What's Wrong with My Computer?

I have a G5 desktop computer, I believe it's referred to as a "Power Mac." My mom purchased it some years ago, I think in late 2005 shortly after this particular model was on the market.
Info is:
Version 10.5.8
Processor 4 x 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5
Memory 4.5 GB DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive 240 GB (127 GB unused/available)
My mother wasn't using this computer for many years, and my 13" Macbook was giving me trouble, so she gave this one to me. It's all been great (she maxed out the memory and hard drive space when she bought it, even though it is outdated and insignificant compared to current models), except for one little thing... Browsing the internet is usually fine when it's only one window, but not always. However, it is almost a guarantee that while trying to operate multiple windows and trying to play a video, Safari will crash. And not just once in awhile. I'm talking about on a daily basis. During regular offline computer use, like Photoshop or iTunes, the computer will sometimes grey over (as if someone put a fairly thick grey film over the entire screen), and tell me I have to restart the computer. So what's wrong with it? I presume it is a physical issue (failing memory, mother board, etc.), but what?

Your computer is not remotely "maxed out" with RAM.
You're describing a G5 Quad like mine (though mine was built in June of 2006), and maxed out means having 16 GB of RAM installed, like mine has.
The Frolick wrote:
…the computer will sometimes grey over (as if someone put a fairly thick grey film over the entire screen), and tell me I have to restart the computer. So what's wrong with it?…
That's called a Kernel Panic, and, yes, it is most often caused by hardware problems, such as bad RAM or mismatched RAM.  I can't imagine how you get to 4.5 GB of RAM without exponentially increasing the risk of mismatched RAM.
RAM has to be installed in matched pairs, starting from the center slots and spreading outward: 4*3*2*1*1*2*3*4
On the other hand, my own personal experience has led me to conclude that Safari is a piece of cr@p.  It causes problems just being active in the background, causing other applications to fail.
Check your RAM carefully, starting with just one pair of matched RAM sticks in the two center slots, then adding one pair at a time.  Check your hard disk with Apple's Disk Utility.
The kernel panics can be caused by a damaged directory too, so if you own Disk Warrior, run it.  If you don't own DiskWarrior, at least Repair Permissions with Apple's Disk Utility and use Verify Disk/Repair Disk with it.
I'd also recommend downloading and installing Applejack and run it according to the instructions.
Good luck.
2.5 GHz Power Mac (PPC) G5-Quad; 16GB RAM; mutant, flashed 550MHz nVidia GeForce 7800GTX 1,700MHz 512MB VRAM; ATTO ExpressPCI UL5D LP SCSI card; Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 and Leopard 10.5.8 boot drives; Spotblight, Dashboard and Time Machine permanently disabled; dual 22" CRT monitors; USB wireless 'n' available but connected to the Internet via wired Ethernet; FW flatbed scanner; 2 SCSI scanners (one tabloid-size transparency scanner and a film scanner); various internal & external HDs; FW Epson 2200 and Ethernet Samsung ML-2850ND printers; 2 X Back-UPS RS 1500 XS units.

Similar Messages

  • I have a mac pro and the light on my power cord is orange. what is wrong with my computer and how do i fix it?

    The light on my power cord is orange. What is wrong with it and how can I fix my computer?

    You have a Macbook Pro. A Mac Pro is a desktop. The light on your power cord is orange when it's charging. It turns green once it's fully charged.
    Matt

  • HT201240 I've tried the suggestions in "changing or resetting an account password", and when i reboot and do command + s, instead of "root" it says "shell".........what's wrong with my computer!

    I've gone in and tried to reboot my computer, A FEW TIMES!, with the command + s stuff, and instead of the "root" it says I'm supposed to get, my computer says "shell"...... I don't know if I did something wrong with my computer, but I need to get back on. I called Apple Support, and they told me that since it's out of my warranty, there's nothing they can do. I can pay 40 freaking dollars to talk to someone, and get a 30 day thing, but *** is that gonna do? I just need back on my computer so I can do homework and get my life back to normal.
    I'll try anything, unless it includes spending money, or taking my computer to an Apple Store. There isn't one within 100 miles of me.

    http://www.macworld.com/article/1164599/reset_password_lion.html

  • What's wrong with my computer/browser?

    http://screenr.com/gzr8
    I can't figure out what is wrong with my browser. Any ideas?
    It might be flash, silverlight, etc?

