RAM Limits

[eyoungren]

I pretty much know the answer to this question but I just want to confirm it with the community.

It appears that one of my ram slots on my Quicksilver is bad so, here's the question almost every newbie has asked.

If I put in a 1GB stick in one of the two good slots will it be recognized?

Do they even make PC133-333 168-pin DIMMs in 1GB capacity?

Again, I pretty much realize the answer is no but I'm just wanting to cover my bases here.

Thanks!

 

[tevion5]

I similarly doubt it would work, but such things apparently exist. Probably cost close to nothing too if you felt like being a test subject.

 

[eyoungren]

View attachment 611604

I similarly doubt it would work, but such things apparently exist. Probably cost close to nothing too if you felt like being a test subject.

Thanks. I actually did look it up, but the pictures (including yours) while they look similar to the 512s I have do not look quite the same. I'm betting the notches don't line up exactly.

 

[LightBulbFun]

That ram is ECC Registred it will not work in a G4 Mac however a while back I found this http://www.ebay.com/itm/1GB-SDRAM-P...RY-RAM-DIMM-/231280650583?hash=item35d966a957 its a 1GB SDRAM stick thats of the normal desktop type I have never seen one before but i know someone who has ordered mac pro and G5 Quad ram from the seller with no issues. keep in mind i dont know anyone who has tested the PC 1GB ram stick in a G4 tho (iv been wanting to get one for testing LOL ) (mod note: its not my ebay listing)

 

[eyoungren]

That ram is ECC Registred it will not work in a G4 Mac however a while back I found this http://www.ebay.com/itm/1GB-SDRAM-P...RY-RAM-DIMM-/231280650583?hash=item35d966a957 its a 1GB SDRAM stick thats of the normal desktop type I have never seen one before but i know someone who has ordered mac pro and G5 Quad ram from the seller with no issues. keep in mind i dont know anyone who has tested the PC 1GB ram stick in a G4 tho (iv been wanting to get one for testing LOL ) (mod note: its not my ebay listing)

I may be the first tester.

On my watch list.

 

[RedCroissant]

I pretty much know the answer to this question but I just want to confirm it with the community.

It appears that one of my ram slots on my Quicksilver is bad so, here's the question almost every newbie has asked.

If I put in a 1GB stick in one of the two good slots will it be recognized?

Do they even make PC133-333 168-pin DIMMs in 1GB capacity?

Again, I pretty much realize the answer is no but I'm just wanting to cover my bases here.

Thanks!

Sorry for the late response to this! Even though some are optimistic about the 1GB module being recognized, I highly doubt that it will be. And even if it is recognized as a 1GB module, that only 512MB of it will be useable. I checked (of course) Everymac.com and Macsales.com just for recommendations, but I also consulted the service manual and checked the various configurations of the PM G4 to see if there were any opportunities. Sadly, every G4 has a max RAM that's proportional to the maximum amount per slot; which is 512MB.

 

[LightBulbFun]

heres something that i have also been wondering... a Grackle based Mac (Ie G3 BW G3 beige etc) will only see a 512MB ram stick at half its capacity 256MB now I wonder what happens if you install a 1GB stick? would it see it as a 512MB stick and let you to run 1.5GB of ram in a beige or 2GB in a BW?

 

[MagicBoy]

It's down to DIMM density. Most likely would fail to POST or not see anything.

 

[for this]

It's down to DIMM density. Most likely would fail to POST or not see anything.

Yes, I remember my Sawtooth G4 would not see a high density ram stick.
It used high density chips. There were less chips on the board.
High(er) density chips tends to appear at the end of a cycle of a standard.
In this case, it appeared when the market started shifting toward DDR.
My Sawtooth was too old to recognize this kind of new chips and
it is a reason there is still a market for those older RAM sticks.

But Quicksilvers are the last Powermac that use SDRAM.
So it *may* work.

