I saw a topic about a Powermac G4 sale and I thought to share my expierence with MorphOS on a PowerMac G4 which is overclocked to 1.5ghz, hosts a Radeon 9600, has 1 giga of RAM and runs 10.5 perfectly and stable.

However on MorphOS the machine would freeze from time to time. I mean really often... Mouse would not respond at all, or would respond very slow in every activity. For example if I move the cursor or try to move a window, or exit a dialog box pressing ok or cancel the results will shown on screen two minutes later. I can not describe it very well, I must make a video.

However if I unplug and replug the usb cable that connects the computer to my USB hub... The system will go back to normal for awhile and all the results of moves during the frozen time period will be shown at once.

Same behavior both on onboard USB and through a PCI usb card.

No such behavior on Mac OSX.

Tested with no hub as well, same results.

Also:

MorphOS would freeze on install screen,.

Yes, on the last screen of installation process the "copying files" screen... it would freeze if I try to install it having the machine connected on a VGA monitor using a DVI to vga adapter. But would be installed perfectly if I connect the computer to my tv monitor using a DVI to hdmi adapter.

I ended up using the machine only under X.

If someone has any ideas, solutions or explanations, please post.


[ Edited by CountRaven 17.10.2016 - 15:24 ]

Is this a registered I stall of morphos? After 30 minutes a demo install will slow down dramatically if it's not.

>> if I un plug and replug the usb cable that connects the computer to my
>> USB hub... The system will go back to normal for awhile and all the
>> results of moves during the frozen time period will be shown at once.

> After 30 minutes a demo install will slow down dramatically if it's not.

I doubt the demo restriction can be circumvented by unplugging and replugging a USB hub.

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It is not registered but this is not the point. Freeze would start almost from scratch.

On another MDD - a dual 800Mhz, MorphOS would run perfectly.

Random thing to try:

Swap out the CD drive for another one. Any IDE CD/DVD drive should work. May have to remove the front tray bezel, but depends which one you got. I have had CD drives that would make my MDD mac freeze up and act very strange. Also, a really generic USB card I had was also giving problems.

I currently have a single core 1.25ghz OC to 1.5ghz on an MDD, and never had any programs.

Hope you get it sorted!

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Sounds weird, but I've had an issue with my dvd drive too.
And I had a similar problem with my iBook when I bought it.

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Yup, I've had problems with CD/DVD drives making PCs extremely wonky and crash prone. The first time was about a decade ago troubleshooting a family member's PC. The thing would crash for no apparent reason and the CD drive seems to work fine. It was 100% the problem. The last time was my G5. That time was a wee bit more obvious

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I guess I can simply disconnect the drive and make some tests to seen if the freezes go on.... I mean before finally replace it. Right?



[ Edited by CountRaven 18.10.2016 - 07:44 ]

I don't see why not. But having a bad drive always makes me wonder if the files even got copied correctly. Give it a try and see what happens. Also, the thermal paste is probably long gone. Have you tried to reapply some thermal paste? :) Especially if it's the dual CPU version, that will run hot.

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Disconnected the drive but nothing changed.

It is a single 1.5ghz overclocked.

I will try some thermal paste.

Of course I must repeat that those Temporary freezing symptoms are happening only under MorphOS.

Another thought:

Will try to also find a replacement Radeon and some replacement memory sticks. Perhaps something of the above causes the problem.

If anyone has anything spare please be my guest.

[ Edited by CountRaven 20.10.2016 - 04:29 ]

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Where are you located?

I probably have a spare Radeon video card around here somewhere, but shipping it outside the USA might be too expensive to make it worth the trouble.

Also, I have a dual 1.42GHz G4 MDD PowerMac, which I replaced the CPU module with a single 1.25GHz G4, over-clocked to 1.5GHz that runs fine on MorphOS3.4, but I have not been able to upgrade it to any newer versions of MorphOS, using the DVD/CD drive, or the USB memory stick directions for installation/upgrade.

Maybe I should remove the old "Super" drive and replace it, to see if that solves my installation problems?

