[X4U] RAM lessons even the stubborn can learn

[Jim Robertson]

Always hoping to save a few bucks, I'm stubbornly learning the same lessons
over and over.

Last year I bought two "generic" 1 Gigabyte PC3200 DIMMS for my G5 dual. The
machine read them as 512 Megabyte sticks. I complained to the vendor, who
said I needed to buy "Mac-specific" DIMMs (for more money). He agreed to
cross-ship the new DIMMs, which worked.

Today, eager to equip my Al PB for Aperture, I upped its memory from 512
Megabytes to 1.5 Gigabytes with a Kingston "generic" 1 Gigabyte PC2700
SODIMM. I rebooted, confirmed I had 1.5 gigs in "About this Mac", then ran
"memtest" from the command line in single user mode. It passed, so I
congratulated myself on the $30 I'd saved.

However, once the PowerBook went to sleep, I couldn't wake it up. Then it
began to freeze on boot, despite numerous resets of the power manager,
nvram, etc., etc.

I tried putting the new 1 gig stick in slot 1 - no joy, same freezes.

I pulled the 1 gig stick out, and the PowerBook is happy again.

So, back goes this generic Kingston SODIMM, with hopes that a Mac-certified
stick will do the job.

Jim Robertson
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