Bad 15" Powerbook RAM

corkurkcorkurk
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Hey guys. I just bought some RAM from Newegg.com for my 1.25ghz 15" Aluminum Powerbook and now I'm having all kinds of problems. I had 2 256 chips stock from Apple. I removed one of the chips and replaced it with a 1 gig chip from Crucial. Everything seemed fine at first; the System Profiler and Activity Monitor recognized the 1.25 gigs of total RAM and everything seemed much speedier. However, over the past week, I've had about 5 kernal panics and general erratic behavior. This morning I spent trying various configurations of the 2 chips (swapping between the lower and upper slots, using only the 1 gig or only the 256 chip, ect. ect.).



Long story short is that anything involving the new RAM seems to cause problems. Right now I'm only running 1 256 chip (already sold the other one) and it's crawling. Has anyone else had any experience with bad RAM from Newegg.com? How is their return policy? I also read online that the chips need to be the exact same size in order to have them work properly. So does that mean that a 256 and 1 gig will not work? Do I need 2 512s or 2 1 gigs instead?



Any help anyone has will be great.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Corkurk

    Long story short is that anything involving the new RAM seems to cause problems. Right now I'm only running 1 256 chip (already sold the other one) and it's crawling. Has anyone else had any experience with bad RAM from Newegg.com? How is their return policy? I also read online that the chips need to be the exact same size in order to have them work properly. So does that mean that a 256 and 1 gig will not work? Do I need 2 512s or 2 1 gigs instead?



    Any help anyone has will be great.



    I see no reason that both DIMMs need to be the same. And MacTracker's notes on the PowerBook5,2 (look under "Hardware Overview" in System Profiler to confirm) do not mention any need for interlaced memory.



    So it appears that your DIMM from NewEgg is bad. Check their website for instructions on returning it.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    corkurkcorkurk Posts: 90member
    Thanks for the reply. I got a 1 gig stick of PC2700 DDR at 333mhz. From what I can tell that should be what I need. Should I just try my luck with a new chip from Crucial, or would a different brand be a better option?



    Anyone have any experience with Crucial memory in their 15" Alu Powerbook? From looking at the comments on the Newegg site, it looks like there are some people that have had problems with this configuration, and others that have been fine. What would be the difference? What RAM have you all had the best luck with in your PBooks?
  • Reply 3 of 5
    corkurkcorkurk Posts: 90member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Corkurk

    Thanks for the reply. I got a 1 gig stick of PC2700 DDR at 333mhz. From what I can tell that should be what I need. Should I just try my luck with a new chip from Crucial, or would a different brand be a better option?



    Anyone have any experience with Crucial memory in their 15" Alu Powerbook? From looking at the comments on the Newegg site, it looks like there are some people that have had problems with this configuration, and others that have been fine. What would be the difference? What RAM have you all had the best luck with in your PBooks?



    Just to add one more thing. I came across this link a few minutes ago. Anyone know anything about the Bus Slewing that they keep mentioning?



    http://forums.applenova.com/printthread.php?t=11036
  • Reply 4 of 5
    cj171cj171 Posts: 144member
    the 1st rev AlBooks are known for RAM imcompatibility issues. I have a 1Ghz 15" and I tried 3 different manufacturers before I got a stick to work, I ended up with Lifetime Memory. First thing to be sure of is that the stick is PC2700.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    charlesp2009charlesp2009 Posts: 50member
    I know this is an ancient topic but I stumbled across it doing a Google search for something else.



    Anyway, I'll say that many of the G4 PowerBooks and iMac's I've worked on have been very picky about RAM. You can only use certain modules from certain manufacturers or else you will get kernal panics. Some Kingston modules work great for me, others cause panics. I imagine it might have something to do with RAM density also.



    Kingston has a line of modules made for specifically for Macs and those always work well for me; and Crucial's modules also seem to work out as well.
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