Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Suprising results from adding 1 Gig RAM- b/c of BRAND?

B

BigSb85

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2008
7
0
Houston, TX
Hello-

I finally added 1 Gig of RAM to my powerbook g4, which used to only have 256.

I bought a gig of ADATA and a gig of Crucial, and tried the cheaper one first... so, ADATA is compatibile.... but some weird things are happening:

1. my iTunes has already shut down a few times randomly?
2. my iPhoto is only slightly faster... with a full extra gig, i was expecting to ZOOM through things!
3. at one point i randomly got a screen with a translucent gray box in the middle, telling me in different languages to restart...

So my question is:
1. Is this normal for new RAM?
2. If I installed the Crucial RAM instead, would it perform any better? or Ram is Ram and if it works the first time it works?

Thanks, y'all!
 
Going from 256 to 1.25 should be a HUGE improvement, so something is wrong. You may have a bad stick on your hands. Try this: remove the 256 chip and boot with only the 1gb stick. See how the performance is and report back.
 
isn't that first stick soldered in there?

(i'm not an expert in tinkering inside....)
I am afraid of permanently doing something
 
That A-DATA is most likely bad. Put in the Crucial and see if that works. If it doesn't then it is probably something with your logic board. You could have gotten two bad sticks, but it isn't all that likely.
 
ok, so I am now zooming around ONLY on the ADATA stick.

For some reason, things seem to be going more smoothly... shouldn't it be the opposite, if I DECREASED the ram?

anyways, iTunes actually worked for a good 7 minutes before it stopped.

I had Firefox on with multiple tabs, Mail, iTunes, and then iPhoto (which seemed to go a bit faster.) But as I tried to shift rapidly around my 4000 photos, at first it was fine, but I think I overworked the system, because then the iTunes started SKIPPING like a CD player! And the iPhoto froze, even the arrow was stuck in place. I had to force-reboot from the Power key.

So... with only the ADATA, things went smoothly, but still not perfectly. Would it be possible that the new RAM and the old were competing with each other, or something strange? the ADATA is DDR 400 and not 333, but the salesman at the store said it would cycle down. could that be why?

Maybe it's my own faulty expectations that a 1 Ghz processor that now has a Gig should be able to process all those apps at once? Is the ADATA doing what's it's supposed to do? Should I open up the Crucial and try that one, too?

thanks guys!
 
Yes, give the Crucial memory a shot. I've used Crucial memory in many computers now, not one have had any issues. :)
 
Macs don't use DDR400 RAM in any notebook. Send the AData back for refund, you were sold inappropriate RAM. The AData is not a guaranteed-mac-compatible module. You should not be expected to experiment on your own because the seller didn't have the right RAM in stock.

iTunes and iPhoto should not be quitting, ever, so lasting longer between quitting is still bad. Circumstantially, if this only started when you installed the new RAM, then it sounds like the RAM. Make sure you do a Repair Permissions with Disk Utility (after you replace the RAM)

(on the PowerBook G4 12", there is one socket plus some soldered on RAM. On the 15" and 17" models there are two RAM sockets.)
 
Update

So I took out the ADATA gig and put in the Crucial gig.

Results....?

Well, nothing has crashed! No weird shut-downs (though I haven't tried to systematically test it as much as I did the ADATA), and my iTunes has been playing for a few hours without skipping.

BUT...

iPhoto is still FRIGGIN SLOW. Rainbow beach ball appears for everything from trying to scroll up and down to trying to delete anything.

I have to say... even on 256 MB, iTunes, Firefox, and Mail could all run concurrently. Sure, iPhoto was virtually worthless... but it seems that all another Gig is getting me is a SLIGHTLY more usable iPhoto...

IS 90$ for a Gig worth that? I'm a little shocked... I really though this would make everything like new. (And yes, in addition I also cleaned out about 14 Gigs of my 60 Gig internal Harddrive, so there SHOULD nothing wrong, right...?

What do y'all think? I was planning on spending a few hundred now to patch things up so I could buy a new laptop when Snow Leopard comes out... But 1. 90$ RAM and 2. I have to buy an external drive b/c the internal combo one zoinked out.... is it worth it, guys? 200$ on components for a system I'll be able to sell in a year or 2 for only 400 or 500 anyways?
 
