Partial RAM mounting on iBook

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I added 512Mb of RAM to my iBook G4 last year, which worked fine ... until now.

Now, when I view info, I see that only 384Mb of RAM is available. When I remove the additional RAM, the native 128Mb RAM is available. Replacing the additional 512Mb again only results in 384Mb.

This is a new one to me - why would only a small portion of the 512Mb be registering? I'd expect it to be all or nothing (if the RAM went bad for some reason).

Anybody see this issue before or have any advice?

Aside from the expected slowness in performance, the iBook is unreliable when booting up.

Thanks in advance!
 
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The graphics card takes up RAM.

As for slow boot up, your hard drive is probably either:

A) Full.
B) Needs replacement.
 

pigoo3

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Chris - the HD isn't even close to full (11Gb available).

When I wrote unreliable boot up, I meant that sometimes when I power it up, it just never boots... just hangs. The performance issue is just during normal usage - it crawls.

Another piece of info: I ran the Apple HW Test and it showed an "error at startup". The error code was post/0/2048 DIMM1/531.

I interpret this to mean "something's wrong with your RAM".

Nick - It's a 933 MHz PowerPC G4 (running 10.5.8)

Thank you both for the replies.
 
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Chris - the HD isn't even close to full (11Gb available).

When I wrote unreliable boot up, I meant that sometimes when I power it up, it just never boots... just hangs. The performance issue is just during normal usage - it crawls.

Another piece of info: I ran the Apple HW Test and it showed an "error at startup". The error code was post/0/2048 DIMM1/531.

I interpret this to mean "something's wrong with your RAM".

Nick - It's a 933 MHz PowerPC G4 (running 10.5.8)

Thank you both for the replies.


11 GB out of?

It could also be your harddrive failing as well.

And if something is wrong with your RAM, it's either the stick or the slot that it's in.
 

pigoo3

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Nick - It's a 933 MHz PowerPC G4 (running 10.5.8)

Thanks for that detail. It's a very odd situation you have with this 512 ram stick you have. I'm going to suggest a few things:

1. 128meg of motherboard ram + 256 meg = 384meg. Are you 100% sure that this stick of ram you have isn't a 256 meg stick of ram rather than 512meg?

2. If you truly do have a 512meg stick of ram...maybe it is defective in some way...and only half of the ram on it is registering. Again 128meg logic board ram + 256 = 384meg.

3. Where did this 512meg stick of ram come from? Is it definitely ram compatible with Macintosh computers? If not...this could be the trouble as well.

FYI (in case you didn't know), you could (if you wanted to)...upgrade this computer to 1152 megabyte (128 motherboard ram + 1 gig stick of ram).

HTH,

- Nick
 
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Thanks Nick.

I bought the RAM from MacSales.com. According to the site and my order receipt, it's a 512Mb stick (OWC2100DDRSO512). I'm pretty sure it's compatible - I don't remember doing the exact research but I know I would have.

After I installed it, the machine ran really well and showed 640Mb as available RAM. (I'm 95% sure of this - it was a year ago)

I am 100% sure that the machine ran noticeably better after I installed it - you can imagine a jump from 128 to 640 on this old iBook.
 

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I bought the RAM from MacSales.com. According to the site and my order receipt, it's a 512Mb stick (OWC2100DDRSO512). I'm pretty sure it's compatible - I don't remember doing the exact research but I know I would have.

After I installed it, the machine ran really well and showed 640Mb as available RAM. (I'm 95% sure of this - it was a year ago)

The only reason I question if the 512meg stick of ram is really 512...is because it's very coincidental that 128meg of motherboard ram + a 256 meg stick of ram would add up to 384meg.

Are there any labels/stickers on the ram that would help to identify it? If there is a label/sticker on the ram...but the numbers don't mean anything...you could call OWC and see if they can decipher it for you.

I know that you mentioned that your iBook did show 640meg of ram at one time...any chance this ram was removed in the last 12 months...and replaced with a 256meg stick of ram?

- Nick
 
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Thanks for the reply - we upgraded to a MacBook Pro as an easy fix but I will also get a new RAM stick for this iBook in the hopes that it can be salvaged.

Thanks again for all replies!
 

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