I put a 1 gig chip in it (a 200 pin kingsmax chip i found on new egg for $130). the system seems to freeze every once and a while (more often than before when i had 768). I at first had the 1 gig chip in the back and the 512 in the front slot, but it kept freezing so then i switched the ram from the big chip being in the back to the front, and the 512 moved to the back. it seems to freeze less but it on occation does freeze. any ideas?
and yes the ram brands are two differnt brands, but before that didn't seem to matter (the 256 chip was from apple and the 512 was from OWC)
thanks for taking the time to answear my question.
here's the link to the ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820155111
Is this on an aluminum PowerBook, and if so, which processor speed? I know that the aluminums can be finnicky about ram, however I have seen PowerBooks that needed logic board replacement to remedy a similar issue to what you are experiencing.
- iantm
I am using an aluminum powerbook g4 with a 1ghz processor. Funny enough i did recently get the logic board replace and along with the two parts that held the logic board in it's place (good 'ol applecare). logic board was replaced about 2 months ago.
what i think is weird is that the ram in it before (a 256 from apple and 512 from OWC) were from differnt companies but seemed to work fine.
I have also ran the applecare CD that does the ram test. it passed both times I have ran it.
Do you have access to someone else with an aluminum PowerBook G4? Or possibly another 1gb stick of ram? If so, I'd recommend seeing if the symptoms persist with the other two to help track it down. Personally, I'd think it to be possibly bad ram and that it may not be a bad idea to make use of the warranty. Since the logic board was replaced, I'd make use of the ram warranty.
- iantm
We had *terrible* luck at work with the first generation Aluminum Powerbooks. (A 60% DOA rate for the first shipment was just a start.) Anyway... if my experience is any indication it's very possible for one of those machines to pass the diagnostics RAM test and still screw up doing real work.
There really isn't much you can do other then return the RAM and try another brand. Since the machine *was* working with two DIMMs in it before it probably isn't "broken", just picky. (The most common failure we had with the early Als was a bad memory socket, where a chip in the second slot just wouldn't be recognized at all, regardless of brand, including stock RAM ripped from another new Al.) Our particular Als hated what Kingston was selling at the time but worked OK with Crucial... or maybe it was the other way around.
Good luck.
--Peace
yeah that's not good to hear. I've had some trouble with this powerbook, mosty because of the logicboard (which was fixed) but now it's irritating to find out the ram i got for my b-day might not work for my system. I don't think it's a bad memory socket, but just maybe a picky powerbook. Are there any ram tests available that i can put my powerbook through.
And i will test my ram on a friend's system. He has a G4 titanium. I have crucial ram on my PC and i love it, will crucial work for the powerbook? The only reason why i got the kingmax is because it had so many positive reviews about other powerbooks. can anyone name any good 1 gig chips that are $150 or lower? i'd perfer to do a ram test before i have to do a rma with newegg.
better yet, anyone want a ram chip?
edit:
i ran memtest 4.05 and it claims that it passed all tests... but it's been acting weird all week, i guess i'll have to test it in another friend's computer. but any reason why it'd pass the ram test but freeze while on the internet or the apple freeze pops up (you need to turn off your computer, ect. the screen dims and a grey card pops up with the power button)