Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Not enough memory?

R

Re-Macced

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 28, 2007
4
0
NJ
I have one of the original Macbooks (2 GHz Intel Core Duo, 758 MB (256 & 512) SDRAM, 60 GB Hard drive) running OS X 10.4.11. I have 26 GB unused in my hard drive. I also have a 250 GB external hard drive connected to it. I work on videos and have been storing them in the external hard drive because they take up so much memory. I have one movie I want to work on but the Mac says I haven't got enough memory left to move the video back into the laptop. The movie is 135 MB. The same thing happened when my son tried to load a game.

My kids have been loading a lot of music on the laptop, but I once tried to store this on the external drive but ran into the same problem. Same thing with photos.

I've tried to shut everything down using Force Quit, but this isn't solving the problem. Any ideas? Is there something running in the background, and if so what do i do to get at it? Should I upgrade to a larger hard drive or add RAM?
 
Re-Macced said:
I have one of the original Macbooks (2 GHz Intel Core Duo, 758 MB (256 & 512) SDRAM, 60 GB Hard drive) running OS X 10.4.11. I have 26 GB unused in my hard drive. I also have a 250 GB external hard drive connected to it. I work on videos and have been storing them in the external hard drive because they take up so much memory. I have one movie I want to work on but the Mac says I haven't got enough memory left to move the video back into the laptop. The movie is 135 MB. The same thing happened when my son tried to load a game.

My kids have been loading a lot of music on the laptop, but I once tried to store this on the external drive but ran into the same problem. Same thing with photos.

I've tried to shut everything down using Force Quit, but this isn't solving the problem. Any ideas? Is there something running in the background, and if so what do i do to get at it? Should I upgrade to a larger hard drive or add RAM?
Click to expand...

I would do both acually, since the computer is out of warrenty you have nothing to lose right.. unless you bought applecare. There are guides on http://www.ifixit.com/ on how to take your computer apart and how to install various parts, these guides are the best of the best have pictures and everything. I would order your HD and RAM from http://newegg.com/ they have the cheapest computer parts anywhere and have extreamly fast ship time and used by millions (Including me.) The HD obviously being a little harder to replace will be worth it. The RAM the most simpliest component in a computer to install will make all the difference while multi tasking and DEFINATLY while editing video, there will be less Lag faster rendering and you will notice a gigantic difference while working with video. Caution though those first MB's can only take a certain amount of ram and no more, I THINK it's 2 GIG. Someone correct me if im wrong or if there was some sort of update.

Best Of Luck!
 
I got the same model as you and upgraded the RAM to 2GB (with 2x1GB sticks, 2GB is the maximum for this model). I also changed the internal drive with a 320GB Western Digital Scorpio, which is musch faster too (other brand and bigger drives should be fine too, just search in the forum), What is important is the width of the drive: it must not exceed 9.5mm or it won't fit.

On that model the warranty wouldn't be voided anyway since the procedure to change the drive and RAM is pretty simple and doesn't need you to open up the whole macbook. As it was pointed out by Diseal3 ifixit has some good step by step guides on how to do it.
 
The max ram for your computer is 2 gb (about $40) and you should buy a new internal SATA hard drive. A 320 gig drive can be had for less than $100. If your current external drive is connected by Firewire, then you ought be be in good shape for video work and a new internal drive may not be necessary.
 
You won't void your warranty by replacing your hard drive and RAM yourself.
Apple build the MacBook to make it quite easy, not like the iBook or PowerBook and MacBook Pro.

As for copying the 135MB file to your MacBook hard drive with more than enough space:
Have you tried it with another bigger file maybe?
Did you repair permissions with Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities)?
 
Not enough memory?

I've added memory to my old iBook so the process doesn't concern me. In fact, adding RAM and a new hard drive appear much easier in the MB than the iBook. Only thing is, last year my original HD died. I had it replaced. Now I'm kicking myself for not anticipating this problem and facing yet another HD replacement.

My external HD IS connected via Firewire, so perhaps I can avoid that upgrade for a while.

I'm not sure however, that the answer to my problem isn't something much simpler. How do I get to programs operating in the background (besides Force Quit)?
 
Cave Man said:
Your OS is probably taking up half your RAM, which means it's relying heavily upon scratch disk. If you put in 2 gb of RAM, you'll see a dramatic increase in performance. Do the RAM first, then the hard drive - but only if you need to.
Click to expand...

Good advice.

Also wouldn't hurt to have a spring clean and get rid of anything you don't need, run Onyx as well.
 
Re-Macced said:
I've added memory to my old iBook so the process doesn't concern me. In fact, adding RAM and a new hard drive appear much easier in the MB than the iBook. Only thing is, last year my original HD died. I had it replaced. Now I'm kicking myself for not anticipating this problem and facing yet another HD replacement.
Click to expand...

Replacing the hard drive on a MacBook is about as easy as memory (on the MacBook Pro it is harder). All you do: Remove the battery, remove the L-shaped metal, and there is a little bit of plastic on the left side that you just unroll and then use it to pull the hard drive out. Take note which way round it was.

The hard drive is mounted in a tiny frame of rather thin metal with four Torx size 0 screw. If you don't have the matching screwdriver, you can unscrew them with pliers (not too much force) and swap the drives. Then you just push the frame with the new hard drive back in. Just take note which way round it was.
 
Memory is cheap, easy to install, and it's also necessary for editing large files. Add memory first. You really should max it out in that machine. Hard drive swap space is not as good as native RAM. If you still are having a problem, then put in a bigger drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back