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OSXFAQ Mac OS X Tip-of-the-Day 
Trouble-Shooting III (Hardware) - Hardware Problems
By Adrian Mayo - Editor - OSXFAQ
Startup and general system problems can be caused by faulty hardware
(other than disc drives) such as:
faulty RAM
faulty peripherals and device drivers
the PMU (Power Management Unit) in laptops
If your Mac starts up to the sound of breaking glass, or beeps, instead
of the usual chime, then you may have faulty hardware.
The first step is to unplug all non-essential peripherals. Restart and
listen...
Breaking glass usually signifies faulty RAM. Remove all third party
RAM (memory cards or sticks) and try again. Try swapping around
factory fitted RAM if that is all you have. Otherwise, it might be
time to buy some more - more RAM is always good :-)
Eight beeps signifies RAM or some other hardware problem. Try the
breaking glass RAM dance as above, and also try booting from the Apple
Hardware Diagnostic CD.
Four beeps signifies peripheral or driver-related problems. Start in
'safe' mode by holding down the Shift key to eliminate all non-Apple
device drivers. If safe mode works, suspect drivers for peripherals
you have installed recently: they can be found in
System:Library:Extensions. An administrator can remove suspect files,
but be careful not to remove anything essential. Restart normally and
see if the problem has been eliminated.
Here is a useful Apple document giving steps to follow when your Mac
does not boot:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106464
For laptops that have problems relating to switching on, waking from
sleep, and not charging, reset the Power Management Unit (PMU). The
PMU controls waking and sleeping, hard disc spin, backlighting,
charging, and such like. It is an integrated circuit that runs a
control program (micro-code) that can crash. It sometimes needs to be
rebooted itself.
Look here for Apple's documentation on resetting the PMU:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449
Some Handy Links
OSXFAQ - search for solutions or post questions:
http://forums.osxfaq.com/
Apple Support:
http://www.apple.com/support/
Most Recent Tech Notes:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75185
Isolating Issues in OS X:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25392
Enjoy !! :-)
Panther 10.3.8
To discuss this tip in the OSXFAQ Mac OS X Tip-of-the-Day Forum, click here:
http://forums.osxfaq.com/viewforum.php?f=100
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