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Powerbook ram-Apple brand ONLY?

S

Stevp1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 8, 2003
171
11
I've got the 1.33GHZ 17" PB running Panther. I've tried 2 Kingston 512MB ram sticks in it so far. Each one resulted in lockups and freezes galore. No problems at all with the original 512MB OEM stick.
Will these Powerbooks only accept Apple ram? I've read here about the stringent 10.3 requirements, but has anyone else got 3rd party ram to work?
How about Kingston? This isn't the cheap ValueRam stuff. Any other suggestions?
 
Apple uses Samsung RAM in most of its systems, which is probably not as good as the Kingston RAM you have tried. Apple has no "Special" RAM as you put it.

either your an idiot and bought SDRAM instead of, DDR333. (unlikley)
or you have had a lot of bad luck.

Try some budget RAM and see how you get on, I've never had any problems.
 
It's possible that you have a dodgy logic board, so putting any RAM at all in there will cause problems.

Or, you didn't install it correctly or there was dust in there.

Matt
 
I put some Kingmax (which isn't the same as Kingston) in my iBook, and started to get unexpected quits etc. So I only use Apple/Samsung memory now. You can get the Samsung modules for reasonably cheap from www.memoryx.net :) - it's $138.98.
 
I have 1.25 GB RAM in my 12" PB G4 .

The only 1 GB stick that worked was the aforementioned Samsung memory (which I bought from memoryX) . Two Crucial 1 GB sticks did not work (and crucial admitted there was a problem).

Both my PB and my iBook G4 12" ran the PC2100 512 MB memory modules from Crucial without a problem.

JT
 
Had a similar problem with RAM upgrade from MacMall in 1.25GHZ PB 15.2 G4. First, be forewarned, they pull original ram and replace with the cheapest they can to give you your "free RAM upgrade." First they sent unbranded RAM. What a nightmare. You have never seen so many lock-up, freezes, kernel panics, black box of death messages. Replaced with Viking. One chip would work someof the time. Meanwhile, I was almost sick from not being able to use this beautiful, pristine, no dead pixels, no white spots PB that I had waited to get for so long. Finally, last call I was ever going to make to these folks, I talked with a MacMall tech who told me he had just gotten a memo that all of their third-party RAM had problems running on the new powerbooks with Panther installed, and that only one manufacturer had, at that time, resolved the issue. They sent Kingston RAM. Machine has worked perfectly since then. I can't make it crash. Check with Kingston. All of their RAM is under warranty. Good luck.
 
when i got my 12" i ordered 512MB of Crucial memory. while installed the machine would just crash. sent it back and got another, same thing. said "screw it" and paid $75 more for "Apple" ram, got it home, opened up that box and there it was, "Apple" ram with a big old "M" for Micron (the company behind Crucial). After talking to an Apple tech support guy for a while i got this answer: not all ram is created equally, even from chip to chip, so Apple tests every single one they sell to make sure it's within Apples specs. oh well, i paid $75 more but at least my 12" doesn't kernel panic every few hours now. i haven't had one kernel panic since.
 
interesting comments

Well, those are some interesting replies. No, I'm not an idiot, but I may have the bad luck. Yes, they were installed correctly, and no there was no dust in there.
Funny how there's no definitive patterns or resolutions. I guess I'll try another ram mfg next. Seems this might be a bigger problem than I realized. I guess it's a hit or miss proposition.
 
Re: interesting comments

Originally posted by Stevp1
Well, those are some interesting replies. No, I'm not an idiot, but I may have the bad luck. Yes, they were installed correctly, and no there was no dust in there.
Funny how there's no definitive patterns or resolutions. I guess I'll try another ram mfg next. Seems this might be a bigger problem than I realized. I guess it's a hit or miss proposition.
Click to expand...

the "problem" lies with the PowerBooks only wanting really high quality ram and it's a gamble no matter what mfg you go to whether or not the chunk of ram you get will work or not. sometimes you get lucky, or if you're like me you just pay the extra $ for the stuff you've already tried but Apple has tested and garentees. good luck with your ram purchacing! :)
 
I always buy crucial for my macs.

Crucial guarentee it will work or they refund you. Also their service can't be beat :)
 
Originally posted by tek
I always buy crucial for my macs.

Crucial guarentee it will work or they refund you. Also their service can't be beat :)
Click to expand...

I second this. Crucial is just awesome. They warrarty all of their memory.
 
Omni ram

I just installed ram from Omni echnologies, and it seems to work great, i have really noticed a great overall preformance boost from 512 to 1gig.
PS: 17 inch aluBook
Andreas
 
I've upgraded my 12" PowerBook from 256MB > 384MB and saw a noticeable improvement, I just ordered a 512MB module (giving me 640MB), hopefully I'll see a similar boost.

AppleMatt
 
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