Well, the shop's repair didn't work, but I think I know now what the

[Lydia Leftcoast]

problem is.

The shop told me that I had some buggy software, so they reinstalled my OS and updated it back to where it was. All looked well when I first brought the machine home and turned it on, but within about two hours, it started stalling again and wouldn't respond to Restarts, Safe Mode Restarts, PRAM zapping, or even startups with the CD. When I tried the hardware test disk, I got a message saying that the disk was not for this machine, even though it came with it and plainly said iBook G4 on the label.

As I think about the matter, I've come to the conclusion that the machine is overheating somehow, because 1) the problems arise only after I've been working for a while, and 2) the gradual slowing and freezing are what used to happen when I used my old Macs (two generations ago) in an un air-conditioned apartment on a hot day.

What think you, o Mac geeks?

[realisticphish]

1. sometimes

our little friend "RAM" is the culprit. Both times my computer has had serious problems, one of the ram chips was corrupted

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Well, I spoke too soon

It was a dying hard drive after all.

I now have a new hard drive and had to spend the afternoon restoring all my files and settings from the backup disks.

But at least I had backup disks! :-)