05-11-2009, 11:43 PM

Ok, got a relic on my hands here but this one is worth holding onto...

I inherited this G4 from my dad who bought it maybe six years ago and used it no more than three times - Once to upload pictures from a whirlwind trip to Paris, the other two times to install Microsoft Office and Virtual PC....

My dad is a limbaugh republican who lives in hyperparanoia of north korea, bill clinton, taxation and the common cold. He bought this G4 Tower at full retail and undoubtedly got upsold 9 times over prior to checking out. I remember when he finally agreed to part with it, he included a brown accordion folder that contained not only every instruction manual included in the original packaging, but also two pieces of RAM hardware that I later found out were fully incompatible with the computer.

Anyways, this is what I'm working with:

Processor: Dual 1.25 GHZ PowerPC G4 (OS X 10.5.4)
2MB L cache per processor

Memory: 2 GB DDR SDRAM

Note: I recently installed my own RAM which accounts for the 2 GB. I now have two dual drives of RAM which I suspect may be causing my current lag in processing...

Example: When typing, in any program, every fifth or sixth keystroke fails to register. The computer pauses, like a fat man abruptly catching himself edging off a sidewalk in front of an oncoming bus, and just freezes, for about a half second. Then it kicks back in, and I have to catch up on typing the word to replace the omitted letters it failed to process. The system lagged, paused, and kicked back in roughly 30 times as I typed this paragraph. Also, the mouse is victim to the same lag and pause issue. This is especially frustrating when attempting to copy and paste text (it ends the selection tool randomly prior to releasing the left click) and don't even get me started in trying to use photoshop (fail).

Items to note: I recently installed Leopard (no current software could be supported on an OS that is 6 years old) AND I also treated myself to a new Mac Keyboard (slim titanium) and a mighty mouse. Not sure if any of this is related....

Any and all help is greatly appreciated! I have gotten to the point where I want to toss this thing off my 3rd floor balcony, but I have a bum back and Id probably have to clean it up anyways and I don't even own a broom. Thx again for all your help.

05-11-2009, 11:56 PM

G'day Marvin and welcome to the forums.

G4's are extremely touchy about the memory installed. Make sure the memory you used is low density, not high density PC memory, and matches the specs of this:-

512MB PC2700 DDR 333MHz CL2.5 184 Pin Mo... (OWC2700DDR512) at OWC

05-12-2009, 12:03 AM

Howdy Harry and thanks for the quick reply. This is the RAM I installed:

Newegg.com - pqi POWER Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 333 (PC 2700) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Do you think this type of RAM may be the problem?

05-12-2009, 12:17 AM

Not up to speed with Intel machines but they do use dual channel memory modules and ours 1.25DP's are not Intel but PowerPC (PPC).

Here are the specs. Note is lists memory as 4x512MB:-

Apple Power Macintosh G4 1.25 DP (MDD) Specs (Mirrored Drive Doors - M8573LL/A) @ EveryMac.com

My FW800 model has four of the matched OWC modules and they are single sided sticks so looks like that is your problem.

05-12-2009, 11:05 AM

Hey Harry. Can you clarify that last response? It sounds like you may have identified the issue but I can't interpret your exact diagnosis...

Are you saying that the RAM I bought doesn't work? Does that mean no DDR memory?