dial-up modem freezes mirror door G4

[amaizen_aristotle]

Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is my first posting and I wish it could be on better terms. I am having issues with the modem in my dual 1ghz Mirror Door. When I click the 'phone' icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen to open the modem pull down menu and select 'connect' the computer starts to scroll 'dialing'. The problem is that now, on an increasingly regular basis, before 'dialing' can scroll more than two times the whole computer freezes solid. The only thing I have that I can do to get it running again is to hold the power button until the mac shuts down and then restart. It appears that it happens after a brief pause in the scrolling of 'dialing'. Usually the pause occurs, then the scrolling continues until 'connecting' starts to scroll then I am good to go. I have called Applecare and they had me trash my internet connect preference list. That hasn't helped. Diskwarrior hasn't helped either. Changing the modem from V.90 to V. 92 helped once the connection is made (i.e. the connection is more stable) but hasn't helped with this issue. My mac runs continuously, so the maintenance scripts are getting run and permissions are repaired regualrly via maintenance that I impose. My service provider is a local university, to whom I remotely connect via servers in my town. They suggested that it could be line noise and there may not be much I can do about it. That doesn't help me, and I need this connection as I depend heavily on email and internet research yet cannot afford broadband. I could REALLY use some help here, as I have been using macs for only a year now (yes, yet another 'switcher') and have yet to build a large enough network of friends that can help trouble shoot issues. Does anyone out there have a solution, or potential solution?

[george]

I do not often get the chance to be the first to  give a very warm   to a new member as was extended to me not so long ago,   Bernie.
I have the same set up as you except that I now have a router and  as sure as Him upstairs made little apples you will find an answer to all your Mac problems right here in Techsurvivors , stick around, you will not regret it.
Once again   amaizien_aristotle
George

[amaizen_aristotle]

Thanks a lot George, I appreciate the warm wishes.  Based on what I have seen in other threads in Techsurvivors I do anticipate some good advice in the near future.  Being new to the Mac community and lacking a local network of fellow Mac users I can use all the help that the kind people of this forum can supply.

Thanks again for the kind thoughts.  

Amaizen_Aristotle
 

[jepinto]

Amaizen_Aristotle Howdy!  Glad to have you aboard.

What OS are you running?  (Sounds like a 9 to me, but just to be sure....)

Do you have to connect by clicking the icon in the upper right hand corner?  Or can you set up Remote Access to "connect automatically when starting TCP/IP applications? and just double click your email application and connect?

[amaizen_aristotle]

Sorry for the omission.  The OS is 10.2.6.  I guess I could configure it to connect when an application needs it to, would this help in some way?  Would I run into problems with other apps (besides Mail and Safari, which are the primary apps for which I use the net connection) wanting to connect when I don't really need them to?  I usually connect using the phone icon in the corner of the screen, and occasionally do so using 'internet connect'.  The problem seems to happen most when connecting via the 'drop down' menu from the phone icon.  Is it possible that different means of connecting will circumvent this problem?  Even so, it appears to me that something is either wrong with my OS or something is causing my modem to freak out.  Of course I am still new to the platform, so I am speaking largely from ignorance.  The rest of the OS seems to working well.  Any further thoughts?

Thanks everyone,

Amaizen_Aristotle

[Bill]

I use the menu also.
Although I do have an alias in the dock of the application 'Internet Connect' and use that every so often.
Try using that method for a while.

Btw. Welcome to Techsurvivors.

[krissel]

 to TS!

It may be a modem problem but there are other things to try first. See if the suggestions to go online via a different method help.

You could also try going into Network Settings and reorder the list so the modem is at the top and disable the others so there is no confusion there.
Some people have reported the FaxStf software as causing problems on disconnect and while this is the opposite of your problem you might try that.

You should also have a Hardware CD that came with the machine that I believe can check your modem.
Also see if you can read the crash log to get an idea of what is happening.
(OSX users, please explain where this is, I'm on my OS9 machine and off hand can't remember exactly where to go for this.)

Have you tried using a different phone wire? You could have a defective clip or wire that is getting worse and that could be responsible for the off-on nature of the problem. Try plugging into a different jack if you can, too.

It also may be the ISP's connection. I remember an earlier thread describing ISP's settings that can cause these problems and it is nothing you can control other than by complaining to them.

Try these ideas and let us know if anything helps.

 

[krissel]

Forgot, here's a bunch of Apple knowledge articles to read.
I don't think any apply directly to your problem but may provide some insight into how the whole thing works on Macs.

article 1

article 2

article 3

[kelly]

amaizen_aristotle. Hello. Welcome to the Forum.

