[X4U] RAM lessons even the stubborn can learn

[Zane H. Healy]

At 8:31 PM -0800 11/25/05, Jim Robertson wrote:
>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.

Thanks for sharing the tale, I must confess, it makes me feel a 
little better about my choice of RAM for my G5 2x2.  At the same time 
it makes me wonder, what is it about modern Mac's that they're so 
blasted touchy when it comes to RAM.  I've got high-end (Sparc and 
Alpha) workstations that aren't this touchy!  I've had my one DEC 
Alpha running for well over 400 days straight with out of spec RAM in 
it.

Now what is it with the price of 2GB PC3200 kits for the G5 PowerMac's?  :^(

			Zane


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| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Administrator |
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