Ti G4 PB crashes when running Software Update

Question

I just received a Titanium PowerBook G4 800Mhz used on eBay. Has 512MB ram, 100GB Hitachi 5400rpm hardrive insalled, airport card and came freshly formatted with 10.3 installed and a CD with system patches up to 10.3.9. I reformatted the hardrive and attempted to do a clean install of 10.4 Tiger and here are my issues:
1. After installing 10.4, attempt software update, all current updates and 10.4.3 combo update, experience kernel panic in middle of update with grayed out screen and multi-language message “you need to restart your computer, hold down power button." Everytime I restart and run software update, same problem happens.
2. Restart and go to Apple’s website and download 10.4.1 manually. Installs with no problem
3. Download 10.4.2 from Apple’s site, experience kernel panic, have to hard restart.
4. Download 10.4.3 via software update, computer freezes, but after a couple of hard restarts it installs somehow.
5. With 10.4.3 installed, software update “quits unexpectedly” every time I try to run it.
6. Boot off of Hardware Test CD, run tests, everything test okay
7. Decided to install 10.3 Panther to see if problem is with 10.4
8. Reformat and clean install 10.3
9. Run software update and attempt to install all current updates up to 10.3.9, screen completely freezes during “expanding” portion of update window. Have to hard restart, same problem every time I run software update.
Well, I’m stumped. I’ve attempted everything I can think of and was up till 3am last night trying to figure this out. I’ve run Disk Warrior, reformatted and partitioned the hard drive multiple times in different ways, all with the same results. I just completely reformatted my old white iBook G3 and installed 10.4.3 with no problems, and that machine is older and not nearly as impressive as this Titanium, so it leads me to believe that there is an underlying hardware problem, or at least a firmware problem. Also, the fact that the previous owner sent the computer with 10.3 installed and a CD with individual patch updates makes me think he was aware of the problem with Software Update and wanted me to update using the CD. I don't know, I'm lost at this point. Could it be the replacement Hitachi hard drive? Bad memory? Please, any help is greatly appreciated.
Greg
Ti PowerBook G4 800Mhz 15.2" w/DVI   Mac OS X (10.3)   512MB RAM (1slot), 100GB Hitachi 5200rpm internal drive

Answer 1

Well...
It was just a bad RAM chip. The stock 512B chip in the lower slot must have been causing the kernel panics. I took it out and put a new 512MB chip in the upper slot and everything works great now. One thing though, the replacement 144pin PC133 chip I purchased wouldn't work in the lower slot, it fit fine although it wasn't as tall as the stock chip. Installed in the lower slot, the Ti Book would make three beep error sound and not start up. Can anyone tell me why it would work in the upper slot and not the lower? Your input is appreciated
Greg