My Mac

[Broomjockey]

Right, I just want to rant about the Mac I have to use at work. This thing sucks. It's a G5 iMac, I believe. And that's an upgrade from the eMac I had to use for a while.

On the surface, it should be a decent machine. 2+GHz PPC processor, lots of RAM, running OSX 10.4.

However, in the hour I've been at work today, it's already completely crashed *twice.* The first time, it just gave me the spinny colour wheel "system busy" cursor. For five minutes. Then I decided a hard shutdown was in order, because obviously it wasn't going to start responding again.

The second time, the screen dimmed after 2 minutes. Then turned off completely 30 seconds later. Along with my mouse. Another hard reboot. I'm now having to save my work every 30 seconds out of paranoia.

I do not have too many applications running. The second time, I had one. Safari, with 3 tabs. It crashed when I tried to download a file I need to work on. And today is not the first time it's crashed on me. In fact, this week it's crashed at least once a day. It's also making this very interesting clicking noise from time to time. It's not just a metallic click, it's almost musical. I thought it was a precursor to a crash, as the first time it just kept doing it, then crashed, and still kept doing it. But then it crashed without making the noise, and made the noise without crashing. So I guess it's just seranading me.

This thing is seriously a piece of crap. I can understand why no one was using it. I'm about ready to throw the thing out my window. Argh.

ETA: I've got Activity Monitor running, to see if I can spot trouble coming. Or at least see if there's a common denominator to what I'm doing when it goes belly up.
First off: TWENTY SIX MB memory and 3% CPU? That's huge! Wtf? Just to monitor the system? That's so wrong.
Secondly: It randomly spikes up to 100% usage from 50 or less for a few seconds every couple minutes. Sh*t sux. I'm just waiting for the computer to explode in my face at this point.

[cawaker]

actually sounds like bad hardware, might be the ram. or the hard drive if you are hearing metallic clicks.

[Broomjockey]

actually sounds like bad hardware, might be the ram. or the hard drive if you are hearing metallic clicks.

Wouldn't doubt any of that. I've just never been stuck with a gawd-awful failing computer before that I couldn't rip apart, or at least jury-rig in some fashion. RAM I'm doubtful of. HDD sounds more likely. Can't be fixed either way, since there's one Mac tech, and I doubt he's going to spend a day ripping the thing apart to try and find the issue. And we can't get a new one, because it's a Mac, and that kind of cost just isn't in the budget.

[Javarod]

Chuckles, "Send it out to me, i can change out the HD, can't be any harder than an iBook (42 steps!!), though i'll admit my diagnostic skills suck, but the mechanics, no problem."

[lordlundar]

can't be any harder than an iBook (42 steps!!),

Or The MacBook Air, with over 60 steps, and a third of those are dealing with screws.

[MacPrince]

If you do have to swap out parts in it, the G5 iMac is actually a great one to have to do it to- you lay it face-down on the screen, 4 screws (as I recall) out of the bottom and the whole back, stand and all, hinges off of the unit and leaves everything very easily accessible. That's one of the best machines Apple's ever had as far as serviceability, actually.

[wraiths_crono]

Thanks for the horror in the mac world, tried to upgrade the HDD of my mac mini... NEVER AGAIN!

[Hibble]

Sounds like either the hard disk is on the way out or its 'parking' (metallic clicking sound) because of a software issue.

If its the latter a reinstall should fix the issue otherwise you need to do a simple swap of the hard disk. If you have permission at work find out what brand of hard disk is in there try the diagnostic tool on there website look for bad sectors. Alternativly if the IT admin let you bring in a USB hard-disk and install 'OS X' on that. (cant remember if you can just copy the old installation across)

[Broomjockey]

you

I'm not allowed to do jack to the machine.

[Javarod]

I'm not allowed to do jack to the machine.

Like i said, send it to me, see, simple solution, then you won't be doing anything to it.

[EmiOfBrie]

It's also making this very interesting clicking noise from time to time. It's not just a metallic click, it's almost musical.

Hard drive is on its way out, seriously.... Happened to me twice.
Save what you can off the machine, because it's about to have a catastrophic drive failure, which will cause you to lose EVERYTHING.

[Broomjockey]

Save what you can off the machine, because it's about to have a catastrophic drive failure, which will cause you to lose EVERYTHING.

Sweet, should be interesting. Nothing's saved on the machine, it's all on network drives.

[EmiOfBrie]

Nothing's saved on the machine, it's all on network drives.

Good! Should be painless to get a new hard drive in and reinstall MacOS, then.

[PepperElf]

how old is it? it sounds like it's at least a few years old... and with the older mac towers you're suppose to actually clean their insides. (dust and all).

not saying dust is what caused it but... it could be a sign of how well your techs are actually maintaining the machine.

[Broomjockey]

older mac towers

What tower? It's an iMac.

Turns out we're doing requisitions for new computer equipment, so they're *definitely* not going to fix it before they find out what they're being given.