Strange Pismo problem

rossjjrossjj
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out what is happening with my Pismo. I like many Pismo owners are very attached to my machine and lately it has been acting strange. Every once in a while it totally freezes while I'm using an app and I have to do a total restart as I can not utilize the ability to just quit the current program that I was using when the failure occurred. In addition also every once in a while I get the grey kernal panic screen that asks you to hold down the power button to restart the machine. Other than this odd behavior my Pismo, although three years old is still serving me well. As a grad student in sociology and law I only really use it for research, writing, and the occassional run of SPSS statistical software for analysis purposes. Can anyone give me a heads-up on this problem so I can head off a more significant problem. I know the Pismo is a little long in the tooth and I am currently saving for a purchase of my next Powerbook, but this baby has to last me at least until the start of the Spring semester. Thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    altivec_2.0altivec_2.0 Posts: 995member
    If your getting kernal panics. I'd backup and reformat the drive. I'd start up in 9 and do a Fill with zero format. Then reinstall X ( I assume that's what you have).
  • Reply 2 of 5
    rossjjrossjj Posts: 7member
    Thanks for the tip. I just did recently get a Firewire external hard drive to do back-ups. I got it because I kinda freaked during one of kernal panics as I was working on my PhD disseration and thought I was going to lose that file. I will try backing up files and then zeroing the HD from OS 9 and reinstalling X, which I am using really exclusively. Hopefully this will solve the problem. Anyone else have any tips?
  • Reply 3 of 5
    jimdreamworxjimdreamworx Posts: 1,096member
    After the reinstallation, if this is still happening, my first guess would be to check the RAM. Have you had it upgraded?



    Also, if you have anything hooked up to the Ethernet port (say for an Internet connection) check the cable and/or the actual jack, as my kernel panics have come from bad networking.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    timotimo Posts: 353member
    Please please please have multiple back ups of your dissertation. You can buy one of those USB flash drives and keep a copy off site as well.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    neutrino23neutrino23 Posts: 1,563member
    I have a Pismo 500 running OS X 10.2.6 with 256 MB of memory. I almost never get a kernel panic. There is a reason it is happening for your computer.



    1) If you can get hold of one (borrow it?) run the Tech Tool Pro diagnostic disc Apple supplies with AppleCare. It will check memory and other subsystems.



    2) Look in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder and run the program Disk Utility.

    Select the option to repair the hard drive then select the option to repair permissions. I have no idea if it makes any difference which you run first.



    3) Go to Version Tracker and get MacJanitor and run it once a week or so.



    4) If you still encounter troubles try zapping the PRAM. Restart and hold down Command-Shift-P-R while it restarts. Every 20 seconds or so you will hear the start up chimes. Continue to hold down the key combination till you hear the chimes three times or more. (Before you start make sure the sound is not muted.)



    5) How much free space is there on the HD? I don't know of a definite rule but I have seen problems with under 1GB free space. My uninformed opinion is that you should leave at least 2 or 3GB free.



    6) From Version Tracker get a program called ThermoInDock. It will display the temperature of the CPU. You may have dropped or bumped the Pismo and dislodged the heat sink slightly. If the temperature of the CPU gets up to about 90C or so the computer will freeze. I get this when playing QT movies full screen. (I definitely traumatized the heat sink on mine.) When I have to do something really CPU intensive for a long time I put a small fan next to the air inlet. A hair dryer on low with the heat turned off works well.



    This should cover the majority of problems. If it is still acting up after all this then I would start to think of hardware problems. It might be a failing battery or noisy AC adapter or faulty AC adapter cable. Did you take advantage of Apple's free offer to upgrade the AC adapter? If you haven't you should do this. There was an issue with these and Apple offered to replace any of the adapters that had a certain range of serial numbers.



    By the way, if you haven't changed the HD that might be something to consider. A newer HD will be much larger, much faster and much quieter. You will be very pleased at the performance improvement you will get upgrading from a stock Pismo HD to a modern, fast HD. Look at BareFeats. I think the IBM drive is one of the fastest for laptops (apart from the new 7200RPM Hitachi - but that is in another class).



    If you do go for this upgrade make sure to get a drive with liquid bearings. I have gone through a number of HDs on different PBs. After a while they always developed a high pitched whine. A year ago June I put in a Toshiba 40GB drive with liquid bearings and it is still silent. Really sweet.



    Hope this helps.
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