Okay, I've only had my Powerbook G4 since October 2005 and for the first week I had it, it worked great. But ever since that first week, it has been constantly freezing. I have 1 GB of RAM and I think there may be something wrong with it. I've noticed whenever I click the Apple menu and choose "About This Mac" and it says I have 1 GB, my computer will freeze shortly after I start it up. But sometimes after restarting it 5-6 times, it will tell me that I have 768 MB of RAM, and my computer works fine. I haven't replaced the RAM either, it is the RAM that came with the computer. Hopefully this makes sense to someone and they can help me out. I've been holding off on taking to the Apple store to have someone look at it because I wanted to see if I could find anything out myself first. Thanks.
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I think I may have bad RAM.
- Thread starter xthomascxx
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What kind of powerbook is this? Do you know how the 1 GB is configured (i.e. is it 1x 1GB, 2x512MB, or something else)? Having it sometimes report only 768MB is a really strong indicator that either the RAM or the RAM slot might be faulty. 
Sounds like bad RAM to me
You have classic bad RAM symptoms. I assume this RAM was a 3rd party upgrade?
Couple things to do...
1) If you have the original discs for your machine, there's usually one on there that has a RAM test utility
2) Easiest thing to do is just pull out the RAM, replacing with the original and see if it keeps freezing-up. If it doesn't, then it's most likely bad RAM.
Unfortunately, there is A LOT of bad RAM out there sold by 3rd parties. I've seen this over and over in the past and now always buy from a reputable company with a good return policy. The $30 you save on the cheapest stick often isn't worth the hassle that ensues.
xthomascxx said:
You have classic bad RAM symptoms. I assume this RAM was a 3rd party upgrade?
Couple things to do...
1) If you have the original discs for your machine, there's usually one on there that has a RAM test utility
2) Easiest thing to do is just pull out the RAM, replacing with the original and see if it keeps freezing-up. If it doesn't, then it's most likely bad RAM.
Unfortunately, there is A LOT of bad RAM out there sold by 3rd parties. I've seen this over and over in the past and now always buy from a reputable company with a good return policy. The $30 you save on the cheapest stick often isn't worth the hassle that ensues.
Oh, this isn't third party RAM. I've never changed it.
And my RAM is 2x512 MB.
So, should I take it to the Apple store and have them fix it? I have the extended warrenty, so should this be covered?
Thanks.
And my RAM is 2x512 MB.
So, should I take it to the Apple store and have them fix it? I have the extended warrenty, so should this be covered?
Thanks.
Yesxthomascxx said:
The longer you leave bad RAM in your machine, the greater the chance you will b0rk the data on your drive.