Memory

[melstanley]

Can someone please help me. I have an ibook G4 and I am having a great deal of difficulty with the memory. At the present moment, I cannot find my disks, so I cannot reinstall the software. I have assignments due tomorrow and it is beginning to look as though it is going to be a difficult task of completing them. So what I am wondering is if anyone can tell me how to increase the memory performance.

Currently (with only safari open) I am using 451MB of Ram out of 512MB. I have about 18GB of Hard Drive. It has been progressively slow over the past couple of months but today it is very slow and shut down on me once when I was working in photoshop.

Any little bit of information can help, Thanks.

 

[MacHeadCase]

Welcome to Mac-Forums, melstanley.

Mac OS X isn't like OS 9 and earlier where you could allocate the RAM on a per application basis. Mac OS X takes care of RAM allocation and as far as I know there isn't a way for you to tell where RAM should be used in priority.

If I were you, I would create a new user account that is stripped down (non-Admin type), in which you will close off email, shut down the modem (not go on Internet) just so you can keep all the RAM for the essentials: the apps you need for your assignments.

BTW, as soon as you can, get some more RAM, it will greatly help you in the stability of your PowerBook.

When you are done with your assignments, then you can come back here and take a look at what you could try to get your PB more responsive and more stable. I wouldn't want to tell you about this procedure or that one in case anything worse might happen.

Things that might slow down your PB is lack of free disk space, clogged up caches, the system needing a good cleaning, etc. and like I said before, your RAM amount is certainly not extravagant by any means.

 

[GulfVetSAF]

Stanley,

NewEgg.com has some incredible and reliable deals on ram. I just upgraded to 2GB on my macbook (at a cost of $109 and that was 2 1GB sticks) compared to what Apple wanted $350. It's a very easy thing to do and as MHC said it really will make your life easier... Let me know