Old PowerBook G4 screwed?

Hi,

What kind of PowerBook is it? What speed is the G4? Sounds like that old ram has turned sour on you. I would try original sticks of ram that came with your system as a troubleshoot to see if you get the same kernel panic. If you don't get that same kernel panic or any kernel panic at all with known good memory, then your problem is due to bad ram.

Get rid of the 256MB chip.

joebhoy said:

I've an old 256mb ram, 60GB HD, Bluetooth, 15", aluminium powerbook.

It would startup at the start then I started getting kernel panic where it would tell me to restart the powerbook. The laptop then would only start in safe mode but now I can't even get it to start in safe mode. I bought 1g ram for it as I thought that would solve it but now I'm getting this picture, is it screwed?

Click to expand...

As said, if you didn't try with only the new 1 gig ram, try now. Also, try different slots as I recall some models had common defect with lower memory slot.

The OP did not provide his System Profiler information to determine if his serial falls within those PB G4's with bad lower ram slots.

Zotaccian said:

As said, if you didn't try with only the new 1 gig ram, try now. Also, try different slots as I recall some models had common defect with lower memory slot.

Click to expand...

Some models of the PowerBook G4 family were known for bad and or defective lower ram slot problems.. The symptom would be that you would notice only one ram chip being recognized while the other is not. This can lead to system instability and or kernel panics..

Awhile back Apple did a replacement program for those suffering from this.. Your serial number is needed to determine if it indeed falls within the serial numbers of affected PowerBooks. I suggest use google to find out if your machine suffers from this..

If your machine does NOT.. The only other thing I can think of is bad ram..

joebhoy said:

Would the serial number at the battery be ok? What do you need from system profiler?

Can't get in at the moment when running 2 x 512mb ram the blue loading line stops just before the wording Starting if I run 1 x 512mb I get the message saying I need to restart the message is in four languages.

Click to expand...

PowerPCMacMan said:

Some models of the PowerBook G4 family were known for bad and or defective lower ram slot problems.. The symptom would be that you would notice only one ram chip being recognized while the other is not. This can lead to system instability and or kernel panics..

Awhile back Apple did a replacement program for those suffering from this.. Your serial number is needed to determine if it indeed falls within the serial numbers of affected PowerBooks. I suggest use google to find out if your machine suffers from this..

If your machine does NOT.. The only other thing I can think of is bad ram..

Click to expand...

Note that the repair program mentioned is no longer being provided.

Yes, I am aware of that.

MisterKeeks said:

Note that the repair program mentioned is no longer being provided.

Click to expand...

If you didn't test that ram, you should do so before attempting any further conclusions. Also how full is that hard drive? If the drive is more than half full and you have any pageouts at all shown in activity monitor or use applications that cache a lot of data directly to the disk, it will be painful. Further if you're on something old like Tiger, you could always disable spotlight. It took up a fair number of cpu cycles on the older hardware. There is little reason to think your machine is screwed. Bad ram is a more likely cause of your frustration, and it doesn't matter if the spec is correct or it's labeled as working on Macs. Sometimes you get bad sticks.

PowerPCMacMan said:

Some models of the PowerBook G4 family were known for bad and or defective lower ram slot problems.. The symptom would be that you would notice only one ram chip being recognized while the other is not. This can lead to system instability and or kernel panics..

Awhile back Apple did a replacement program for those suffering from this.. Your serial number is needed to determine if it indeed falls within the serial numbers of affected PowerBooks. I suggest use google to find out if your machine suffers from this..

If your machine does NOT.. The only other thing I can think of is bad ram..

Click to expand...

Mine has a failed RAM slot and the serial falls outside of the serials for the affected Machines mentioned by Apple, so even if it's outside it can still be affected.

10.5.8 is the upper limit for all PowerPCs.