When I got my G5 it have four sticks of 512 MBs installed in it for a total of 2GBs and I just finished putting two 1gb sticks and two 512s in the remaining slots. Problem is the Power Mac still only recognizes the original 2GBs and none of the sticks I added show up in System Profiler and are listed as still being empty. Any Idea what is going on? I did confirm all the sticks are PC 3200 if that matters.
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PM G5: Invisible RAM?
- Thread starter FrozenMacUser
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The order might be wrong. With my old G4s you could just kind of cram it in there any which way and it did not much care. Guess the G5s are a bit more high maintenance that way. lol. Any idea where I can find info on proper installation?
Google or a search engine of your choice. I suggest something other than
None of the information I find seems to accurately instruct how to install the ram so the computer reads all the dimms.
I have two pairs of 1GB sticks. And two pairs of 512s. I have worked on computers for quite awhile and this is making me feel pretty dumb and amateurish.
At this point I am playing musical RAM and hopefully I will find a combination that works.Wish me luck.
First Generation Dual 2.0Ghz from 2003.
Model Name: Power Mac G5
Model Identifier: PowerMac7,2
Processor Name: PowerPC 970 (2.2)
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 2
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.1.5f0
Serial Number (system): XB4100HUNVB
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000
I guess it that I have not had to deal with a machine that is picky about matched pairs before and the info on what dimms to put in which slots is flat out not working out for me. If I could tell which slots in System Profiler correspond to which physical slot on the motherboard I might have a prayer.
Model Name: Power Mac G5
Model Identifier: PowerMac7,2
Processor Name: PowerPC 970 (2.2)
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 2
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.1.5f0
Serial Number (system): XB4100HUNVB
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000
I guess it that I have not had to deal with a machine that is picky about matched pairs before and the info on what dimms to put in which slots is flat out not working out for me. If I could tell which slots in System Profiler correspond to which physical slot on the motherboard I might have a prayer.
I had a dual 2.0 that I bought second-hand. As you say, it's very picky about RAM. Mine came with two 512 sticks, and when I added two 1GB sticks, the computer was not happy with the combination. It wouldn't allow me to upgrade from Tiger to Leopard. I had to remove the 512s for the 1Gb sticks to work. Have you tried leaving the 512s out and using only the 1GBs?
Thanks for all the help guys.
Finally figured it out. Took slogging threw google search results but I finally found an Apple technical dock explaining which physical slot corresponds to which designation in System Profiler. Happy to report my Power Mac now detects all 5 GBs of RAM. Happy dance. Time to go sleep now. I really should not try hardware upgrades when I have insomnia after a night shift. lol
Finally figured it out. Took slogging threw google search results but I finally found an Apple technical dock explaining which physical slot corresponds to which designation in System Profiler. Happy to report my Power Mac now detects all 5 GBs of RAM.
Happy dance. Time to go sleep now. I really should not try hardware upgrades when I have insomnia after a night shift. lol
Thanks for all the help guys.
Finally figured it out. Took slogging threw google search results but I finally found an Apple technical dock explaining which physical slot corresponds to which designation in System Profiler. Happy to report my Power Mac now detects all 5 GBs of RAM.
For the sake of the readers it is usually done from middle two going outward with matched pairs.
I thought I would also post the link to the Apple Tech document that lays out the RAM slot identification info for you. This should help anyone with a Power Mac G5.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA23726
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA23726
Thanks, but no worries... I have a total of 4 of these PM G5. It could help out other readers though that could stumble with the same scenario.
Yeah, it is actually pretty confusing. I remember when I upgraded the RAM in my first PowerMac G5, all the new sticks were "invisible" in the system and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why. Until I read online that the RAM had to match and sit in pairs from the inner two going out like Nameci already has mentioned.