Unwanted automatic shutdown when moved

1. Skookum - 20 March 2007

   Whenever i physically move my Mac Powerbook G4 (OSX 10.3.9) even a little (e.g. to move a paper clip that happens to be under the machine, the screen goes gray and avises me I need to restart. I know that if I have to really move it about putting it on "sleep" is the best strategy. But is there a way to stop it from doing this for relatively minor movement?

2. Clever Monkey - 20 March 2007

   Does it do this when only powered by the battery?

3. Gregory Weston - 20 March 2007

   Have it serviced. The grey screen you're seeing is the report of a kernel panic - something going wrong at a very low level of the system. KPs are almost always triggered by some sort of hardware issue. Sounds like you've got something either making or breaking contact when the machine deflects under its own weight. Check the user-serviceable things: make sure the RAM is firmly seated, for example. But if you can't find anything, bring it to a pro.

4. Skookum - 20 March 2007

   No. It happens whichever. I had assumed it was some kind of security issue but I guess not from what Gregory says.

5. Jolly Roger - 20 March 2007

   Call Apple support.

   JR

6. zit - 20 March 2007

   On Mar 21, 12:02 am, Skookum wrote:

   Whenever i physically move my Mac Powerbook G4 (OSX 10.3.9) even a

   Titanium? They often did this. Tons of info on the Web.
   The problem will gradually get worse and worse.
   The ribbon cable to the trackpad gets pinched between a sharp titanium edge
   and a thick aluminum piece, and shorts out.
   I ground down the aluminum piece to make a bigger chanel for the cable.
   The original chanel was in the wrong place.
   I wanted to grind the thin titanium piece, but it didn't cooperate. I had tried just taping the cable, but the problem returned 6 months later.

   Something is either loose or shorted.
   You can narrow it down by wiggling things and poking around. Your machine is useless until this is fixed.