I have an iMac G5 (2GHZ, PowerPC G5 (3.1) running
tiger 10.4.6. Sometimes when the computer goes to sleep and I try and wake it up by pressing any key nothing happens and after a couple of minutes the fans come on full blast - I am forced to shut it down with the power button and then restart. A similiar problem happens sometimes when I restart the mac, it just hangs at the black screen and no apple 'tone' is heard
as with normal startup, the fans then come on full blast - I have to then restart as with the above example. These problems only happen sometimes but are frequent
enough to cause concern. I believe the problems might be linked to USB devices connected to the computer as on small scale testing it seems the problems disappear when I unplug all USB devices except the keyboard/mouse. My current USB connections are keyboard/mouse, Nikon Coolscan 5000ed scanner, epson photo r200 printer and canon powershot usb cable. No firewire devices are installed but I am connecting to the
net via an ethernet cable. Any advice/input on these issues would be greatly appreciated.
many thanks,
Alex
snipernest@redacted.invalid wrote:
I believe the problems might be linked to USB devices connected to the computer as on small scale testing it seems the problems disappear when I unplug all USB devices except the keyboard/mouse.
This is an absolutely classic problem; USB is shit, basically, because it accesses bits of the OS that mean a badly written device and its driver can kill the Mac. Typically, this causes kernel panics (crashes) on restarting or waking.
The only solution is to disconnect your USB devices systematically until you find out which one(s) are causing the trouble. When you've found the culprit, see if there's an updated version of the software for it, or disconnect it before sleeping/restarting the Mac.
Hi there,
Thanks for the response. Do you think buying a USB hub
might be a good solution or would it make no difference?.
Alex
Peter Ceresole wrote:
snipernest@redacted.invalid wrote:
I believe the problems might be linked to USB devices connected to the computer as on small scale testing it seems the problems disappear when I unplug all USB devices except the keyboard/mouse.
This is an absolutely classic problem; USB is shit, basically, because it accesses bits of the OS that mean a badly written device and its driver can kill the Mac. Typically, this causes kernel panics (crashes) on restarting or waking.
The only solution is to disconnect your USB devices systematically until you find out which one(s) are causing the trouble. When you've found the culprit, see if there's an updated version of the software for it, or disconnect it before sleeping/restarting the Mac.Peter
snipernest@redacted.invalid wrote:
Thanks for the response. Do you think buying a USB hub might be a good solution or would it make no difference?.
In such a case it will probably make no difference- if the hub is working properly it will pass the problem along to the Mac.
Track down the faulty device first; there's no substitute for that. It doesn't sound as though you have that many connected, so it should be relatively painless. From what you say, I'd start with the scanner. But as I said, if it isn't that, then just be systematic.
In article 1hepyn2.fktjpzj9c8cdN%peter@redacted.invalid, Peter Ceresole wrote:
snipernest@redacted.invalid wrote:
Thanks for the response. Do you think buying a USB hub might be a good solution or would it make no difference?.
In such a case it will probably make no difference- if the hub is working properly it will pass the problem along to the Mac.
The only possible exception to that (and it's a bit of a stab in the dark) is if the crashes are caused by the device not getting enough power and not handling it properly. A powered hub might help in that situation.
Long shot though.
Jim
Jim jim@redacted.invalid wrote:
The only possible exception to that (and it's a bit of a stab in the dark) is if the crashes are caused by the device not getting enough power and not handling it properly. A powered hub might help in that situation.
But if the device (whatever one it turns out to be) is running directly connected to the iG5, it should be getting plenty of power there UNLESS...
Alex, you're not running anything except for the mouse from a keyboard port, are you? They will provide very little power- although if overstretched by a device, they usually put up a polite notice to tell you so. So that might just be a possibility.
Peter Ceresole peter@redacted.invalid wrote:
Jim jim@redacted.invalid wrote:
The only possible exception to that (and it's a bit of a stab in the dark) is if the crashes are caused by the device not getting enough power and not handling it properly. A powered hub might help in that situation.
But if the device (whatever one it turns out to be) is running directly connected to the iG5, it should be getting plenty of power there UNLESS...
Alex, you're not running anything except for the mouse from a keyboard port, are you? They will provide very little power- although if overstretched by a device, they usually put up a polite notice to tell you so. So that might just be a possibility.
Except non of the devices connected would be drawing power from the machine as they should all be self powered....
Hmmm, this is annoying. It seems to be the printer and scanner
which are causing problems. But i mean its ridiculous having to unplug them all the time, is this really a common fault with this model?. I mean what are apple playing at?.
snipernest@redacted.invalid wrote:
Hmmm, this is annoying. It seems to be the printer and scannerwhich are causing problems. But i mean its ridiculous having to unplug them all the time, is this really a common fault with this model?. I mean what are apple playing at?.
No it is a problem with certain dodgy usb devices that can pull down a computer as the usb hooks deep into the system. I'd try just pulling the scanner, just random thought is it could be caused by the change when the scanner kicks in the energy saver and turns off the lamp, see if the crashes go away with the printer/canon left connected, and the scanner disconnected.
On 3/5/06 12:23, in article 1146612238.665552.54780@redacted.invalid, "snipernest@redacted.invalid" snipernest@redacted.invalid wrote:
Hmmm, this is annoying. It seems to be the printer and scannerwhich are causing problems. But i mean its ridiculous having to unplug them all the time, is this really a common fault with this model?. I mean what are apple playing at?.
Since you aren't including any context in your post, I have no idea what you're talking about.
Instead of using Google Groups' default "reply" link, please use "options" and then "reply". That will properly quote the article you're replying to, so you can trim and quote it properly. The Google Groups posting interface is very very broken :-(
Cheers,
Chris