Kernel Panic??!!, My G4 tower won't restart all the way! Options

[macintarian]

Hello good people,

I have a G4 tower, 512MB RAM, 800 MHz processor, OS X 10.2.4, 40 gigs harddrive. I think it may be "kernel panic" which I read about in previous posts with similar error messages. Halfway thru restarting I get a "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power Button for several seconds or press the restart button", with what non-english alphabets at the bottom. Again and again I try and get the same message.

I have a MOTU Fastlane Midi USB interface and a firewire cable for a camcorder connected to my machine(camcorder is unplugged from cable).

I don't know where or how to begin to resolve this problem as I can not even get the machine started. I would appreciate some advice to nudge me in the right direction without risking the loss of data on my harddrive. Thanks in advance.

[macintarian]

Thank you much Webmaster, I don't have another HD, but I do have an old iMac computer, is it possible to use that machine's HD?

[lepetitmartien]

You can, mind that everything will be erased on it!

extract the HD from the iMac

set its jumper to "slave" at its back (it should be explained on it, at worse find the tech data on the HD manufacturer site) if it is to be plugged on the same cable as the drive to back up.

Connect it into the G4 (power and IDE cable: the plug is the one left on the same cable as the original HD)

Follow the instruction already given to enforce install of OSX on this drive.

[macintarian]

New progress, I ran an apple diagnostic test on my system and it passed each category, so it seems, my HD is fine. After the diagnostic test I restarted my machine and it went all the way, though it hung a bit during restart. After restarting, I saw my desktop just as it were with all my software present.........however, my mouse cursor was frozen in place and my clock on the upper right hand corner was flashing. I could only "tab" thru my desktop but could not access or open anything. Does this mean anything to more experienced mac people?

[Francois Déchery]

Beleive me BACKUP your data AS FAST AS POSSIBLE (2nd HD method), then reformat and reinstall OSX... you will avoid a lot of trouble!

[macintarian]

It's me again, well I did what webmaster suggested, I have installed a second HD and set it to slave. I did install OS 10.1.3 the version that came with the G4 on the new HD, however I was running 10.2.6(Jaguar) when this all happened. 1) do I need to do a clean install of Jaguar on the 2nd HD, and reboot from it?,... 2) how do I then go about finding the data on the problem HD so that I can back up or copy the files that I need? Thanks again for your help.

[macintarian]

oh I forgot to mention that after installing 10.1.3 on the 2nd HD I could find the original HD or it's data....I understand that I should try a clean re-install of Jaguar and then try again, all I have to do is figure out how to find the problem HD, would it be visible on the desktop?

[dixiechicken]

You can and should install Jaguar on the new HD.

If both HD:s are on the same cable, -
the new HD jumpered as master and your old HD as slave, -
both hd:s will show up on the desktop.

The HD you're booting up from ( the new HD ) will be -
the topmost rightmost HD-icon on the desktop.

Be careful you dont by mistake install Jaguar back onto your old drive.

Cheers: Dixiechicken

[macintarian]

Thank you very much dixiechicken and all, that's precisely what I needed to know. Yes both HDs are on the same cable. I'll post my results as soon as I try it all out.

[Francois Déchery]

before re-installing the 1st HD, you should backup all the content of:

/Users/your_login_name/

To your new (2nd) HD

Then, i would advice to erase the 1st HD (re-format) just in case, and verify it for bad-blocks with a Norton or DiskWarrior App. Then, when you are sure that you first HD is perfectly OK, reinstall a fresh MacOSX on it....

Re-install all your Apps (with the installers if any) then, copy back your document from your backup on the second HD.

HTH

[macintarian]

Finally!! I finally was able to spend some time inside my G4 and did exactly what Webmaster suggested I do in adding a 2nd HD to my G4. I used my old iMac HD as my 2nd HD and it worked great. I was able to see my problem HD on the desktop and backed up my data. Thanks a lot Webmaster, TheWeaze1, Dixiechicken and Lepetitmartien. Now I've got to save up some money and become an active member to this valuable mac community.