Memory Problem?

[Warp Coil]

Okay, so my Mac has been acting up for a while now.... freezing up or acting kinda slow. Pretty random. No viruses or things like that are the problem. And I've run Norton SystemWorks a number of times. The problem persists and I am wondering if it's a memory problem.

Here's the deal... I've got a PowerMac G4 466mhz running OS 9.1. I've got 3 slots for RAM on my system. I've got one 128MB and two 512MB chips in there right now (the 128 was original with the computer; the 512's I purchased through MacWarehouse).

When I was having terrible issues with my computer I broke down and called the tech support people at Apple. In discussing memory they told me that my system was only designed to use 128MB or 256MB RAM chips - and not 512. But MacWarehouse says that their 512 chips are designed to work in the G4 466Mhz.

So who's right? Should I take out the 512 and replace them with 256? Is my computer destined to be maxed out at only 768MB of RAM (256 x 3)? I'd hate to have to go out and spend over $100 on more RAM... considering I just purchased a 512 not that long ago (and now it would be useless).

[irmongoose]

I suggest you do the following:

Take out all the extra RAM you bought, and start up the machine. It might be slow because it's only 128MB, but it shouldn't freeze. If it does freeze, it definetely isn't a RAM problem. If it doesn't freeze, put another RAM chip in and do start it up again. If it starts acting up this time, then you know that it's a bad RAM chip. If it doesn't freeze, then put the next one in, and so on.



irmongoose

[Sun Baked]

If you look at http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/hardware/hardware2.html you'll see that every G4 PowerMac (Sawtooth and beyond) support 512MB memory sticks.

You have to go all the way back to the B&W G3 (and most likely the G4 Yikes) to see the max drop to 256MB according to Apple documentation.

The major factor is making sure the memory is fast enough.