 

[bunnspecial]

Yes, I remember my Sawtooth G4 would not see a high density ram stick.
It used high density chips. There were less chips on the board.
High(er) density chips tends to appear at the end of a cycle of a standard.
In this case, it appeared when the market started shifting toward DDR.
My Sawtooth was too old to recognize this kind of new chips and
it is a reason there is still a market for those older RAM sticks.

But Quicksilvers are the last Powermac that use SDRAM.
So it *may* work.

I've had no issues running 256mb high-density chips in a Sawtooth(which one vendor shipped me a bunch of despite advertising them as LD). With most computers, I find that density REALLY only becomes an issue when you are installing the largest size stick the computer will "normally" recognize.

I tend to buy RAM in bulk, but the 256mb HD sticks I received were mostly intended for my G3 AIO, but likely would have also ended up in the various G3 beige machines, B&Ws, and Yikes(es) that I have kicking around-most of which are currently under max. My AIO(which shares a logic board with the beige minitower and desktop) reads the HD 256mb sticks as 128mb.

I went through a similar thing when trying to max out my various Powerbook G3s. For the Wallstreet-Lombard, you need LD 256 MB sticks(16 chips) which take some hunting to find in a SO-DIMM format. I have some of the special Apple "super sized" 256mb SO-DIMMs, but they were physically too large to fit the processor "cage" on some computer. I finally found some standard height 16 chip 256mb sticks, which worked fine. The standard 8 chip ones read at half capacity. Interestingly enough, my Pismo was fine with 8-chip 512mb sticks.

 

[eyoungren]

Well. It appears I may have misdiagnosed this.

It would seem that my replacement SATA card may have been the culprit to my instability.

I'm on the third card now and the Mac is stable (so far).

So, it may have been my first two SATA cards all along.

@bunnspecial I guess then the Giga may have been more stable then I thought if my card was a big part of the issue.

I am having no complications with the third ram stick restored (yet).

 

[eyoungren]

That ram is ECC Registred it will not work in a G4 Mac however a while back I found this http://www.ebay.com/itm/1GB-SDRAM-P...RY-RAM-DIMM-/231280650583?hash=item35d966a957 its a 1GB SDRAM stick thats of the normal desktop type I have never seen one before but i know someone who has ordered mac pro and G5 Quad ram from the seller with no issues. keep in mind i dont know anyone who has tested the PC 1GB ram stick in a G4 tho (iv been wanting to get one for testing LOL ) (mod note: its not my ebay listing)

Well…confirmation that this does not work.

There was a slightly cheaper auction I was watching that has this exact same memory stick. My QS does not recognize it. I tried all three slots.

Looks like 1.5GB ram is where she stays.

 

[MacCubed]

Well…confirmation that this does not work.

There was a slightly cheaper auction I was watching that has this exact same memory stick. My QS does not recognize it. I tried all three slots.

Looks like 1.5GB ram is where she stays.

Are you going to get a new LB??

 

[eyoungren]

Are you going to get a new LB??

No. There is no need.

My stability issues were a result of two bad SATA cards. In a row.

Took me until a week ago to figure that out. Apparently I've been dealing with it for that last two years without realizing it was the SATA card. The replacement was bad so that's how I figured it out.

Now on the third card and it's fine, there are no issues and my ram slots all have the original ram I placed in there.

So it's good.

What I was testing was the 1GB RAM stick that LightBulbFun linked too. THAT does not work.

 

[128keaton]

No. There is no need.

My stability issues were a result of two bad SATA cards. In a row.

Took me until a week ago to figure that out. Apparently I've been dealing with it for that last two years without realizing it was the SATA card. The replacement was bad so that's how I figured it out.

Now on the third card and it's fine, there are no issues and my ram slots all have the original ram I placed in there.

So it's good.

What I was testing was the 1GB RAM stick that LightBulbFun linked too. THAT does not work.

It seems like the QSs have issues with flashed SATA cards, maybe a Sonnet is in order