BigSb85 said:
So I took out the ADATA gig and put in the Crucial gig.

Results....?

Well, nothing has crashed! No weird shut-downs (though I haven't tried to systematically test it as much as I did the ADATA), and my iTunes has been playing for a few hours without skipping.

BUT...

iPhoto is still FRIGGIN SLOW. Rainbow beach ball appears for everything from trying to scroll up and down to trying to delete anything.

I have to say... even on 256 MB, iTunes, Firefox, and Mail could all run concurrently. Sure, iPhoto was virtually worthless... but it seems that all another Gig is getting me is a SLIGHTLY more usable iPhoto...

IS 90$ for a Gig worth that? I'm a little shocked... I really though this would make everything like new. (And yes, in addition I also cleaned out about 14 Gigs of my 60 Gig internal Harddrive, so there SHOULD nothing wrong, right...?

What do y'all think? I was planning on spending a few hundred now to patch things up so I could buy a new laptop when Snow Leopard comes out... But 1. 90$ RAM and 2. I have to buy an external drive b/c the internal combo one zoinked out.... is it worth it, guys? 200$ on components for a system I'll be able to sell in a year or 2 for only 400 or 500 anyways?
Click to expand...

First of all, $90 for a gig of ram? Seems a bit high to me. Secondly, I think you may be expecting a lot from a ram increase on an older computer. I also have a gig in my old Ti Powerbook and iPhoto is pretty slow, however I think one of the main reasons for that is that a couple years ago I switched to a DSLR so my photo files are much bigger and pushing 15000 or so. Ram will help, but your processor and graphics cards will limit you. If you really want some more speed you might think of installing a 7200rpm hard disk. (and while you have it open you could replace the superdrive, its not too hard)
 
BigSb85 said:
So I took out the ADATA gig and put in the Crucial gig.

Results....?

Well, nothing has crashed! No weird shut-downs (though I haven't tried to systematically test it as much as I did the ADATA), and my iTunes has been playing for a few hours without skipping.

BUT...

iPhoto is still FRIGGIN SLOW. Rainbow beach ball appears for everything from trying to scroll up and down to trying to delete anything.

I have to say... even on 256 MB, iTunes, Firefox, and Mail could all run concurrently. Sure, iPhoto was virtually worthless... but it seems that all another Gig is getting me is a SLIGHTLY more usable iPhoto...

IS 90$ for a Gig worth that? I'm a little shocked... I really though this would make everything like new. (And yes, in addition I also cleaned out about 14 Gigs of my 60 Gig internal Harddrive, so there SHOULD nothing wrong, right...?

What do y'all think? I was planning on spending a few hundred now to patch things up so I could buy a new laptop when Snow Leopard comes out... But 1. 90$ RAM and 2. I have to buy an external drive b/c the internal combo one zoinked out.... is it worth it, guys? 200$ on components for a system I'll be able to sell in a year or 2 for only 400 or 500 anyways?
Click to expand...

i have a 1.67 G4 powerbook w/ 1.5 GB of ram, and iphoto just runs slow when you have a large photo library (i think you mentioned 4000+ images, that is a lot of rendering). It will get the job done, but it has never been a blazing fast performer (for me anyway). $90 for 1 gig of ram does seem like a lot, although sometimes when you are looking for older sticks, they can be more expensive. Good luck.

Sirus2400 said:
If you really want some more speed you might think of installing a 7200rpm hard disk. (and while you have it open you could replace the superdrive, its not too hard)
Click to expand...
I actually have a 7200rpm hard drive, and I do not think it makes that much of a difference. If you are looking for huge speed bumps, you are going to need to save up and get a new computer. Like Sirus said, there is only so much your old processor and graphics card can do.
 
Conclusion

Thank you to everyone for their help...

I just returned both the AData and the Crucial RAM modules to the store. Honestly, there's only a slight lag between 1.25 gigs and 256 mb of Ram, surprisingly enough.

I think I'll save myself the 90$ now and hopefully invest that in a new computer when I get one in a year or two.

Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back