I have the same machine.

I've never heard of that problem.

What happens if you Boot into OS 9 and connect to the Internet?

[amaizen_aristotle]

Well, here is a quick update:

-I have checked the crash log, and I don't see anything but the list of 'Word' crashes (totalling 3) and one each for iTunes, iPhoto, Safari and the Finder. Note: This computer has been running almost continuously for a year now, so I don't if this amount of crashes is uncommon.  

-I checked the modem via Techtool and it came out fine.

-The ISP says everything is fine, as far as they can tell...

-I don't know anything about OS 9, so I don't generally go into it unless absolutely necessary.

-I am now using 'internet connect' to connect to the web, via an alias in the Dock and have had no issues thus far.  I will try this method exclusively for a while.  But, as this is an intermittent problem I don't know when/if it will recur so that I can continue to troubleshoot in order to find the real problem.  

-I read somewhere that when a Mac in OS X is restarted the modem is reset also, so I am wondering if the fact that I don't regularly shut down the Mac is part of the issue.

-I am reading all of the info I can find on Mac OS X and Macs in general, in an attempt to gain the precious background knowledge I may need for future troubleshooting and general use.  Speaking of which, does anyone have any experience with the Applecare training that Apple sells  on their site (for $299)?  I was considering doing this, if it was worth the time and money to do so.

So, that is the status of the situation.  I would greatly appreciate further input if someone thinks of something that might help.  I must say that it is comforting to have people responding to my problem and trying to help, the Mac community is every bit as supportive as it is reputed to be.  Hopefully I can return the favor at some point.

Thanks,

Amaizen_Aristotle

[kelly]

A_A. I think you should re-start your machine more often.

While OS X is incredibly stable. Not every application plays well with it.

A restart will cure a lot of minor ills.

Maybe once every couple weeks anyway.

[krissel]

As to the number of crashes in the log, no that's not a bad number for a year's worth of uptime.

The Apple training is more for someone who is going to go into repair or consulting work or for the real addict who wants to know everything about Macs.

 

Unless you are one of those or have the money just lying around you can get all the basic info you need from a few books and reading online. Of course specific software like PhotoShop is another story.

 

[amaizen_aristotle]

OK friends, here is another update.  This problem came up again today -- as I tried to get online earlier the "dialing" message on the menu bar froze and so did the computer.  After a few choice words I started to play with it for a while.  I noticed that the processors were still working, according to CPU monitor, so I checked some things.  It turns out that I can regain the use of the mouse if I unplug it from the USB hub and plug it back into the keyboard.  I then tried to force quit internet connect, but that didn't help.  At this point I could do anything on the computer that did not involve internet connect or anything in the upper right hand corner of the screen (on the menu bar).  The clock, phone icon, volume... all frozen solid.   It seems that re-starting more often and using a different method for connection doesn't help much, if at all.

I logged off and then back on to see if that would help, only to discover that now there was nothing on the menu bar in the upper right portion of the screen!     The volume, clock, phone icon for modem status and ichat icon were all gone.  I tried to connect to the internet and internet connect locked, needing to be forced to quit.  Oddly enough, when I hit apple-option-escape no force-quit menu would come up -- I had to do it via the dock icon.  

Feeling more than a little upset I called applecare.  They did a check on the disk and the repaired the permissions, all things that I knew how to do and do so regularly (at least the permissions part).  After all of this, they had me set up a new location to see if that would help.  I haven't experienced any problems yet, but it's only been a couple of hours.  They said that I would probably have to do an 'Archive Install'(?).  That sounds a little spooky, reminds me of my Windows days when I had to format and reinstall every six months to keep things running right.  

What does everyone think now?  It sounds to me like there is more than a modem issue at hand.  What about this archive install they want me to do?  What precautions should I take?  Will I lose things on the drive?  This sounds pretty drastic, but is it?  Would it be better to just wait for Panther?  I would really appreciate peoples thoughts and advice on this one, as things seem to be escalating a bit.  I love my mac to death and would never go back to a PC, but this worries me a little since I depend on the net so much for email and research...

 

Amaizen_Aristotle

[krissel]

The Archive and Install feature is basically putting a clean new system in place while preserving all your files, programs, etc.  It does not require a reformat.

It will take the old system folder and put it in an inactive folder so you can retrieve anything you might need from added third party programs. Keep in mind that something in that old folder may be the cause of your trouble so after doing the "clean install" try to run with the new system long enough to see if that cures your problem. If sufficient time passes then you can start adding back some of the old info a bit at a time.

Read about it:
Archive and Install