tried it, I got an interesting error: there were errors with the USB controller or USB bus, and system hangs. I didn't make a screenshot so this is out of the top of my head.
This was interesting because when I tried to make a HD copy (and believe me: I tried lots and lots of times), the system freezes first, and then an error about not unmounting a device popped into the screen. As if the touchpad, keyboards, and all other i/o devices stop working, and the system goes on for a few seconds more.
Sometimes the system just hangs, sometimes I get that black kernel panic screen.
Just before writing this, I tried the hardware test on the install CD once more:
Held down the option key, chose the hardware test -> quick test and..
system hangs after completion of the test
A message appeared in the bottom-left corner. Several lines of information, starting with:
"ERROR, Write to location ZERO detected!!, Loc zero was originally zero
Current File: Localization/en/Scripts/enAHTscript.sc"
etc
I live on a nice island in the Caribbean, so popping into the nearest Apple store means getting on a flight to Miami first.
What -if any- are my options? Is there something I can try to do myself before shipping it to Apple? Opening the case, checking this or that?
By the way, I originally posted this in the Titanium folder, but someone mentioned that I might actually have a Aluminum PB.
see http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2074854#2074854

Answer 1

hi joeuu,
I have 1.5GB mem: one 512 stick and one 1GB and I already tried the sticks one at a time: it hangs with the original 512, it hangs with the 1GB and it hangs with them together in both possible slot settings.
I managed to copy the panic.log in /Library/Logs/ and here it is:
Fri Apr 7 15:27:21 2006
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x000A8D00): Uncorrectable machine check: pc = 00000000000AF340, msr = 0000000000141020, dsisr = 42000000, dar = 000000000280C200
AsyncSrc = 0000000000000000, CoreFIR = 0000000000000000
L2FIR = 0000000000000000, BusFir = 0000000000000000
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
Backtrace:
0x00095698 0x00095BB0 0x0002683C 0x000A8D00 0x000A7F90 0x000ABC80
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x41381A00)
PC=0x000AF340; MSR=0x00141020; DAR=0x0280C200; DSISR=0x42000000; LR=0x000AF158; R1=0x2211B8E0; XCP=0x00000008 (0x200 - Machine check)
Backtrace:
0x404E9F24 0x404E1F6C 0x404E7B2C 0x002CEFB8 0x41C3F2C8 0x002BC0E8
0x002CDA70 0x002BC690 0x002BBB4C 0x002BBA5C 0x404E3954 0x404E3B98 0x002CE900 0x002CD7C8
0x000A9814
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTrackpad(1.3.0f1)@0x41c3d000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(2.2.5)@0x404aa000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily(1.4.3)@0x32671000
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBOHCI(2.2.5)@0x404df000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(2.2.5)@0x404aa000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(1.7)@0x323bf000
Exception state (sv=0x402ABA00)
PC=0x00000000; MSR=0x0000D030; DAR=0x00000000; DSISR=0x00000000; LR=0x00000000; R1=0x00000000; XCP=0x00000000 (Unknown)
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.2.2: Mon Aug 22 18:43:11 PDT 2005; root:xnu-792.5.11.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC
Now what can we read from this?
I see in here "AppleUSBTrackpad" and "AppleUSBOHCI".
Referring to my original post: I have seen an error (a few days ago, when working with applejack) that also mentioned USB.
I'm very afraid that this is a hardware issue. Reading through some other posts, I saw something about a ribbon that gave problems. What are your thoughts?