Memory not showing up

Question

Level 1

5 points

Memory not showing up

Hello all,
First post.
I have two 512 memory chips in. The bottom bay does not show as full. When a chip is in, it shows as empty in About this mac ..I have tried reseating them, switching them, removing one and seating one in both the top and bottom bay. Once, using one chip I slipped it into the bottom bay, and it showed up; then carefully, I tried slipping a another 512 into the top bay. Then the top bay showed full, and the bottom bay empty, (both were then full.)
Is there anything I can do to reset things? I tried to get the keyboard off using apple's instructions, but could not see how to. I was thinking to try and reset the power management thingy?
thanks

Rafael

Powerbook G4 1.0 15", Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Feb 12, 2008 3:17 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 20, 2008 5:34 AM in response to rmacia

Hi,

When you were doing this, you had the power OFF, the Battery OUT, and touched the case to null any static... right?
When done, and put back together, battery in, power on... then start up the computer.
Look in your "About This Mac". Also, go a little further, "More Info" >"Memory", there click on both slots and see what is in both on the bottom half.
The reset is done with the power off and battery out, for at least 30 seconds to a minute.

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Answer 2

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Mar 20, 2008 7:30 AM in response to rmacia

Hi, Rafael. There are two very diffferent 15" 1GHz Powerbook G4 models: a Titanium one with most of its ports on its back panel and an easily-removable keyboard, and an Aluminum one with all its ports on its end panels and a keyboard that's quite hard to remove (and Apple provides no instructions for doing so). I suspect you have the Aluminum and have been looking at keyboard-removal instructions for the Titanium, but please confirm for us that you have an Aluminum Powerbook.

The Aluminum model has been plagued with failures of the lower memory slot, while the Titanium model's slots rarely fail. When a memory module is well seated in its slot but isn't detected, there's a hardware problem: either the module has failed or its slot has. Nothing that you can reset will change it. If each module works in one of your slots but not the other, the second slot is bad. If one of your modules fails to work in either slot, that module is bad.

If a slot is bad, the logic board must be replaced or repaired ($330+ for replacement by Apple, $250 for repair by Wegener Media). Or the lowcost alternative is to live with the bad slot and put a 1GB RAM module in the good slot.

If a module is bad, it may be covered by a "lifetime" warranty from the vendor or manufacturer who supplied it. Check with the vendor, unless it was Apple, in which case you're out of luck now. But RAM is cheap, and almost any RAM that you buy now (unless you buy it from Apple) will probably have a lifetime warranty. Buy Crucial, Hynix, Samsung, or Kingston RAM (but not Kingston's "Value RAM" line, which is known to be unreliable in Powerbooks).

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