We have an iMac G4 that we got in 11/02. Since getting it, we have had
several bouts of crashing and freezing. One of those is taking place
right now. The two symptoms are: graphics will come up with lowered
resolution, with part or all of the graphic replaced with blue dots.
Sometimes, usually when I open a new program (most frequently Eudora)
nonsense graphics will appear, and these may or may not go away as I
use the mouse. The other, more frequent problem, is that the computer
will tell us it needs to be rebooted. This happens most often after
the computer comes out of sleep mode, and I open a new program. It's
happening about 50% of the time now. I took out the extra RAM chip,
and it still happened.

I've noticed that crash frequency increases and decreases immediately
after an Apple update to Panther is installed. But, this problem has
been recurrent on the computer throughout our ownership, through hard
drive reinstallations, etc. I suspect a hardware issue, but don't know
what.

We have Applecare through November 2005. Does Apple need to pick up
this thing and work on it?

Any advice/ideas would be appreciated,
Steven

In article <1109780976.785562.91850@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups. com>,
"Steve" <secretariat73******.com> wrote:

> We have an iMac G4 that we got in 11/02. Since getting it, we have had
> several bouts of crashing and freezing. One of those is taking place
> right now. The two symptoms are: graphics will come up with lowered
> resolution, with part or all of the graphic replaced with blue dots.
> Sometimes, usually when I open a new program (most frequently Eudora)
> nonsense graphics will appear, and these may or may not go away as I
> use the mouse. The other, more frequent problem, is that the computer
> will tell us it needs to be rebooted. This happens most often after
> the computer comes out of sleep mode, and I open a new program. It's
> happening about 50% of the time now. I took out the extra RAM chip,
> and it still happened.
>
> I've noticed that crash frequency increases and decreases immediately
> after an Apple update to Panther is installed. But, this problem has
> been recurrent on the computer throughout our ownership, through hard
> drive reinstallations, etc. I suspect a hardware issue, but don't know
> what.
>
> We have Applecare through November 2005. Does Apple need to pick up
> this thing and work on it?
>
> Any advice/ideas would be appreciated,
> Steven

Do you have 3rd party memory installed?

Do you have any non-Apple USB devices attached to your iMac?

System crashes are often associated with memory. Panther stressed
memory even harder than previous versions of Mac OS X and caused an
increase in system crashes when marginal or failing memory was present
in the system. If you have extra memory installed, try removing it and
see if the changes things. You can also use Google to search the Mac
related news groups for references to "memtest".

There have been situations where some USB devices have caused abnormal
behavior with Macs. If you have anything except a keyboard and mouse
attached, try removing them and see if this changes the behavior.

Bob Harris