Memory - Why?

Well, certain RAM is "Mac-certified", and other RAM isn't. Of the non-certified RAM, most will work, but not all.

Your best bet is to search this site and see the recommendations, buy it online, and then either install it yourself or bring it to them to install. Kingston is fine RAM, but it is not the only RAM which will work in your laptop.

 

Oh, and one other thing - if your 12" has 512MB, doesn't that mean it has 256 MB hardwired and a 256MB stick? I think the 12" have never had more than one available slot, and, if so, yours already has a 256MB stick in it which will no longer be used when you replace it.

You probably know this - just making sure.

 

just to clarify: the 12" PB has 256mb soldered onto the mother board. That leaves one slot open. I just looked at The Apple Store to see the options on the new 12" Pbs. Apple just added another 256mb stick in the empty slot. So to add more ram to the new 12" PBs you have to pull the 256 mb stick out and replace it. That's kind of a waste. On the other hand you can upgrade to a 512mb stick for $75.

 

To clarify, Apple does not certify other vendor's RAM: there is no authoritative list of "Mac-certified" RAM

Mac "certification" is down to the memory manufacturer testing the modules and providing a guarantee that their specific modules will work in your machine.

Kingston for example has thousands of modules, but they only guarantee the KTA-PBxxxx series are Powerbook compatible. There are also other good vendors - choose someone who guarantees compatibility and provides a lifetime warranty.

Thanks,
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

 

I went through the same thing with my 15" PB and my G5, I have been in the IT field for over 10 years and have come to the conclusion that sometimes it's just easier to go with their recommendations and possible pay a bit more, than suffer the slings and arrows of troubleshooting flaky memory. There aren't many things more frustrating.

I pushed my PB up to 1 gig, and the G5 has two gigs in it. Both Kingston upgrades.

Kingston is actually fairly high rated RAM and a pretty good bet if you really want a quality product.

 

on the Rev C and D (i don't know about A and B) 12" PBs, there is 1 256 mb stick of ram soldered onto the motherboard. In Rev D (the latest) Apple added another 256 mb stick in the other, empty slot for a total of 512. So if you go out and buy a 512 mb stick for the Rev D 12" PBs from Kingston, Crucial, OWC, or where ever, you have to pull that one 256 mb stick out and replace it with the 512. So you only gain 256 mb for a total of 768 mb. Here is a picture directly from the Canadian website:



The Rev D 15" and 17" PBs both have 1 512 mb stick installed. The Rev C came with 2 256 mb sticks unless you had it BTO with 1 512 mb stick

 

The 15" and the 17" PB are differenet they have 2 slots for RAM while the 12" only has one becsaue the other is soldered to the board.

So in the 15" there is one avaible slot for RAM

 

you can use pretty much any so-dimm you'd like, as long as it's PC2700/DDR333. The only problem occurs when the memory you buy craps out... apple wont cover that. But if it works, great! Most of the time, it works. I recommend that you take a look at Crucial.com and get it from there.

also, what speed is your processor? It makes a big difference, because certain models can take more ram.

 

I have owned 3 Macs and have used cheapo RAM from a PC store in all of them with no problems.

That is a total of 8 sticks over a period of 3 years with 0 problems.

 

"Mac Certified" means "We know you don't understand what all those little numbers mean so you'll probably be willing to pay 10-25% more for the same product if we say it's certified to work with your system."

Same thing happens with every other kind of computer. If you use a "pick your computer" system to figure out what kind of RAM to buy, they're going to charge a premium. If you know what all those little numbers mean, there's no point in paying the premium. If you don't know what they mean, it may be worth the extra $20 to skip the learning process if you're not going to be buying memory very often.

And just because a manufacturer has a part number for "Mac" memory doesn't mean there's anything special about it. Ever see the Simpsons episode where Homer and Barney tour the Duff Beer factory? One scene shows a single pipe splitting off into 3 barrels, each with their own label. Just because it's labeled MAC-POWERBOOK-PC2700 doesn't mean it's not exactly the same as PC-NOTEBOOK-PC2700. Just means they're trying to get retailers to stock the same thing twice. Or, less cynically, they're attempting to reduce the number of "will this work with my computer" inquiries.