RAM faulty or Mac OS X broken?

[adamtj11]

Okay so I changed some settings in audio/midi settings, then I turned my mac on and off to find I had no sound.... then I deleted an audio folder in the library which I thought would put the audio back to default, except now Mac OS X is painfully slow and unbearable to use.

I thought it might be the 4gb ram module I recently inserted into it, however booting into Windows 7 everything seems to be working just as snappy I remember, and both Mac OS X Lion and Windows 7 report the 5GB Ram that is installed, could it just be that I have deleted something crucial in Mac OS X that has messed up something or is this a bigger problem with the Ram, but once again surely the Ram wouldn't work in Windows right?

I can do a time machine backup from this morning if necessary.

 

[johnhurley]

Okay so I changed some settings in audio/midi settings, then I turned my mac on and off to find I had no sound.... then I deleted an audio folder in the library which I thought would put the audio back to default, except now Mac OS X is painfully slow and unbearable to use.

I thought it might be the 4gb ram module I recently inserted into it, however booting into Windows 7 everything seems to be working just as snappy I remember, and both Mac OS X Lion and Windows 7 report the 5GB Ram that is installed, could it just be that I have deleted something crucial in Mac OS X that has messed up something or is this a bigger problem with the Ram, but once again surely the Ram wouldn't work in Windows right?

I can do a time machine backup from this morning if necessary.

So you have a 1 gb stick and a 4 gb stick in the same machine?

Been a while since I was hacking around much with laptops and of course in the old days you had to match up memory sizes ...

Windows 7 might not have tried to use more than 2 gb "yet" ... and depending on how each operating system maps virtual memory to physical ram I would not count a lot on that ruling something in or out. Lots of windows downloadable memory testing software tools probably.

Does your mac os x installation disk have memory testing tools on it?

 

[adamtj11]

So you have a 1 gb stick and a 4 gb stick in the same machine?

Been a while since I was hacking around much with laptops and of course in the old days you had to match up memory sizes ...

Windows 7 might not have tried to use more than 2 gb "yet" ... and depending on how each operating system maps virtual memory to physical ram I would not count a lot on that ruling something in or out. Lots of windows downloadable memory testing software tools probably.

Does your mac os x installation disk have memory testing tools on it?

Thanks for reply, after a time machine back up everything seems back to normal.

Windows was using something like 2.9gb when I tested it, it must of been whatever I deleted. oops!

 

[thekev]

So you have a 1 gb stick and a 4 gb stick in the same machine?

Been a while since I was hacking around much with laptops and of course in the old days you had to match up memory sizes ...

It's not such a big deal these days outside of server environments. In some cases you lose dual or tri channel throughput or whatever, but the mismatch shouldn't cause any horrendous issues, and if it does the OP can always test the machine with only one stick installed.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

Been a while since I was hacking around much with laptops and of course in the old days you had to match up memory sizes ...

What old days? Unless you're talking about pre-G3 Apple laptops (which I don't have experience with), Apple has never REQUIRED that you have a matching pair. The only Mac that requires this is the Mac Pro/PowerMac G5 (and maybe the XServe?).

The fact that OP doesn't have a matched pair has nothing to do with the problem.

 

[johnhurley]

What old days? Unless you're talking about pre-G3 Apple laptops (which I don't have experience with), Apple has never REQUIRED that you have a matching pair. The only Mac that requires this is the Mac Pro/PowerMac G5 (and maybe the XServe?).

The fact that OP doesn't have a matched pair has nothing to do with the problem.

Did I say that it was definitely part of the problem?

I don't have any old days with any apple equipment anyhow ... my macbook air 2011 is the first one. Wanted an apple IIe bad a long time back but it was out of my budget range ...