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With Catalyst 3.3 Pro, OS 10.3.6, and the latest ATI software if I leave the system on over night in Catalyst it will lock up the entire computer. However it will only lock up if catalyst is running but not playing back video. If it is playing video it keeps on going.
To restart the computer I have to hold the power button down to shut down the computer. Its that crashed. Also the fans are running on high.
Help,
Tyler
http://chaldee1.gotadsl.co.uk/~richa...newthread&f=6#
is this still happening?
yes it sure is but only when I am not on the show with it.
It has actually gotten worse apparently.
On the last show the machine seems to loose the SCSI drive but will regain it if you wiggle everything.
Its not a software problem other than maybe an OS issue.
We are going to start over with the os and then we will start replacing hardware.
tyler
sounds like a scsi problem
possibly a terminator issue.
try getting the terminators i recommended.
r
its only happening on 1 of our 4 machines. which ones do you like?
sounds even more like a scsi or cabling problem.
try swapping the cables, or removing the cables from the machine thats not working correctly.
i think its these terminators.
they mount directly in front of the drive in a pass-through configuration inside a g5 - if you are using internal drives.
ultra 320:
http://www.tmcscsi.com/cgi-local/Sof...e81+1116763979
ultra160:
http://www.tmcscsi.com/cgi-local/Sof...e81+1116657592
well i have replaced the SCSI cables on the 2 older machines and the "lemon" still locked up on me but durring rehersal. I am now going to swap out the SCSI card. The odd part is the fans defaulting to high. Or does this happen any time a G5 locks up?
Tyler
fans going high means somekind of hardware or operating system fault.Quote:
Originally Posted by tylerr
That means the OS has stopped running!
This is not a catalyst software fault.
Hugh seems to think that there are wierd permissions issues in the operating system installs as well, that might cause this.
Send him an email.
Hi Guys,
Just saw this thread.
I had this once.
My machine was left on ( I cannot remember if movies were playing or not).
I heard the fans speed gradually increase and keep increasing.
I have come across this behaviour before when I fitted a bad Atto SCSI card whilst upgrading a G5 to a SCSI drive; (fitting a good card solved the problem).
Hugh described it as a "kernel panic".
The odd thing is it happened when I was doing absolutely nothing at all with the machine but I was in the room working on something else.
Pretty sure this was on G21.
The interesting thing is the machine it occurred on doesn't have a SCSI drive, just a WD Raptor (Richard its the one you gave us).
At the time I just hit the reset button sharpish as the speed of the fans was increasing in an unhealthy manner.
It has not occurred since and I though nothing more of it until now.
Rob
fans going on means total system crash or hardware failure.
usually intermittent.
Nothing to do with Catalyst or pixelmad.
recent os builds have not seen this happen so much for me.
i had a broken fan on a graphics card that used to cause this to happen.
heat....
Came up with an idea to check whether its an OS install problem or a hardware problem.
Solution:
Buy a new hard disc.
1. Install totally new system on disc
2. if the computer still crashes - its a hardware fault
3. if the computer doesnt crash - its an os install problem.
Seems to me that i could just swap the scsi drives between 2 machines and see if the problem moves. The only bummer there is that the bad machines brother is going to Austraila for a gig. It will have to wait a bit.
Tyler
did you update the flash roms in the atto cards?
they definitely did several rom updates last year.
on the atto site - this is refered to as firmware
http://www.attotech.com/
they also did driver updates as well.
done all that.
is this thing still crashing - a lot - like every few hours?
or just occasionally?
we both know this is some kind of intermittent hardware failure.
its tough to debug with so many permutations of the components involved.
when i worked at V*L it always used to be the cables and connectors that failed the most - in the most difficult way to debug
Just a note on SCSI adapter cards:
The driver updates and firmware updates go hand in hand. It's not enough to check one or the other - do both.
Hugh
I have upgraded the drivers and the firmware. Didnt help. Now when I get the units back i am going to start swapping components between the mached pair of machines. The server crashed after several hours of inactivity or at least activity with no DMX applied. Its an odd problem.
When did you work at VL?
classic sympton of intermittent hardware problem....
V*L -1988-91 i used to fix artisan consoles
Similar problem or not, I don't know actually. In my case, I took off the memories, then slotted in those.
Apple Support mentioned that is memory issue in this article.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86776
This is for Xserve,but our G5's power light flashed three times.
