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G4 not recognizing new ram

B

beerbum

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2008
19
0
California, USA
Hello everyone, i am new to the forum and new to macs. I bought a powermac G4 from ebay awhile back but just recently got it up and running. So far i am liking it and decided i wanted more ram then the 384MB it was sent with. So i looked on ebay to find ram, i purchased this ram right here..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=310077909374

I bought 3x512mb and none of the sticks are recognized in any of the 3 slots. I'm thinking the problem is that the ram is high density, can any give me their opinion on it. Also, with pc's there is a way to get to a bios screen, do macs have anything similar to that? Besides the boot selection screen?

I forgot to mention, the mac i own is a powermac g4 single 533MHz cpu.

Thank you.
 
N

n8mac

macrumors 6502
Jun 25, 2006
435
48
Ohio
beerbum said:
Hello everyone, i am new to the forum and new to macs.
Click to expand...

Welcome to :apple: world :)


Here are a couple of links that are must have for :apple: users.
Anytime you need to know the specs of anything Mac...
http://www.everymac.com
Anytime you need ram or even just specs for ram...
http://www.crucial.com
just click on the Mac tab.

beerbum said:
Also, with pc's there is a way to get to a bios screen, do macs have anything similar to that? Besides the boot selection screen?
Click to expand...

I admit that I know little about Windows boxes. I assume that you want to know the hardware specs? If so, this depends on your OS. That G4 can handle any Mac OS 9 - 10.4. To find out which OS it has, after it boots, go to the :apple: logo in the upper left hand corner and select 'about this Mac'.

To find out almost all the specs of your Mac, under OS 9 go to :apple: menu > Apple system profiler. Under OS 10.x go to Applications > Utilities > System profiler. Under OS 10.0 - 10.3 it was called 'Apple system profiler'.

If you are attempting to do something else in the BIOS, please ask.

BTW, G4's are PPC based and don't use BIOS, rather they use Open Firmware. The Intel Macs use BIOS though.
 
B

beerbum

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2008
19
0
California, USA
thank you for your reply. I was asking about the bios, because in windows sometimes there might be ram compatibility issues and you can tweak the ram a bit in the bios. So all of the new macs with intel cpu's have a bios? Thats interesting. Thanks a lot for the links too.

I think i just got a little too excited when i saw how cheap the ram was going for and bought it before looking too far about issues with it.

Well thanks again!
 
N

n8mac

macrumors 6502
Jun 25, 2006
435
48
Ohio
Lord Zedd said:
No, that was false information. All intel Macs use EFI.
Click to expand...

Opps, sorry about that. I got the Intel Macs mixed up with all the hackintosh discussions.:eek:

I've never tweaked ram via the software, but one thing I know for sure, OS X needs good compatible ram. But oh what it can do with that ram...;)
 
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