    Here is the link, which was also listed above: http://www.screenr.com/gzr8
    The problem is that some images, videos, etc. are not showing up when I am using an internet browser (chrome or firefox). The video shows this visually which is hard to explain without seeing it.

  • What's wrong with my computer network?

    Hello, recently Google Chrome has been displaying "Error 7 (net::ERR_TIMED_OUT)" on all pages i try to access. For a while, i thought it was a Chrome specific problem, so i did a lot of research on how i thought i could fix it.. i did many things, from clearing my cache to creating a new "profile." Giving up  on Chrome, i decided to go back to Safari. Safari wouldn't load any of the pages i enter, i don't know what the problem is!
    Since it isn't a Chrome specific problem, it must be something with my network.. or proxy.. or something i may not know about in such great detail.
    I have tried letting all things coming in through my firewall (turning it off), but that doesn't work.
    I don't want to mess around with things i don't know a lot about, which is why i am asking the Support Community to PLEASE help me.
    I will need my laptop a lot over the Summer, and i would like to have this fixed as soon as possible.
    Thank You so much. Any responses are appreciated.

    Please, i need your responses..
    I think i've narrowed it down to something that's wrong with my Proxy.
    When i went to the Proxies tab under Network, everything is empty.
    For the "Configure Proxies," the "Using a PAC file" is selected, but the PAC file URL is blank. And when i select "manually" all the settings there are blank as well. I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to be the way it is, but i was wondering if ANYONE can help me figure out how to just fill in the blank spaces.
    Thanks a lot.  Again, ANY responses/suggestions are appreciated!

  • What is wrong with my computer?

    About a month ago, my early 2008 iMac running Snow Leopard bega getting really slow. Excruciatingly slow. Unusable. Constant beachballing. The only way to quit anything is to force quit it. I feel like I've tried eveything at this point with no success. I have run disk utility countless times, zapped the PRAM, started in safe boot,  run Applejack, run Preferential Treatment, zeroed out the drive and reinstalled the OS like three times. I pretty much always have Activity monitor open these days and I rarely use more than 3/4 of the RAM, so I don't think this is a resource issue. I took it to the Apple store and they determined that there's nothing wrong with the hardware, so I'm sure that there's something lurking somewhere that's causing all these problems.
         My theory right now is that there's something in my music folder that is the root of all this. I think this because after my last reinstall, I had it working rather painlessly. Since my iTunes library is rather large, I set it to copy back from the Time Machine back up and went to bed. The next morning, I was right back where I started. So, my question is now: Does this theory even make any sense? Is it possible that a corrupt .mp3 or .m4v or whatever is having these system wide effects? Maybe if my library was corrupt? If that even could happen, how would you go about determining what file was the culprit? Keep in mind that I have around 100 GB of data in iTunes, so dropping the files in one by one would not rally be an option. I would also like to retain my playlists if possible, as a few of them are really sweet.
         Any help you all can give would be really appreciated, I'm basically at my wit's end and I don't want to call Apple Care again.

