Mini G4 Freaking Out

[graylocks]

Mini G4/Tiger/1GB ram

since i've had this (March 2006) i've been plagued by the Mini choking with a few of my classic apps. i've posted on this before. by choking i mean the hard drive (i think) starts revving up like an airplane engine, the pizza wheel of death spins, and i can't do anything until the spasm passes.

today the mini started doing that even though the offending apps weren't running (though Classic was open). this evening it seemed like it wasn't going to unspasm so i simply turned it off via the off/on switch. i started it up again and went off to dinner. when i checked the mini again, all i had was a blank blue screen. hmmm.

i had run Disk Warrior a few days ago, i thought maybe i should run Disk Utility. got out the install Disks, ran Apple Hardware Test (all systems passed), Disk Utility (no repairs necessary), and Repaired Permissions (lots but i hadn't done that in a while). restarted the Mini.

1. grey Apple logo and spinning sprocket
2. OS X Screen and blue thermometer fills
3. blank blue screen

hmmm. i thought my post would end here but i just went into my office to check on the Mini. my screen saver was running but when i touched the mouse - blank blue screen.

i seem to have no Finder.

HELP!

[elmo3]

You said 1GB RAM.

Did it come that way from Apple, or did you add the RAM?

[graylocks]

[quote elmo3]You said 1GB RAM.

Did it come that way from Apple, or did you add the RAM?
i added RAM in April. the Hardware test said the RAM was OK.

[BigGuynRusty]

[quote graylocks]i added RAM in April. the Hardware test said the RAM was OK.
There us no way to fully test RAM in the computer, bench test is the only way.
Pull the extra RAM that you installed.
Problem will most likely go away.

BGnR

[elmo3]

what BGnR said.

Unless you used Samsung RAM, that's probably your issue.

[graylocks]

[quote elmo3]what BGnR said.

Unless you used Samsung RAM, that's probably your issue.
i believe i bought it from OWC. do they use Samsung RAM?

also, would it make sense for the RAM to act out after 4 or 5 months?

[C(-)ris]

What the heck does Samsung ram have to do with it? Samsung has crappy sticks of ram too, no vendor is perfect. Try the original stick that came with it and if the problem goes away, get an RMA from OWC and have them send you a new stick of ram.

[BigGuynRusty]

[quote graylocks]
also, would it make sense for the RAM to act out after 4 or 5 months?
Bad RAM can appear anytime.
It might have been bad from the beginning but the bad section might have been never used till now. Or maybe the RAM was right on the edge, your mini got a little hotter than normal, and the RAM rolled over and died.
Maybe it needs a reseat.

BGnR

[graylocks]

okay, i've taken out the OWC RAM and reinstalled the Apple 512.

start-up chime, grey apple w/ sprocket and

blank blue screen (no OS X and blue thermometer now).

since i was able to boot from the install cd to run Disk Utility, should i do that and reinstall the system software?

[ka jowct]

Have you tried running Disk Warrior again?

How full is your hard drive?