Crashing/Freezing with G5 1.6GHz RAM upgrade...help!

[oingoboingo]

I finally received my 1.6GHz G5 system last friday after a long wait. I ordered the system with 256MB RAM, hoping to avoid paying a steep premium to Apple by using 3rd party RAM. I initially bought 2 512MB sticks of Apacer PC2700 CAS 2.5 DDR SDRAM. I installed them, the system booted up fine, but would kernel panic or just plain freeze up after 5-15 minutes of use.

I swapped the Apacer DIMMs out, and tried a pair of Kingmax PC2700 DIMMs instead from a friend's system (btw, the Apacer DIMMs worked fine in my friend's nVidia nForce2-based Athlon motherboard). It was the same story with the Kingmax DIMMs, with unrecoverable freezes bringing down the G5 after only 5 minutes or so, even if it wasn't doing anything taxing.

Has anyone had any success upgrading the RAM in a 1.6GHz G5 system? If so, what brand of memory did they use? Apple seems to have used Hynix DDR333/PC2700 CAS 2.5 DIMMs in the G5 1.6GHz systems. I have also run the Hardware Test that comes on the OS X restore CD, but it doesn't find any problem with the memory.

Thanks,
Mat.

 

[tomf87]

I never saw this in your initial post. Does the system work fine with just the Apple RAM?

Try it without the Apple RAM and with just your 3rd party RAM. It's quite possible that there is a compatibility problem with the Apple RAM and the 3rd party boards.

 

[Abstract]

Take out the Apple RAM. Place a single stick of your 3rd party RAM in each of the 4(?) slots on the mobo, and see if it crashes. Does it crash regardless of which slot you put your RAM in? Also try the same thing with your other stick of 3rd party RAM.

 

[Bluetone]

I have had the same problem tonight, the ram is going back tommorow and I am going to splash out on a higher quality brand.( any recommendations)?

I definitely think this is a quality issue, so much for being a cheapskate.

 

[fraeone]

Yes, Apacer is definitely low in the quality rankings. I would definitely recommend you try the cheap stuff without the Apple ram, just to see what happens. Otherwise, Crucial perennially has good quality and reasonable prices.

fraeone

 

[maluscanis]

I've got the same machine as you...I upgraded to (2) 512MB 3200 from Crucial. I got the 3200 because it is backwards compatible with the 2700. Everything works fine on my end.

My advice to you is to buy from Crucial.

Best of Luck sorting everything out.

 

[oingoboingo]

Originally posted by maluscanis
I've got the same machine as you...I upgraded to (2) 512MB 3200 from Crucial. I got the 3200 because it is backwards compatible with the 2700. Everything works fine on my end.

My advice to you is to buy from Crucial.

Best of Luck sorting everything out.

Thanks for the advice. I just took a look at the Crucial web page at the memory recommended for the 1.6GHz G5. Interestingly, the PC2700 stuff is CAS2.5, and the PC3200 is CAS3.0. The Hynix RAM that Apple supplies with the system is noted as being CAS2.5 (there's a little sticker on the side of the DIMM). Is this the PC3200 you ordered? Have you experienced any crashing/lockups at all with the new RAM? Did you leave the stock Apple RAM in place with your Crucial modules, or get rid of it altogether?

Crucial's pricing is pretty good...it's actually cheaper to buy it from the US (I'm in Sydney, Australia) and import it than it is to buy top-tier memory locally.

Cheers,
Mat.

 

[oingoboingo]

Forked out for Crucial RAM

After reading through a bunch of responses on this board and on the Apple Discussions forums too, I've decided to go ahead and buy 2 x 512MB Crucial DIMMs. They should be here by the end of the week (international shipping and all that). I'll let you all know how it goes.