    OK, here's what we get from Console. This is from after the first hang after I had to restart the machine using the power button.
    kernel.log:
    Jun 20 17:28:44 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: hfs: early journal init: volume on disk2s2 is read-only and journal is dirty.  Can not mount volume.
    Jun 20 17:28:44 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: jnl: disk1s1: replay_journal: from: 3289600 to: 4072448 (joffset 0x953000)
    Jun 20 17:28:44 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: jnl: disk2s2: replay_journal: from: 62004224 to: 65274880 (joffset 0x1d1c000)
    Jun 20 17:28:44 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: jnl: disk1s1: journal replay done.
    Jun 20 17:28:48 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: jnl: disk2s2: journal replay done.
    Jun 20 17:28:49 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: hfs: Removed 2 orphaned / unlinked files and 0 directories
    Jun 20 17:29:04 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: BootCache: hit rate below threshold (2495 hits on 4991 lookups)
    Jun 20 17:32:37 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error.
    Jun 20 17:33:07: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
    Jun 20 17:33:37 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error.
    Jun 20 17:34:39: --- last message repeated 2 times ---
    Jun 20 17:34:54 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error.
    Jun 20 17:35:24: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
    Jun 20 17:35:42 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error.
    Jun 20 17:36:05 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error.
    Jun 20 17:36:33 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error.
    Jun 20 17:39:36: --- last message repeated 5 times ---
    system.log
    Jun 20 17:28:44 Subspace-Suitcase loginwindow[29]: Login Window Started Security Agent
    Jun 20 17:28:44 Subspace-Suitcase fseventsd[33]: event logs in /Volumes/Stuff/.fseventsd out of sync with volume.  destroying old logs. (60992 0 61987)
    Jun 20 17:28:44 Subspace-Suitcase fseventsd[33]: log dir: /Volumes/Stuff/.fseventsd getting new uuid: 487DD9F4-7BD3-4B80-82BC-0F8BFA66E099
    Jun 20 17:28:47 Subspace-Suitcase WindowServer[76]: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
    Jun 20 17:28:47 Subspace-Suitcase com.apple.WindowServer[76]: Mon Jun 20 17:28:47 Subspace-Suitcase.local WindowServer[76] <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
    Jun 20 17:28:49 Subspace-Suitcase fseventsd[33]: event logs in /Volumes/DeLorean/.fseventsd out of sync with volume.  destroying old logs. (61991 5 61992)
    Jun 20 17:28:51 Subspace-Suitcase fseventsd[33]: log dir: /Volumes/DeLorean/.fseventsd getting new uuid: 0B155BA6-0DA9-4BC6-B61F-BE9625317721
    Jun 20 17:29:00 Subspace-Suitcase SecurityAgent[127]: NSSecureTextFieldCell detected a field editor ((null)) that is not a NSTextView subclass designed to work with the cell. Ignoring...
    Jun 20 17:29:01 Subspace-Suitcase loginwindow[29]: Login Window - Returned from Security Agent
    Jun 20 17:29:01 Subspace-Suitcase loginwindow[29]: USER_PROCESS: 29 console
    Jun 20 17:29:01 Subspace-Suitcase com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[134] (com.apple.ReportCrash): Falling back to default Mach exception handler. Could not find: com.apple.ReportCrash.Self
    Jun 20 17:29:11 Subspace-Suitcase com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[134] (com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist[163]): Exited with exit code: 1
    Jun 20 17:29:16 Subspace-Suitcase com.apple.usbmuxd[20]: HandleUSBMuxDictionary client 0x101802bc0-iTunesHelper/com.apple.iTunesHelper using library usbmuxd-211 built on Jan 13 2011 at 04:19:31, running usbmuxd-211 built on Feb  8 2011 at 13:49:43
    Jun 20 17:29:18 Subspace-Suitcase [0x0-0xf00f].com.elgato.eyetvhelper[182]: EyeTV Helper version 3.5.2 build 306
    Jun 20 17:29:21 Subspace-Suitcase com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[134] ([email protected][171]): Exited with exit code: 1
    Jun 20 17:29:33 Subspace-Suitcase apsd-ft[196]: APS daemon launched
    Jun 20 17:29:35 Subspace-Suitcase apsd-ft[196]: Successfully got client identity
    Jun 20 17:29:49 Subspace-Suitcase apsd-ft[196]: <APSCourier: 0x100602b00>: Received connected response OK
    Jun 20 17:30:02 Subspace-Suitcase TVShowsHelper[166]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:8.404183, # of Inserts: 0, # of bytes written: 0, Did shrink: NO
    Jun 20 17:30:21 Subspace-Suitcase pcscd[217]: Non-smartcard device launched pcscd [Vendor: 0XFD9, Product: 0X2B]
    Jun 20 17:30:34 Subspace-Suitcase TVShowsHelper[166]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:31.083355, # of Inserts: 5, # of bytes written: 86906, Did shrink: NO
    Jun 20 17:30:52 Subspace-Suitcase TVShowsHelper[166]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:17.969421, # of Inserts: 3, # of bytes written: 73369, Did shrink: NO
    Jun 20 17:32:37 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]:
    Jun 20 17:33:07: --- last message repeated 3 times ---
    Jun 20 17:33:37 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]:
    Jun 20 17:35:02: --- last message repeated 7 times ---
    Jun 20 17:35:17 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]:
    Jun 20 17:35:47: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
    Jun 20 17:35:42 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]:
    Jun 20 17:38:25: --- last message repeated 2 times ---
    Jun 20 17:36:05 Subspace-Suitcase kernel[0]:
    Jun 20 17:39:10: --- last message repeated 12 times ---
    Jun 20 17:39:10 Subspace-Suitcase /System/Library/CoreServices/CCacheServer.app/Contents/MacOS/CCacheServer[176]: No valid tickets, timing out
    I haven't gotten to do another safe boot yet, but I have done that same thing in the past to no avail.

