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A way to stop the Freezes in some PowerBooks.

Hi , There is a way to stop the freezes in some PowerBooks, including mine.

Some of us have been turning off the processor nap function, Im not sure of what exactly are the pros and cons of using this way to stop freezes, but at least will give a clue in finding the cause of this problem.

To turn off this option, you have to get the developers CHUD tools, that are incuded in your xcode files or download them from apple in this page

http://developer.apple.com/tools/download/

Once you download it and install it, restart , then go to prefernces panels, in the HARDWARE panels there will be a new pane, called PROCESSOR, open it and there you will see the option to turn off NAP...uncheck it and you are done. To make it more accesible choose the option in the bottom to Show control in menu bar. Everytime you restart the computer you will have to go and uncheck this NAP option. Some other guys have done startup scripts to make it automaticaly, but I prefer to spend a couple of seconds in doing it.

Here is another link to a thread I posted before when freezes started in my new PB, It may help you in findig the way.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2093998#2093998


I still have to understand more about NAP function, learn the risks, pros and cons...so if you have the same problem and decided to try this option, post your results, your PB model and any other suggestion that will help to find out whats causing this.

Any suggestions, comments, knowledge about this will be appreciated.Thanks.


My Powerbook is a HR 15 in PBook at 1.67ghz, 1.5gb Ram
I have 4 days with out a freeze since I turned nap off.




PBG4 1.67 15in. G5PPC DP2.GHZ, G4 400MHZ Mac OS X (10.4.6)

PBG4 1.67 15in. G5PPC DP2.GHZ, G4 400MHZ, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Apr 8, 2006 11:32 AM

Reply
320 replies

Apr 9, 2006 12:33 AM in response to Derivatize

Hi guys, good news...As far as I know, we are 3 persons that have solved this problem by using the Nap Off option

The first one, who actually give me the hint and solved my freeze crisis, is Derivatize, runing the same model as my PB.

The second one...is me.

And the third one, is the user called GREAT, which you may see the post he did at this link
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=434721&tstart=0

The NAP OFF option seems that is working for him as well, altough he described his situation worst than mine.


Please, if you want to try this experiment post your results, and if you know anything about turining Nap Off risks, or info or what ever...share your knowledge with us.

Thanks.

Derivatize, thanks for your help.

Apr 9, 2006 1:23 AM in response to Belarmino Rimada

Here is a link to a description of power saving modes in PowerBooks, I have already seen some posts on this but I just wanted to make sure by reading this from apple.

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/DeveloperNotes/Macintosh_CPUs-G4/PowerBook_G4Apr02/1Introduction/Power_SavingFeatures.html

As far as I understand, NAP on will help you to save energy and to keep the processor cooler.

When the computer is idle for a few seconds, then Processor Nap turns on...perhaps some how our PBooks have some problems by taking a NAP and coming back. Still have to read.

The only thing that will jump here is the tempreature issue.

I have also seen in some posts that NAP OFF increases the PB temperature, so keeping the computer cool should help to prevent overheating, Im planing to start some tests in monitoring the temps and see how much heat generates while Nap is Off.

Any other ideas, info or advice will be welcomed.


PBG4 1.67 15in. G5PPC DP2.GHZ, G4 400MHZ Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Apr 9, 2006 6:07 AM in response to Belarmino Rimada

Hi To everyone... At long last.. after three weeks of freezing and kernel error of my New PB 15" 2G Ram 1.67 Ghz.. bought to apple care stayed there for a week and still freezing...

Glad to this CHUD and the info given to me my PB works fine.. can someone
explain if this FREEZING is a hardware problem .. i think apple should fix this
one..

APPLE people where are you..?

Apr 9, 2006 6:19 AM in response to great

You sent your computer in for service, and yet it still comes back with the problem. Others report having the motherboards replaced multiple times, having their RAM replaced multiple times. The hardware test disc never finds a problem. RAM tests never find a problem.

The only thing that eliminates the crashing is turning off processor nap.

Clearly, Apple repair does not even understand the flaw, so they don't know how to fix it yet.

Apr 9, 2006 2:18 PM in response to great

I have a 15" 1.67 GHZ G4 PB that's almost a year old. I've been experiencing sudden (random) freezing essentially since I bought the machine. When I say the system freezes, I mean everything completely freezes including the mouse and keyboard and I'm unable to force-quit (which means I power down manually). This happens a few times a week and I've never been able to replicate the problem (which is why I never bothered taking it in for a warranty check). Since this problem started, I added RAM (upgraded to 1 GB), upgraded to Tiger from Panther, and reformatted my hard drive. None of these actions have helped or hindered the original sudden freezing issue. I've run the hardware utility from the install CD several times and everything always checks out fine (i.e. no hardware problems reported). I often repair permissions from the install CD, and this doesn't seem to help either.

Many thanks for this thread. I'm going to try this solution you suggested and see if it solves things. I will report back with my results.

Apr 9, 2006 9:45 PM in response to great

Hi Great, as I told you before, Derivatize pass me the hint on using this option.

And, about using the original specs of your PB, I dont know If it may work by using it as it came before any upgrade in ram, search for some freezes topics around the forums and youll see that som other people got freezes with thier PBooks in the original configuration.

Look at the post from JasonVan, in his post , as I understand he got the freezes before he upgraded ram in his PB.(is that right Jason?)

CHUD Tools, are apple developer tools, read more about them in the link I posted before.

And JASON, I hope it will help you too,post your results as soon as you see that you problem has gone.

Thanks.

Apr 10, 2006 1:46 AM in response to great

CHUD tools installs a little utility at /usr/bin/hwprefs, which can be invoked as:

hwprefs cpu_nap=0

to turn off napping. You could add this to the end of your /etc/rc file.

Alternatively, you can make an applescript with the command:

do shell script "hwprefs cpu_nap=0"

and put that into "login items" under "accounts" system preference to run every time you log in.

With regards to what RAM configuration causes this bug to occur, I'm not entirely sure, but it is more common with added RAM. And it doesn't always happen, but suspiciously often enough, even with "Apple Certified" RAM.

At this point, I think the best we can do is attract as many people to this thread as possible, so that we can find many occurrences of this problem so that Apple will move their ***** to figure out the cause and fix it for us.

A way to stop the Freezes in some PowerBooks.

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