RAM help needed!

[Andy B]

Hi,

I'm running OS 9.22 on a G4 Dual 1.25 Ghz. I've just installed a fourth 512mb stick of RAM (I've now got 2 gig) and it's being recognised, but the OS is now using 579mb?!!!!! Before this installation the OS only took up about 75 mb. Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks in advance,

Andy Blaney.

p.s. going to OS X isn't an option for me yet as certain pieces of software aren't compatible yet. Thanks.

 

[stoid]

I thought that OS 9 only took 1.5GB of RAM. If that's true, there is an extra 512 MB that the OS eats since it can't handle allocating it out to other applications.

 

[Andy B]

Hi Stoid,

That rings a bell actually. I've just booted up in OS 10.2.8 - do you know how I can view how much ram is being used by the OS?

Thanks for the reply,

Andy.

 

[stoid]

Go to Activity Viewer in Applications/Utilities. Click the System Memory tab, and that will tell you about active/inactive/free/etc. RAM info. Understand that Mac OS X does not allocate RAM like OS 9. In short, apps take RAM resources when they need them, so there is not a way to see a solid RAM usage. The pie chart should say 2048MB (maybe 2GB) underneath it if it is recognizing all the RAM.

 

[mklos]

Hi,

I'm running OS 9.22 on a G4 Dual 1.25 Ghz. I've just installed a fourth 512mb stick of RAM (I've now got 2 gig) and it's being recognised, but the OS is now using 579mb?!!!!! Before this installation the OS only took up about 75 mb. Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks in advance,

Andy Blaney.

p.s. going to OS X isn't an option for me yet as certain pieces of software aren't compatible yet. Thanks.

Like others said...this might be a limitation of the Mac OS 9. As far as applications not being compatible with OS X, well can't you run them in Classic Mode under OS X. Almost all OS 9 apps will run in Classic Mode without any problem. I've even played OS 9 games in classic mode without any problems.

Are these applications that you use frequently? You could make 2 partitions and put Mac OS 9 on one and OS X on another, or just use one partition and install Mac OS 9 first and then OS X. Then just boot to OS 9 when you need to use apps.

Just out of curiosity, which applications are the ones you have that aren't OS X compatible yet?

 

[Sparky's]

OK here's the article from Apple:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25511