  • What is wrong with my computer I replaced the fan but it's not running

    Thank you Allan Eckert that would of helped but right now I figuired out what exactly was wrong. My mac seems that it's fan doesn't run after the replacement. Litterly what I did to test this is test another mac with smc control and that one ran at 2000rpm for fan speed. My mac fan does not run at all its at 000rpm. How can I fix this problem myself besides apple if I can? Any suggestions? Yes It's a 13 inch mac book pro we have 3 but one for each of us. I would like to know why isn't it running thank you for the help if you can give any answers.

    It should always be running a little bit whenever the Mac is on.
    The part could be defective, or the wires on backward.

  • TS1717 iTunes says " Accessing iTunes Store " but isn't opening store after a long time. What is wrong with my computer?

    Whenever I try to open the iTunes store off my Windows7 laptop , this is the screen I see. My computer is usually pretty fast and whenever I do it on my house computer ( which is 50 times slower) it comes up quickly.  All it says is iTunes is  "Accessing iTunes Store" and I've tried everything from turining off my laptop to taking the battery out to uninstalling and reinstalling the iTunes store. Please help. Thank You.

    Okay ... niot entirely sure what's going on with that.
    If we can't check for conflicts with Autoruns, we could instead just try clearing out the Winsock registry key manually.
    Let's try wiclee's instructions from the following post:
    Re: i cannot connect to itunes on my laptop

  • Grey Screen Of Death appears daily! What's wrong with my computer?!?

    I'm really worried! This happens maybe 30 minutes to 2 hours after waking my computer from sleep. I usually don't run too many applications at one time, maybe four (internet, itunes, ichat, and maybe mail). Does anyone know whats going on? I'm really worried...

    I'm really worried! This happens maybe 30 minutes to 2 hours after waking my computer from sleep. I usually don't run too many applications at one time, maybe four (internet, itunes, ichat, and maybe mail). Does anyone know whats going on? I'm really worried...

  • Lion Combo Update 10.7.3 Error: What is wrong with my computer?

    I was having some issues with my laptop and was advised to update to the newest version of lion using the combo update. I was already using the normal, most recent version on lion downloaded and installed via software update (10.7.3).
    Now I've tried to install the 10.7.3 combo update twice and it gets stuck at 'less than one minute remaining' and sits like that for hours with no progress. It then says 'About 6 minutes', and again sits for hours without progress. The installer IS responding, the loading bar is animated and nothing I can tell is causing the issue (I've closed all background applications and turned of my antivirus). Please help! Also, I suspect because yesterday I turned off my laptop in the middle of the process after waiting hours for something to change, a lot of my applications immediately crash when trying to be opened. It's a nightmare! I've had hardware troubles in the past so I'm hoping this isnt a result of those.
    Here is the screenshot of my installer:
    http://cl.ly/1q372L3F163l3R0d3g0Q

    Install or Reinstall Lion from Scratch
    If possible backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive.
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
    Erase the hard drive:
    Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
    After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area.  If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing.  SMART info will not be reported  on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
    Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
    Quit DU and return to the main menu.
    Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Install button.
    Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.

  • Not sure what's wrong with my computer

    I have a HP pavilion a200n. It was working great on 12/20/08. I went away for a few days and when I came home and turned it on it would not load windows, all it would go to a page that showed these confirgurations and at the bottom "F1 for settings". If I try pressing "F1 or shift F1" I just get a beeping sound.  Any answer or advice would be greatly appreciated.
    Thank you,
    Marcia
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    Hi Marciah0219, welcome!
    Hockeycunuckjc has a good idea, just want to remind people to always perform a backup (or get help) before doing a system restore.  However, because you stated you cannot get into safe mode, you may need to just shut down the machine, unplug the keyboard and carefully reconnect it; also consider trying another keyboard.  If these tests do not work, please reply with the beep pattern (for example, one long and one short beep - pause - repeats). 
    Matthew|Community Advocate | Best Buy® Corporate
    Visit our Channel on
     Private Message

  • What's wrong with my computer console?

    I see hundreds of error messages nonstop. I'm not familiar with their meaning but there seems to many to post here. Do I need to install the operating system?
    Thanks for any advice.