I am located in Greece. Using USPS it would not be too expensive. I can send you my address, you can check cost and report back if you wish :)

As per install process. Yes my machine also freezes on the final install screen -copying files-.
For a strange reason it would NOT freeze if I hook it on another monitor using a DVI to HDMI adapter.

Have not really checked if the machine behavior changes generally if I leave it connected in that monitor. Will check.

Those symptoms make me thing it is a memory or a graphics card issue.

And now I remember that on a similar topic -about freezing on install screen- someone had replied that it is a memory issue -on PowerMac G4-.

In your case: do you manage to access the install process? Or no boot at all?

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@amigadave
When you boot up the MOS install, make sure when it boots up it isn't still loading the old boot files from the old boot partition. Though you start from a CD, it still loads up what is currently in the boot partition. So though I had a 3.9 install cd in, it still came up as 3.7 from my old install. Deleting all the files from boot partition then rebooting fixed it and showed up as 3.9 when it boots the install cd.

@countraven
The memory issue and the video card is a good start. You can always move around memory modules or try them 1 by 1. Fill up the memory by coping a bigger file and see if it randomly hangs up.

[ Edited by Doffo 20.10.2016 - 12:28 ]

Be warned though, deleting the files from the boot partition will of course wreck the previous install by making the hard drive unbootable. :) Files from the other partitions will still be there, but you will need to boot from an install to get things redone.

I was thinking that if the case was some kind of defective hardware the machine would be unstbale under X as well.

Tested with different memory sticks this weekend. Same behavior under MorphOS only.

I am starting to think that this could be some kind of MorphOS driver issue. On an earlier stage I have tried to use an earlier version of Radeon driver from an earlier 3.x ISO -not the 3.9 one-.

I am open to test with other versions. Any suggestions?

The gfx card is a Radeon 9600 256MB Mac edition.

I am still after a Radeon card to swap and check.

[ Edited by CountRaven 24.10.2016 - 15:44 ]

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First, does it run MorphOS stably when not overclocked?
Second, have you tried a different video card?

Do not have a spare to check.

I have not tested on normal CPU frequency -no overclock-. I bought the machine overclocked by someone else, have not the knowledge to bring it back to normal. If it is just a jumper setting for example, ok show me a link and I will try.

Under X it is rock stable. Will try to find a spare Radeon and check.

Overclocking the MDD:

http://xlr8yourmac.com/systems/g4_mirrored_drive_doors/G4_MDD_CPU_Module.html

I dunno if thats how yours is done, best thing is for you to Google how to overclock an MDD then see if yours was done this way.

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It would be nice if it was the that easy to change multipliers, but I believe its a resistor change.
The pads on these boards are set up for a specific multiplier, and you have to move a few resistors to change the value.

I can sympathize with you wanting to change back, its not enough of a boost to warrant to the stability issue.

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I doubt very much that the over-clocking is causing the problem while running MorphOS. It is more likely to be an issue with a driver, or faulty RAM, or a damaged file during the installation of MorphOS, IMO. IIRC, all it takes to over-clock the 1.25GHz CPU module to 1.5GHz, is the removal of one resistor on the CPU module board. I suppose it could be soldered back in place, if the OP could find the correct part.

Other than my problems in trying to upgrade MorphOS to the current version (probably due to a faulty optical drive), I have not heard other MorphOS users having problems with over-clocked G4 systems.

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Hey Dave,
Do you think you could check on which resistor has to be moved?
I'd like the info.

Jim

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It would be much easier to google it like I did when I over-clocked my G4 MDD, after replacing the dual 1.42GHz CPU module with a single G4 1.25GHz CPU module. I am fairly certain that I only had to remove one resistor to bump it up to 1.5GHz. There were also instructions on how to bump the clock rate up to 1.67GHz, but I did not want to push my 1.25GHz G4 CPU that hard. The instructions are also different for the single G4 and dual G4 CPU modules.

I'll see if I can find the link to that info for you and post it here.

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I believe it's this page, although apparently OC from 1250 to 1500 would require removing 3 resistors.

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Thanks.