Well, let's see, continuing our story about a Titanium PowerBook G4 (667 MHz, Gigabit Ethernet, 1 GB RAM, 30 GB hard drive) - It occasionally crashes for no apparent reason, Flash won't install, it has file permissions errors that don't ever seem to be fixed, it can't be backed up with CarbonCopyCloner or similar, and Disk Warrior and other utilities can't seem to fix it. Using AppleJack didn't fix the problems; creating a new user to run the utilities didn't fix the problems; trying repairs in Target Disk Mode didn't fix the problems.

I booted the TiBook in Target Disk Mode and copied the hard drive to our G5 box. Everything seemed to copy just fine. (But that doesn't create a bootable image.)

I installed a 100 GB Seagate 2.5" drive in a macally PHR250cc Firewire/USB enclosure and tried to use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the internal 30 GB drive to it. It failed to a gray screen after copying a few files.

I tried installing the 100 GB Seagate in the TiBook and installing Tiger from the DVD. It got through about 80% of the install, then failed (it suggested trying again). I tried again, and it failed again the same way.

Ok, I needed to step back some more and look at [link|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=332983|Gulliver's] suggestions again. It mentions updating the firmware.

Looking at Apple's [link|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117|Firmware Updates] page, it lists 2 possibilities. But I have to boot the machine into OS 9 from the hard drive. How do I do that? Hmm. After searching around quite a bit I found an [link|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106667|Apple page] that discusses switching between OS 9 and OS X (using the Startup Disk applet).

The initial boot of OS 9 failed and it suggested turning off the Extensions (using the Shift key). The second boot with extensions off worked, but I had no internet access. The third boot with extensions on took forever, and I had to go through a registration process with Apple (rassin' frassin registration), but eventually it let me continue and it eventually found our wireless network. Finally!

I downloaded the 4.2.9 firmware that seemed to be for our 667 MHz TiBook G4 (GB Ethernet). I ran it and it said that that firmware won't work on the machine. :-( So I downloaded the 4.1.8 firmware. Same result. :-(

I don't know what the problem is with the firmware update. But they both seem to address problems with TiBooks running with 1 GB of RAM (as this one has).

About the only other thing I can try is removing the extra RAM and take it back to 512 MB and then try updating the firmware. If that doesn't do it, well, I guess we'll just have to live with it in its present state.

Thanks for all the tips, everyone. I'll report back if I have any success.

Cheers,
Scott.
(One of the lessons is - don't wait too long to update a machine if it starts acting flakey.)

I took out the top SO-DIMM and left the bottom one in. The system wouldn't boot OS 9.2. I put the other SO-DIMM in the bottom slot and it booted 9.2 and X fine.

In OS X I ran Disk Utility to "Verify Disk Permissions" with the good 512 MB DIMM in place. It ran fine. I ran "Repair Disk Permissions" and it ran fine.

One of the SO-DIMMs is flakey. :-( They're Kingwin parts (discussed in the OP). I'll probably order a couple of [link|http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=4AEBAB1EA5CA7304|these] in a day or few.

Cheers,
Scott.
(Lesson #2: If you suspect bad RAM, spend some time checking whether it's good or not rather than spinning your wheels with software checks.)