[X Newbies] X on early G3 iMac

[Michael Winter]

On Tuesday, June 17, 2003, at 08:12  PM, Jon Warms wrote:

> Sorry, but I don't think this is the way to go. You have no control 
> over what memory [chip] is used. In any case, isn't memory tested when 
> you startup?

There are two sets of problems here. One is that some people had 
marginal memory. In the vast majority of cases, however, the memory was 
just fine. What people were doing is removing all upgrades (including 
hard drive and CPU upgrades) and re-installing the original hardware. 
Then they'd install OS X, followed by re-installing the same memory and 
other hardware they had before. No problems after that.

> Furthermore, doing a non-standard installation isn't (by definition) 
> recommended. Certainly you're increasing the possibility of 
> operator-error.

IMO there's nothing non-standard about it. You do a minimal system 
install, followed by a full system install, all using the standard 
installation mechanism. Then you install the apps you need, using their 
installers. Yes, its a few more steps, but its not like you can install 
anything in the wrong place or do anything wrong, because you're using 
the same installers. I'd even say its much, safer, simpler and faster 
for most users than going in to do hardware modifications (especially 
getting into the lower RAM slot on a bondi iMac).

> The memory problem occurred about two years ago. Apple released a 
> memory firmware that, many people found, disabled some or all of their 
> add-on memory modules. It turns out that the new firmware included a 
> test to ensure the computer's memory complied with Apple's specs, 
> which sounds ok, but many third party-memory modules that had been 
> working were now shown to be below-spec and therefore disabled.

That's all true, but it wasn't the cause of all the majority of 
failures that were occurring with the OS X installations in early G3's. 
The installations fail at different points during the installation 
process, not during a memory check and not because of marginal or bad 
memory.

So I still stand by my original recommendation. Before you do the 
hardware shuffle, try doing the installation one step at a time instead 
of all at once. IMO you really have nothing to lose by trying it.

-Mike