Unstable Powerbook G3 with Mac OS 9.1

[phry26temp]

I am totally at a loss of what to do for this stupid powerbook I told my friend I would fix for her. The thing crashes constantly, in the finder, realplayer, office, internet explorer, everthing and it seems almost random when it happens. Anyone know what is going on or how to fix it.
So far I have reinstalled the operating system 3 times this most recent time I even "initialized" the drive for a totally clean install. It still crashes doing pretty much anything, I'm beginning to think this might be a hardware problem but I dont know where to go to disable things or any of the things I would try in windows. Please all you mac gurus out there help me! I have spent far to long on this stupid problem already.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Any specific errors? Have you looked at the knowledge base stuff on Apple's site? You can also try the Mac forum at arstechnica.infopop.net, macfixit.com, and other Mac sites.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Are you getting any error types when it crashes..Or does it just lock up solid? Any recent thrashing of the machine(eg: dropping, kicking ), or hardware changes(eg: ram upgrade)? Could be out of your hands if it is hardware related(Which is what it sounds like).

 

[phry26temp]

To answer your question, no I havent done anything to the hardware recently or droppped it. When it crashes it goes down harder than ronaldo and can only be reset with the cnrl-apple-power buttons. No wait I lie, sometimes after this has happend I can press some of those buttons and a wierd little window pops up where I can type things that do absoluley nothing.

 

[bubba]

If you are having this many problems, I would do a clean install of the OS and see how it is with a fresh install. You can spend a lot of time trying little things, but sometimes it is actually quickest to start over.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: bubba
If you are having this many problems, I would do a clean install of the OS and see how it is with a fresh install. You can spend a lot of time trying little things, but sometimes it is actually quickest to start over.

He allready said he did that...

Personally, I think you need to take it to an Apple certified repair center and get it looked at. That is odd for a mac to just up and freeze like that. They are usually very reliable machines.