    TheEntireSky, those Console messages occur normally. As mende1 wrote, ignore them.
    Thanks for your repsonses, but in English words like 'fail', 'deny', 'unable'  are common words for errors and problems.
    There is no need to examine your Console logs unless you are experiencing problems with your Mac.
    somebody in that link says I should trash
    System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.afpstat.plist
    That's a good way to cause problems with your Mac.
    Do I need to install the operating system?
    It is already installed.
    Stop worrying about this.
    If you are having problems using your Mac, explain the symptoms.

  • When I plug my headphones into my MacBook Pro, and I turn the volume up, I hear the little bubble sound coming from the computer speaker. What is wrong with my computer? I don't think it's the headphones, because i've already tried two pairs.

    How can this be fixed?

    Hi DS,
    Thanks for the response. Unfortunatly those documents are of no help to me. I have tried several times to boot into the AHT, which didn't work. And attempting to do an internet recovery won't even allow me to log into my wireless network, even though I know the password is correct.Let us try to go through this step by step, as I've been doing.
    1) After resetting the NVRAM it still does not see any new hard drive, and I don't need to select the old HD to boot from it. If it is in it works.
    Therefore this means that it is
         a) not the SATA cable
         b) not the new hard drive because my friend got his replacement HD today and I checked them both out. They both work fine on my other friends new macbook pro.
    2) The old hard drive can boot up regularly, and the new one can be seen via the SATA to usb connector and booted from, but not via the internal SATA connector.
    Also, I still can't boot into Parted Magic, or any other rescue OS I have.
    This seems like a very specific problem, and it definatly wasn't anything I did. I followed troubleshooting steps like I normally do and it wasn't a clusterfuck as you so elequently stated.
    Please take the time to respond to all of my questions this time, I feel like you are overlooking some very important information.
    Thanks,
    RFJ3200

  • TA21328 every time I use Safari I receive a message that says Safari is no longer responding because of a script problem with the website and I must press "continue" for the page to continue. This happens with every website I go to.  What is wrong with my

    When using Safari I have begun to notice this box appearing as I try to reach any website:  "Safari is no longer responding because of a script on the webpage and then it lists what ever web page I have tried to reach.  It then asks me if I want to "stop" the script or allow it to continue.  I must "continue" it in order to reach my web page/  If I press "stop" it just keeps coming back and back and I can't continue.  What is wrong with my computer or Sarari or both?

    chick --
    Does it mention "Slow Script?

  • My iPhone 4S won't turn on it's been off for two days now. I tried charging it but it makes a noise every 8 seconds,holding the buttons down and also plugging it to a computer. I need help on what to do or if anybody can tell me what's wrong with my phone

    My iPhone 4S won't turn on it's been off for two days now. I tried charging it but it makes a noise every 8 seconds,holding the buttons down and also plugging it to a computer. I need help on what to do or if anybody can tell me what's wrong with my phone

    Yes ive tried a different charger and it also nothing shows when i plug it in just makes a noise

Maybe you are looking for

  • Iphone 4 suddenly burned!

    My iphone 4 just got burned the day before! It was 4:30 am, I was sleeping and my phone was charging just beside me. I was waken up by the plastic smell, when I woke up the room had been full of smoke and my iphone grilled completely! It was so dange

  • Sun Cluster Core Conflict - on SUN Java install

    Hi We had a prototype cluster that we were playing with over two nodes. We decided to uninstall the cluster by putting node into single user mode and running scinstall -r. Afterwards we found that the Java Availability Suite was a little messed up -

  • Career in Database kernel development

    How is the career future in Database kernel development, such as index, locking, transaction managements? It seems to me that the DB kernel is quite stable. Are there many opportunities in this area? Thanks.

  • Invalid Redemption code after problems with serial number.

    I have been somehow kicked off with two chats today in dealing with this problem.  I have brand new Lightroom software that was given to me as a gift.  I inserted the disc and downloaded it to my computer, went to retrieve my serial number and that i

  • Need help with BARS 4.0.12 - 4.0.13 upgrade

    Hello, I'm a VoIP noob and need help with a BARS upgrade. To resolve a known problem (Bug #CSCsi32637) we need to upgrade BARS from 4.0.12 to 4.0.13. This is per TAC. However, no one in our company has done this before. I've reviewed the 4.0.12 Admin