Now the G5 looks fine.
apple actually ships a hardware test cd with the computers, that loads before the OS loads.
it is supposed to do memory tests and the like.
the intermittent problems we are seeing here, are not likely to be memory related.
if the memory is incorrectly installed, it just wont work at all.
I have done all the Apple tests. A OK.
Tyler
yes.
apple hardware tests arent good for intermittent problems.
they test things once, then finish.
i wrote test software for the artisan lighting consoles, that tested the buttons and lights, it had to run the whole time for hours, then you used to hit things, and see intermittent faults.
I have an update to this ongoing problem.
I have now done the following.
Formatted Drives and reloaded OS and Library
Replaced SCSI Cable
Replaced SCSI Controller
Flashed all firmware
And oddly enough it still crashes in about 8 hours.
Now here is what i have found.
If I run the system with a Targus USB hub it will crash in 8 hours. New hub or old hub it doesn't matter.
However if I run it without the hub it runs all night long. I am up to 20 hrs.
Has anyone had any USB hub problems?
But in the end the really cool part is that I have 3 other systems running with this same hub and there are no problems on those machines.
do you have an internal usb pci card?
or is the hub plugged into an external mac port?
No internal USB. Hub was pluged into one of the rear ports.
classic intermittent hardware failure.
had a quick chat with riverdance catalyst person last night, he does things like reseat pci cards, and connectors after long road trips.
says this fixes some occasional freezes.
its those classic on the road electronics issues.
this stuff gets beaten to death and breaks.
it looks like software - but it isnt.
internet report of freeze with usb hub:
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...05041107171246Quote:
Meanwhile, MacFixIt reader Ben reports another, USB-related freeze trigger for the Mac mini:
"I've also notice random, regular lock-ups with my Mac mini. I seemed to have narrowed it down to the USB. If I have either my Canon LiDE 35 scanner or my SanDisk ImageMate 8 in 1 media reader (SDDR-88) plugged in, after a period of time (sometimes hours, sometimes days) my Mac mini will lock. Looking in the /var/log/system I see what looks like an attempt to access the USB devices followed by the inevitable hard reboot I had to perform. I'm not sure if it's the devices, but two different types of devices and two different manufacturers make me think it's something with the USB software/hardware subsystem or the Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 7-Port Hub I have my USB devices plugged into."
this report is from a mac-mini its quite possibly a related hardware issue.
Its kinda funny that this problem is ongoing and semingly unsolveable. I recently threw up my hands and paid my $45 to CDW for a pro to look into the problem. He had the machine running for 24 hours with no problems.
I love computers.
How about this.
I use unpowered USB hubs in my systems. Is it possible that I could be overloading the USB system with the CIB, Dongle, and USB for the UPS plugged in without auxiliary power?
I still love computers.
Tyler
it is always possible that unpowered usb hubs might get overloaded with power requirements of peripherals.
cib takes quite a lot of power. its close to the usb limit.
but cib disconnection shouldnt cause any freezing unless something else is happening.
do you still love computers?
does your problem move when you change the peripheral from computer to computer?
did you try a different hub?
Or try powering the hub?
is there some nifty little application out there that will tell me the utilization of the available USB power?
there is the USB Prober application - its in the utilities folder.
this shows what devices think they are consuming.
i dont think there is any active monitoring of current available.
Now here is something interesting.
In the system profiler if you click on USB it will tell you that there is 500ma available on each buss. Or at least that is how I am interpreting it. Now if you look at your USB Key and CIB you will notice that they both draw 500ma. if that is the case and I am reading all this right it never should have worked with an un-powered USB hub. That would be a 1A load on a 500ma service. It doesn't work in lighting so why did it seem to work in the world of Apple.
Thoughts?
:confused:
the cib does use almost all the available power.
the usb key will use almost no power.
I would never suggest that the cib were plugged into an unpowered hub-
well the machines ran for 15 hours last night and no problems. I think the problem is solved.
Tyler :)
Little did I know or realize that the USB hub will not maintain the data stream from the CIB. Thus the machine seems to freeze but the mac is operating just fine.
In the end here is what I have determined to be the issues.
1) Use a powered USB hub for your software key and keyboard/mouse.
2) Plug the CIB directly into the MAC.
A USB hub will falter and interrupt the data stream.
I do not use a USB card in the computer because it impends the cooling of the video card and with a SCSI card and a Deck link card in there is not more room.
Oh my I hope this is finally over.
:D
sounds like the cib stopped working with the power available to it...
you might have used a hub which could not supply enough power to the cib.
Possibly but the CIB screen never went dark. The data just stops flowing.