:-)

Post #280,273 by Another Scott 4/1/07 6:30:58 PM Reply	:-) Trouble is, I can't do a backup to a separate drive because it fails. And the idea of trying an OS upgrade on a machine that seems to be flakey just seems like it's playing Russian roulette with a bullet in the chamber. If I mess it up, SWMBO will be quite angry with me. ;-) Thinking about it some more, I don't think it's the RAM. Even doing simple things that shouldn't take much RAM can cause it to crash at times. I'll bet some permissions got mangled on a file and when that file is touched by DiskUtility or something else the system locks up. The crashes always seem to involve the disk. But I don't know for sure... It sure would be nice to be able to diagnose the problem. Maybe I'll install DiskWarrior on the G5 and see what it can do for it in TargetDiskMode. (I tried a previous version off the CD and it didn't help as it also locked up.) It's problems like these that make me less inclined to move to a Mac than to Linux. With Linux, there are enough gear-heads to give you some idea of things to check. With Macs, they're much harder to find. If DiskWarrior and a few more things like that can't fix it, I'll probably just get a new disk and do a fresh install of Tiger. I've got an external enclosure to put the existing disk in, so we should be able to grab much of the stuff even if it's mangled. Thanks. I think. ;-) Cheers, Scott.
Post #280,284 by drewk 4/1/07 7:23:23 PM Reply	You're welcome, I think Actually, for what drives cost today, if you value your own time at all it's prebably better to get the new drive, install onto that, and copy the data off the old disk mounted as a slave. Hardward upgrades are always a good approach. === Kip Hawley is still an idiot. === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #280,286 by crazy 4/1/07 7:27:32 PM Reply	Being a Mac newbie This feels like file system corruption, and permissions "fixing" won't help. But being a Unix old timer, here's what I would do. 1st, I'd look into the system log files. Check /var/log/*. Not sure if your version has a system.log or something else, but start looking through these. Maybe you'll be able to see some real error messages that will point you in the direction. I would then hook the system up in target mode and attempt to copy your critical stuff using multiple tars at top level directories. That way if you get a hit on a bad error that triggers the abort, you can work around it. Or, I'd use "cp -rvp" to move stuff to a different disk. Bottom line, I'd not want to use that disk again until a new file system has been created on it.
Post #280,288 by Another Scott 4/1/07 8:04:27 PM Reply	Let's see... Applications -> Utilities -> Console File -> Open Log... -> CrashReporter -> lots of stuff. In Disk Utility.crash.log I see: "Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001) Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0xbe01ffe0" In XDarwin.crash.log I see: "Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001) Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x130d4020" In Mozilla.crash.log I see: "Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001) Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x7400000c" I haven't looked through everything, but this KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS stuff is very popular. Hmm. [link\|http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-15474.html\|MacOSXHints] indicates that a crash in IE like that can be caused by corrupted QuickTime preferences. I've tried half-a-dozen times to [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=257671\|install Flash] on that thing, and it always complains about some preference not being set properly. I've tried to remove all vestiges of it, but perhaps there's some similar preference file that's causing the crash. I'll have to dig around some more. Thanks for the prompt to check the logs. I feel like the solution is getting closer. Hmmm. [link\|http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=3499799\|This sounds familiar], but Flash has always been a buggaboo with me. I'll try running the FlashUninstaller and installing Flash again. Cheers, Scott.
Post #280,289 by crazy 4/1/07 8:48:09 PM Reply	Under unix, this type of message can mean several things #1 - If it is a new program, its got a bug and is attempting to access memory it does not own. Another name for it is a segfault. #2 - If it is a truly tested program, and you are sure it is bug free (as much as you can, relative term here), you may be looking at a corrupted program on disk that then loads and attempts to access memory it does not own due to program corruption screwing up its addressing, or: #3 - You really do have bad memory that flips a bit occasionally, or: #4 - Now we get into the odd hardware areas, flaky CPU, cracked motherboard, etc. A disk problem can trigger #2 by corrupting the image on disk.

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