Having a few glitches/bugs

[[email protected]]

My system:

Emac 1.25 Ghz PowerPC G4
768MB DDR SDRAM
Mac OS X 10.3.9
180GB HD I believe maybe 160GB but I have more than half of free space

I just had my computer freeze while typing this so I'm pretty agitated, so I won't be as detailed as I was in my previous post because I'm afraid it will lock up again.

I've had my mac for almost two years, and I completely love it, I love how user friendly macs are. When I was a PC user I worked on them a lot and knew how to fix technical problems be it software or hardware, the whole reason I got a mac was so I would not have to deal with much of that anymore. I'm not too well versed in repairing problems with macs hence my post here. I would try to look through all the forums for a similar post but I'm afraid it will freeze in the process.

Lately my computer has been freezing/locking up several times a day, probably over 5 times a day. This usually happens when I'm trying to either open up an application/finder or close something out. It is very annoying. I am also experiencing a glitch where my display screen whether it be a website or my desktop looks like the text/graphic is being cut in half by an invisible line. Also when i scroll down or up on safari it makes a flickering type of effect and the splicing of the text is still present. I have a lot of files on my computer I do not want to lose so reformatting is a last option because I don't have an external HD to backup files. I have already gotten rid of a lot of excess files I didn't need.

I tried one of the cleanup/repair utilities built in with OS X and didn't notice any change.

Keep in mind I'm fairly new to working on Macs so this could be a very simple problem, do you guys need anymore information?

Is there anything simple I can try, or an application I can download to cleanup or possibly look for viruses/trojans(though I was under the impression that it was highly unlikely for Macs to get either)

All advice/comments are very appreciated, thank you in advance.

 

[Kyomii]

The screen issue and the freezing definately sound like a memory problem to me - however - whether it is VRAM or system memory I am unsure. Have you installed any memory?

Can you think back to what was changed (if anything) on the system, such as an installation, new hardware etc when the problem first started? Have you run the hardware diagnostics CD?

 

[[email protected]]

I have not installed any memory in well over a year, probably more like a year and a half. As far as any new software/hardware, the only things I've downloaded have been music and movies, not applications or anything. I am unaware of what the hardware diagnostics CD is, did it come with my mac?

 

[Kyomii]

Yes, it will have come with your Mac. It may be a seperate CD (given the age of your Mac, it probably is) or it may be on the actual OSX restore CD/DVD that you got with your computer.

More information about the Apple hardware test and how to run it is HERE and full support articles for your emac are HERE.