The good – I’ve been a loyal Mac user since 1997

The bad – Apple kills my MobileMe account

The ugly – Apple throws me under the bus

I switched from the Windows/PC platform to the Mac in 1997. Since then I’ve purchased 7 Apple Macintosh desktop computers, 2 Apple iBook laptop computers, 4 Apple LCD monitors, and many Apple hardware accessories. I’ve purchased many Apple OS upgrades and applications. I’ve sent thousands of dollars Apple’s way, but that doesn’t seem to matter to Apple.

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The good – It boots and runs

The bad – More kernel panics & freezes

The ugly – It’s got to be one of the “BIG 3“

I’ve thoroughly tested my Apple G4 1.42 GHz Dual Processor FW800 MDD (Mirror Drive Doors) Mac, trying to resolve its kernel panic & freeze problems. (See Part 1 & Part 2 of this story.)

It’s not the hard drive(s). It’s not the RAM. It’s not the Mac OS X installation. That means the problem is, most likely, one (or more) of the “BIG 3” — the motherboard, the processor card, and/or the power supply.

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The good – It boots and runs

The bad – One kernel panic, one freeze

The ugly – Difficult to isolate the problem

Yesterday, I started the process of evaluating and fixing My Troubled Mac. It’s an Apple G4 1.42 GHz Dual Processor FW800 MDD (Mirror Drive Doors) model that has been prone to frequent kernel panics and freezes. My goal is to isolate the source of these problems, then decide on a course of action.

I started by removing all the hard drives, a USB 2.0 PCI card, and the Apple Internal Modem card. I installed a single hard drive, which is known to be good. I then reset the PMU. I left the DVD drive, video card, and RAM installed. So I now have a basic hardware configuration for testing.

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The good – My other Macs work perfectly

The bad – Repeating kernel panics

The ugly – Appears to be a major hardware issue

On July 4, 2006, I purchased a used Apple G4 1.42 GHz Dual Processor FW800 MDD (Mirror Drive Doors) Mac on ebay. The total cost, including shipping, was just under $900. I thought this was a pretty good deal, since it was a 2nd generation version, with quieter fans, updated power supply, and copper CPU heatsink. It came with 2 GB (4×512)of RAM, two 80 GB hard drives, Pioneer DVR-105 SuperDrive, Iomega Zip 750 drive, ATi Radeon 9000 Pro 64 MB video card, Apple internal modem, Apple Extended USB keyboard, Apple Optical USB mouse, and system restore disc.

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