I would lay fairly long odds that what you have is an overheating processor.
I've been there, brother. Up all night with a 7100, which had tested out okay, sold to a coworker and flaked out on his wife. Reinstall the OS--> problems. Finally get the OS installed. Run some tests. More problems after a couple of hours. Finally I saw some screen artifacts which reminded me of the same artifacts I had on a Power120. I cleaned the CPU and heat sink, replaced the heat sink grease and all the problems vanished.
Sooooo, if you have not yet burned that poor, maligned 7200, pull the heat sink (or if it's a 7200/120, heat sink/peltier combo) clean the white powdering residue off with some unadulterate rubbing alcohol (just alcohol and water, no scents, oils, colors, etc.) and then replace the grease with a dab and replace the heat sink. The grease is available from Radio Shack for about $3 in a blue and white tube on a card which can hang on a peg board. At least, that's how they used to package it. I think they call it "Heat Sink Compound".
You can use the expensive Arctic Silver stuff for $15+ instead, but my experience is that the Radio Shack stuff works about as well in most uses.
Only put a dab on. It's just filling the tiny imperfections between the flat heat sink and flat CPU die (the square in the middle). Plus if the stuff runs off onto the pins of the CPU it can short them out. I killed a board that way, many years ago when they were still worth hundreds of dollars.
PPC601s run hot. The grease Apple used on them turns to useless powder after a while. At which point the CPU becomes unreliable and the errors wander all over the machine, becaues the CPU is randomly belching.
Anyone with a 7100 definitely needs to replace the heat sink grease. The 7200 is probably about due for it too.
BTW, if you do have a 7200/120 and don't have the Peltier/heat sink combo, then you need one. That's the heat sink with the unit under it which plugs into the 12V connector on the MB next to the CPU. The PPC601 will not operate at 120 reliably without active cooling. It's only rated to 100 with passive cooling.
I've been there, brother. Up all night with a 7100, which had tested out okay, sold to a coworker and flaked out on his wife. Reinstall the OS--> problems. Finally get the OS installed. Run some tests. More problems after a couple of hours. Finally I saw some screen artifacts which reminded me of the same artifacts I had on a Power120. I cleaned the CPU and heat sink, replaced the heat sink grease and all the problems vanished.
Sooooo, if you have not yet burned that poor, maligned 7200, pull the heat sink (or if it's a 7200/120, heat sink/peltier combo) clean the white powdering residue off with some unadulterate rubbing alcohol (just alcohol and water, no scents, oils, colors, etc.) and then replace the grease with a dab and replace the heat sink. The grease is available from Radio Shack for about $3 in a blue and white tube on a card which can hang on a peg board. At least, that's how they used to package it. I think they call it "Heat Sink Compound".
You can use the expensive Arctic Silver stuff for $15+ instead, but my experience is that the Radio Shack stuff works about as well in most uses.
Only put a dab on. It's just filling the tiny imperfections between the flat heat sink and flat CPU die (the square in the middle). Plus if the stuff runs off onto the pins of the CPU it can short them out. I killed a board that way, many years ago when they were still worth hundreds of dollars.
PPC601s run hot. The grease Apple used on them turns to useless powder after a while. At which point the CPU becomes unreliable and the errors wander all over the machine, becaues the CPU is randomly belching.
Anyone with a 7100 definitely needs to replace the heat sink grease. The 7200 is probably about due for it too.
BTW, if you do have a 7200/120 and don't have the Peltier/heat sink combo, then you need one. That's the heat sink with the unit under it which plugs into the 12V connector on the MB next to the CPU. The PPC601 will not operate at 120 reliably without active cooling. It's only rated to 100 with passive cooling.
