OS9 Frozen Desktop

[Syntho]

OS9 will lock up where I can't click anything. My cursor still moves, but when I click on anything it does nothing. I can't even get the dropdown from Special so I can restart. Funnily enough I can press CMD+OPT+ESC and it'll bring up a Kill window, but that stays frozen too.

This only happens after a while. I used the drag install from DieHard and disabled loads of extensions I'm not using.

[DieHard]

No other issues reported re: drag install...

1) Run MDD Extended Diagnostics...

2) Put RAM to 1 GB

allocate more RAM to apps you are using, turn off FCB Indexing

Report back to me about results

[Syntho]

Is this the extended diagnostics you're talking about? http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=822.0

The system has 2x 512 sticks and I remember running some diagnostics tool a while back, but it slips my mind as to which.

Where's FCB Indexing located?

[DieHard]

Yes... burn it to CD and boot to it... Hold "C" key upon boot

In extensions manager

[Syntho]

I got an error on the video card. I'm using a legit GeForce 4 TI 128mb in it. The error code is disp/15/5. Let me restart and test again just to make sure...

[Syntho]

Got the error again. I paid a lot for that damn card, almost as much as the system itself. I'm gonna try re-seating it and testing a few times. I don't know if that's what's causing it to freeze.

[Syntho]

Ok turns out the card is fine, it wasn't seated properly. Everything passed on the diagnostics and indexing is off w/1GB ram. It took a few times to get it seated right so I'm hoping that was the problem.

I'm still running that old system, I didn't buy another. It seems that if there's a problem that you can run into on a Power Mac and OS9, I've run into it. Mac hell for months...

I'll report back when/if it freezes again.

[MacGuy]

Syntho,

I don't have a solution for you but really understand your frustration.

I have owned  3 Power Mac Mirrored Drive Door, if that is your Mac you are having problems with, all three were factory defects. It was either a mother board or RAM.  On one Apple supplied me with a replacement mother board at no charge. They would run for a couple of hours and then have a heart attack suffering from the kernel attack which as you know is real ugly on screen with all that white type on a black background.  When I ran that diagnostics CD for at least 24 hours it concluded that RAM was the issue in each of those Macs.  I still don't get it how one stick is good in a machine but then the same stick is bad in another machine.

My solution was to stop buying those high end GHz MDD models and go for the lower speed models: for some reason they were reliable.

[Syntho]

Funny you mention that, I was actually considering getting a Quicksilver to see if it was more stable. Every time I make a new jump in CPUs these days, I make sure it's a really large jump since there isn't too much difference in a few mhz. Back then I remember upgrading my CPUs only 300mhz at a time and the difference in speed was huge.

I think the fastest quicksilver is a 933, right? I may pick one up someday. Right now my MDD seems to be stable, so I'll keep my eyes out for a cheap backup 933 QS.

[supernova777]

I think the fastest quicksilver is a 933, right? I may pick one up someday. Right now my MDD seems to be stable, so I'll keep my eyes out for a cheap backup 933 QS.

the fastest quicksilver is a dual 1ghz!
personally id first try buying fresh new matched ram like i attempted to draw focus + attention to in this thread:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=797.msg3642#msg3642
especially since the cost of DDR1 PC2700 ram wouldnt be so bad
because most people want ddr400..

perhaps that may be the source of your problems tho if you are using DDR400 ram in the mdd? Diehard eluded to problems with a cube, not clocking down the ram from PC133 to PC100.. i have another pc that takes ddr1 and it wont accept anything above pc2100, if i put in even a pc2700 piece it beeps at me and wont boot.. or perhaps you are using 1GB modules? which happen to work, but were not the original reccommended size.. if aiming for 1gb perhaps its best to try 4 x 256MB pc2700 ddr
this is what ive put into my MDD 867 recently.. having had it configured previously with a single !GB DDR module...

[MacTron]

In my experience, MDD's aren't more/less stable than other G4's. Over the years I found the first source of unstability being the Hard Disk. Barely they pass a year (being at diary use) without showing a wide variety of weird symtoms. After a reformat and a reinstall, everything goes fine again.
RAM memory, Video Cards and other PCI cards problems may also arise of course... but in my experience this affects equally to all G4 family.

[DieHard]

In the DDR1 arena, PC3200 (400 Mhz.) as long as it is good quality will work just fine in the MDD... The problem I mentioned only exists with PC133 RAM not being Compatible with 100 MHz. System bus models (common issues with Old PCs also, not just macs).

I have been holding out and NOT posting the link to the "System Stability Report" since I thought it may raise a lot of questions... I know Mactron knows about it and here it is for all...

http://www.sunrisepage.com/computers/macclassic/macos9.htm

There is a resedit for the finder, but the newbies may want to avoid these types of mods to Mac OS 9; I am only suggesting it for reference, it is well written... maybe a kind soul will do all the mods, update all possible video drivers and upload a new "Mac OS 9 Lives Drag Install" of 9.2.2..

Anyone want that Job ?

[supernova777]

hey diehard..
u have a habit of dropping this type of post into another thread with a different topic - and then months later noone can find it because its midthread of another topic

may i suggest u first make another thread and then Link to it in the mid thread?
this would allow the information to be found easier in the future?
just an idea?



please do not slap me with a wet fish

[Protools5LEGuy]

please do not slap me with a wet fish

USA-Canadian Wars   

The place for the 8.6 9.2.2 system for G3s and maybe future MacOS9Lives! OS9 editions http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=1011.0

[MacTron]

I have been holding out and NOT posting the link to the "System Stability Report" since I thought it may raise a lot of questions... I know Mactron knows about it and here it is for all...

Yes, I'd known this report long time ago. We (DieHard & MacTron) have talked about this ...
I think it have good advices, as increasing System & Finder memory allocation or about some extensions versions being better than others. But It must be read carefully, some things are outdated, as it were fixed in later 9.2.2 editions ( CPU 5.8 and CPU 5.9) and other issues affected to G3 only.
I usually  put a lot of attention on what DieHard and others users -with long term experience- write about Mac Os 9 stability, but usually, the systems and they use  may be very different, so our perception and advices about  stability not always are the same
...so I think the same, about this report...

[Syntho]

The only issue I've had in the last week is that sometimes when starting OS9, it freezes right in the middle of loading the desktop. The menu bar at the top has no File or Apple icon or anything - just a blank bar and it freezes. When I manually power it off and restart, it boots up fine and doesn't give me that 'scanning for errors since OS9 didn't shut down right' thing.

Other than it doing that a couple times, it's been smooth sailing. It hasn't frozen in the middle of anything thankfully.

[MacGuy]

It may be a fragmented directory issue.

DiskWarrior is great for restoring the directory and has saved the day for me many many times.

You could also boot  from the installer disk and run Apple's disk utility to verify and repair.