PowerBook G4 15" Ethernet port has intermittent drop outs - a fix
The problem exhibited as poor network connectivity via the Ethernet port. The DHCP assigned address would sporadically toggle between a network assigned one to a self-assigned address. The port itself toggled from online to offline repeatedly.
The user did not report this problem when the unit was at their home (although it looks like the user never had it networked as the unit had OS X 10.3.0). The problem started when the Powerbook was connected to my workbench Netgear gigabit switch.
The workaround was to force the Ethernet port to 100BT vs. allowing it to auto-configure to 1000BT. This is done via System Preferences/Network/Show:Built-in Ethernet/Ethernet Tab/Configure: Manually/Speed: 100baseTX/Apply Now. Conventional trouble-shooting steps had no affect (disk repair, permission fix, cache clear, pram reset, nvram reset).
Hope this helps someone. Responses welcome.
Lyle Millander
( keywords: PowerBook G4 Ethernet port failure dropout intermittent fix network self-assigned )
PowerBook G4 15" 867MHz, Mac OS X (10.3.x), Gigabit Ethernet