Right, first off, cheers to the people who have already offered invaluable advice thus far on these forums, appreciated lots:)

Right, basically I was endeavouring to Optimize my Mac g4 OS 9.2.1 for use with audio and more specifically Cubase 5.
I followed some basic 'Optimum settings for Cubase on a mac' procedures in the following order.....
1. Apearance control panel : Changed font to Chicago, disabled 'smooth all fonts on screen' option..
2. Altered Memory allocation for Cubase to 200mb as stated....
3. Under Sound control panel set Soundtrack to None.
4. Appletalk was switched off in AT Control panel.
5. Date and Time panel, disabled 'Use a Network time server', and set the time from 5;15 to 4;15,(don't think thatd be relevant but you never know)....
6. Energy Saver I switched sleep option to Never.
7. File sharing was off in FS Control panel.....so didn't need to alter that...
8. Memory control panel, switched Virtual Memory off and Ram disk to off.
9. Finally I set the Monitors Control Panel to 'Thousands' of colours as opposed to Millions.

Essentailly I had OMS, Cubase 5 and a Tascam 428 all installed and conversing with each other apparantly without problem, since doing the above the following is occuring.....

Finder Keeps quitting and telling me to restart, which I try however it freezes mid startup.
Attempted to access Memory Control panel and got an Unexp'td error of type 2 (memory I believe?)......
Now whenever I start up the Mac the OS boots and loads to the point of desktop appearing, all desktop elements (Hardrive1/ folders etc) then vanish and I'm left with a frozen mac....which I try to restart and well, sure you get me......

I don't want to format the HD AGAIN and reinstall everything, however I'm now essentially left with an unbootable OS and even if it did load or work I don't know what it is I've done in order to deserve such occurences/ errors....
If anyone has any idea of either a: What I've done or b: How best to go about sorting, it'd be mostly appreciated, cos I feel like I'm going round in circles.
Any 'proper' links to Optimization techniques would be a bonus.....

Cheers to anyone who actually reads this essay:)
Carl.

Which G4 is it exactly?
How much RAM have you in?
Have you trashed all the preference files miraculously changed at the time of the errors? You should.
Have you reset PRAM, NVRAM and eventually reset the motherboard?

Nothing you've done can explain that, save if a files/PRAM save has gone haywire.

There's some chance the problem is OS 9.2.1 which was a bad boy… 9.0.4 and 9.2.2 were incarnate pleasures on the mac planet. Now don't update first hand there was some apps not working in 9.2.2 (but in the PT sphere if I remember well) so better investigate first.

Hey LPM,
Niceone for getting involved once again:)
Right, got a Quicksilver powermac G4, 733mhz, 128mb sdram etc etc.....2001 ish era
Have tried your above suggestions, removed preferences and restarted, same issues tbh.
Then zapped the Pram and lo and behold, Finder still quitting, freezes on startup etc, same old same old.
This is all abit confusing to be honest.
In terms of what to do next, resetting the motherboard sounds quite a task?
Operating System wise, 9.2 and 9.4 are plenty more reliable than the 9.1 I'm using then yeah?
Would you advise an upgrade?
The only applications I really plan on using with my mac would be Cubase 5.1 and the Tascam usb428 controller with it so 'hopefully' they should both be ok with OS 9.2 etc....Shall indeed check.
Baring in mind I had a stable platform for coupla years using my present setup, would ANOTHER wipe and reinstall be worth attempting just to see if this is an annoying random occurence?
Btw, sos for ignorance once again but didn't get what you meant by the 'PT sphere' bit........
As I say mate, cheers for all your help.
Carl.

Mind that you can't assign 200 MB of RAM to Cubase when you have only 128 MB in the computer It's bingo every time…

I'd pumped this department if I were you.

There's no 9.4 the only versions available of OS 9 are 9.02, 9.04, 9.1, 9.2, 9.2.2; The best are 9.0.4 and 9.2.2. Never mind what I said about 9.2.1 I mixed with 9.1 (answering way too late for me on a subject hiding deep in memory).

If you have only 128 MB of RAM, between the system and cubase, it's normal you have issues when you give 200 MB you don't have to cubase. Reduce back the RAM print of Cubase to defaults (or do the maths: 128 - system - margin of some megs) and watch for buying some RAM.

All seen LPM and lol.....
Twas only when I relayed the stats, info to ya that that kinda dawned on meh , coulda sworn I upgraded to 256, oh well, guess not........
Cheers for all your input anyways mate, tis most appreciated...

Right, me again.....
Turns out I did upgrade as when I ran an Apple Hardware test it showed up 2 Dimm 128mb mem modules etc.
The AHT also reported an Error code of the following.....
mem_2/4
Have tried Googling it etc with out a greatdeal of success tbh, any ideas on specifics in terms what this may mean in terms of probs with me ram?
Help appreciated once again, goes without saying.......

Your memory may have issues, try to swap the modules, if the AHT sends back the same error on another slot (if mem_2/4 is a slot), you won!

Next you'll have to find out which one is bad…

Innit just, niceone Lpm bruv for all of your input, all helped fella.
Have indeed found the culprit, and most importantly have setup and am running my system again which seems solid once again.
First tune recorded via a mac in months tonight, indeed a happy bunny I am
Wicked site for help, respect.

While OS 9 was a great operating system, OSX is infininately better when it comes to dealing with audio. I switched about 3 years ago. I'm currently running ProTools 7.1 on a dual 2.3 G5. You might think about upgrading when you can.

Yep, OS X is F… B… GREAT (sorry for the words pals) but given our fiend's G4, he's better in OS 9. Now, next year, there will be no reason left (save money as usual…) not to move to intel for a screaming OS X mac. Now, it's always better to be able to make some noise with the computer we have than the computer we don't

Thanks for the compliment Apesound, we believe in our members, in helpfulness and quality, so now, let's go banana on your G4!