97 Cavalier Alternator problem?

I was driving down the street minding my own business and the ABS light comes on, then the Alternator light, then the air bag light, then the brake light, now the lights are dimming and everything starts flashing on and off then no lights then the car dies. Won't crank at all and appears as if the battery is dead. 20 minutes later I start it back up and it's OK for about 30 seconds and starts up all over. I get home and measure the voltage across the battery and it's about 9 volts. I'm surprised the car was even running. Anyway I'm wondering if this could be anything but the alternator? Is a bad ground a possibility? If it was the alternator I would think that if the car is running off of the battery till it dies that would be it. That is until charging the battery back up. I'm going to charge the battery, clean up all the connections and try again. I figure if I don't have around 14 volts on the battery then it must be the alternator. What do ya think?

I just replaced the alternator and the alternator light is still on and the battery voltage isn't changing. Anybody got any ideas? Voltage regulator maybe?

Is your serpentine belt in good shape?

check to see if all of your pulleys are turning freely like your water pump and a/c compresor and the tensioner too.

I had the same trouble when i installed my amplifier in my cavalier 98. All light was flashing and system goes wrong. I found that the Ground terminal near the battery was the problem. The ground wire start from battery to go just near it (To body) then to engine. I just removed the wire and buy two wire gauge 4. One Battery to frame , Frame to engine.