PB G4 12" Glitchy RAM Expasion Slot

[timidpimpin]

My PowerBook G4 12" seems to slowly be getting closer to death. First issue was half my dedicated VRAM died (a few months ago), and now I have noticed that the RAM expansion slot on the bottom is glitching big time.

The reason I say this is that it keeps kernel panicking with 2 different RAM modules. One is the 512MB it came with, and the other is a 1GB I bought to upgrade it to the max of 1.25GB. After running the 1GB for a while the system was getting KP's every 30-60 min. So I went back to the original 512MB, but after a while got KP's again.

Yesterday I had the idea to run it with no RAM at all in the expansion slot, and have had no KP's at all ever since. So it looks like I will have to use this PowerBook for the rest of it's days with a mere 256MB RAM.

Any ideas? I have already cleared the PRAM and NVRAM many times. I would rather just buy another one than a new board.

 

[for this]

Is power supply (battery or ac/dc adapter) OK? I raise this because my MDD had similar problems when its PSU was failing.

 

[timidpimpin]

That would make no sense, because it's using the same power brick now and getting no KP's. It's the stock one that came with it. The battery doesn't hold a charge anymore, so it's always running off wall power.

 

[AphoticD]

That would make no sense, because it's using the same power brick now and getting no KP's. It's the stock one that came with it. The battery doesn't hold a charge anymore, so it's always running off wall power.

Can you give the ram slot a clean with some IPA on a cotton bud?

I have had good experiences with PowerBookMedic.com and have bought a few logic boards for G3s and G4s. They were quite cheap. It might be worth just replacing the board. The VRAM issue and now the memory bank issue would be a sign of constant excess heat doing damage to the components.

 

[timidpimpin]

Can you give the ram slot a clean with some IPA on a cotton bud?

I have had good experiences with PowerBookMedic.com and have bought a few logic boards for G3s and G4s. They were quite cheap. It might be worth just replacing the board. The VRAM issue and now the memory bank issue would be a sign of constant excess heat doing damage to the components.

Wow! Those parts are super cheap! $1.18 for a used replacement DVD drive. That's incredible!

As for heat... the CPU is often in the 40 and 50 celsius range. Nowhere near too hot since 70 is the danger zone. I also did clean the slot. First with an air duster and then with rubbing alcohol on a q-tip.