Missing Memory Slots

[DanTheMan]

I have a recently purchased G5 dual 1.8 Rev A (refurb) and I when I view the system memory screen it only shows 4 memory slots available, but when I open the machine up I see 8 physical slots. Am I missing something here. I have 1 GB of ram and it shows up fine, I'm just missing the other four slots. Any ideas?

 

[Jo-Kun]

hmmz

in System Profiler under memory I see all 8 slots numbered from DIMM0 to DIMM7

I have 6 slots filled with chips so it tells 6&7 are empty...

 

[DanTheMan]

Yup...

I have 2 sticks of 512MB filling two slots so I should see 6 empty slots but I only see 2.

 

[jeremy.king]

Perhaps thats why it was supposed to be refurbished????

 

[Sun Baked]

I have a recently purchased G5 dual 1.8 Rev A (refurb) and I when I view the system memory screen it only shows 4 memory slots available, but when I open the machine up I see 8 physical slots. Am I missing something here. I have 1 GB of ram and it shows up fine, I'm just missing the other four slots. Any ideas?

Yes...

The memory in the G5s is 128-bit (aka dual channel).

To get this 128-bit memory it takes two 64-bit DIMMs and reads them at the same time.

So there are only 4 banks of memory, pairs, etc. -- And why you need to upgrade the memory in matched pairs.

Basically that's why you see this...

And it'll depend on how the profiler you are using sees the memory -- whether it's looking at the banks, seeing the individual DIMM slots, etc.

But there have been quite a few complaints that Apple's system profiler isn't always accurate -- even though the rest of the OS sees the machine properly.

 

[DanTheMan]

That is what I am starting to think. I ran the hardware test and it can up with no errors.

I call Apple support and they did not have a clue of what I was talking about and basicly said that my computer can hold up to 8 GB of RAM and if I wanted to order additional RAM I could do so through the Apple Store.

So guess I am going to have to lug this thing into a B&M Apple Store and show them what is going on and see what they say. Wish me luck.

 

[DanTheMan]

Hey SunBaked, thanks for the info, I was thinking that about how my system may see my memory slots, but then I saw this on eBay:

G5 on eBay

This guy's system shows the 8 slots which I assume mine should be showing.