Memory Install causes System Failure

Hey guys-

I bought 512 MB of PC2700 DDR3 SODIMM Kensington Technology RAM to make my slow Powerbook pick up the pace a bit. (15" Aluminum 1 GHZ 256 MB ram factory installed, running 10.3.x. I followed the install directions from apple, making sure to discharge the static and everything. I powered the computer back up and it sat on a blue screen for 5 minutes, with a frozen mouse. I powered it off by holding the power button down. Started it up again and got as far as "checking disks" and then the attached crash dialogue came up. (If you can't see it it's also at http://www.meganbigelow.com/crash.jpg ). I unistalled the ram and everything is fine now.

Does it make a difference that the factory installed 256 chip was on the bottom and the new 512 on the top? Can my computer not handle 768 MB of ram? This does seem like an odd number.

Anyone know what I did wrong? I'm wary of attemptng a reinstall because it was terrifying when I saw the crash screen and I cannot buy a new computer if I blow this one up.

Thanks,

Megan

The memory was almost certainly defective. Return the stick and have them send you a new one.

DDR3? The Powerbook uses PC2700 DDR not DDR3. DDR3 is a new technology being developed for brand new computers (and I'm not really even sure you can buy them yet). The brand new iMacs and Macbook Pros still use DDR2. If you got DDR3 then you should return it for DDR.

der. it's ddr. not sure why i added the 3 on there. it's definitely ddr, i'm looking at the package now.

Well more than likely it's a bad stick, just send it back and get a new one. It's happened to me once too, quite aggrivating.

Always worth a shot to try and reseat it first, but like everybody else said, it's probably a bad stick.

take it out and restart...everything should be fine...reseat your ram and the restart and if evertyhing is not fine you definately have a bad stick of ram.

kensington has lifetime warranties on their ram so it should be no issue
-chris

wow, is that really possible? is bad ram right out of the package a common problem?

It happens with all mass produced products and the manufacturers just replace these Dead On Arrival units.

cereus said:

wow, is that really possible? is bad ram right out of the package a common problem?

Click to expand...

Yes, it can be with Macs (PowerBooks especially). Apple computers can tend to be very picky with the RAM that they use.

D3v1L80Y said:

Yes, it can be with Macs (PowerBooks especially). Apple computers can tend to be very picky with the RAM that they use.

Click to expand...

I can second that. I bought a 512 MB stick of PC2700 for my iBook G4 a few months ago, and it freaked the machine out. It would work occasionally, but then lock up a lot, and sometimes not even boot or attempt to boot. But when I took it out the machine would work fine with the original 128 MB stick I had. However, I stuck the same stick in my e-Machines notebook (same pc2700 specs required for ram) running Windows XP and it worked flawlessly. Interestingly enough, I put the original stick that I had removed from the e-machines notebook to make room for the 512 stick in the iBook, and it works fine. So both are working fine just by trading their sticks. I guess the emachines laptop doesn't mind either kind but the iBook would only take the kind that the emachine had. Go figure.

bloody ****. i got a new one from best buy today and it's STILL doing it! the guy at best buy said that macs can be picky with ram--i guess so!

anyone recommend some ram that my little crapple, heh, might prefer over kingston? i might call up small dog and hassle them for some ram.

m

I have never had any problems with Mushkin brand RAM.
I used that in the iBooks I've had, and I have 2 GB of Mushkin running smoothly in my current PowerBook.