RAM upgrades

I recently bought an 12" iBook from ebay. We have an iMac desktop but I wanted a notebook for mostly using Office and Internet. I love this iBook, but it came with only 256 MB RAM, so I ordered another 512 MB RAM from 1-800-4-memory, following their website RAM selector utility.

I installed the 512 MB RAM myself, as there was a lot of documentation (and videos) on the web. Pretty simple process...

Unfortunately, the RAM did not work for me. The iBook booted okay and recognized the extra RAM in "About this Mac" but every application crashed soon after running. I even did some RAM testing with a program called REMBER and according to those results, the RAM was okay; it just wouldn't work on my machine. I removed the RAM card and re-installed the original 128 MB and at least now my apps don't crash.

I am returning the 512 MB RAM to 1-800-4-MEMORY, though not sure if I won't experience the same problem with a replacement RAM. The original 128 RAM was manufactured by Samsung; the 512 MB RAM was not.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Should I specifically try to get a Samsung brand of RAM? I recall having a similar problem with a PC about 15 years ago, in which ram cards from 2 different vendors would not work together for some reason.

tshep2242

First off, Welcome to the mac forums, glad to hear your enjoying your iBook.

Sense you said it yourself bout having two RAM cards coming from different vendors then i would consider of purchasing a Samsung RAM card, Good Luck.

Cheers.

You may have just gotten a bad module. I would imagine that if the new module were identical to the old one in all respects (voltage, timings, speed, rank setup, etc...) except for manufacturer, it should work fine. However, if you got one with a different design than the original one (I.E. different layout), it may not work.

6GB in 2008 iMac?

I have a 2008 2.66GHz iMac currently with 4 GB of RAM. I am using OSX 10.6.8. I read that Apple lists this system as capable of 4 GB maximum RAM but then on Mac Specs, Prices, Answers, & Comparison @ EveryMac.com - Est. 1996 I read that with a 4GB module paired with a 2 GB module that 6 GB will work.

My question is, does it matter which slot has which module? Has anyone tried this and have it work?

Thanks in advance for any help.