Lower Memory Slot - Empty

My PB has been at apple repair since august 4 for a repair after lower memory slot failure. it was on hold while waiting for a part, but on the 12th the repair status page said :end hold", but nothing has changed yet. it's getting a little annoying as i was told 3-5 business days when i sent it in from my local apple store.

Why a month? It's a top-of-the-line model, it's the local Apple dealer and repair shop, this is the UK, and the first three replacement motherboards they got from Apple were DoA. They finally gave up locally and sent it to their main shop. My experience sending 'Books directly to Apple UK for repair has been similar, so I'm not really that surprised.

Hey there,
since I upgraded to Tiger my lower memory slot is also "empty". I had the same issues as all the others (slower system, etc) but first thought it would be due to the new tiger.
I will give it to apple tomorrow (bought it in december last year so there should be no problem with warranty etc.) - hoping that they will fix it.

Greetings

PS: Couldn't it be that tiger lets the system get too hot and that therefore the memory-logic-board crashes? I read very often that people had this problem after upgrading from Panther to Tiger...

<edit>
If I unplug both RAMs and plug them in again.. sometimes it works again recognizing all memory, but then after using the powerbook for a while it freezes and if I reboot the lower slot is regarded as being empty again...
CPU temp is at 43 degree...
</edit>

Tim, I saw the exact same things you describe when swapping RAM right after my slot failure, and others have reported them as well. So your experience just shows how consistent these symptoms are.

Regarding Tiger, it's interesting that a lot of people have reported slot failure after an upgrade. But there really isn't a clear pattern. Other people felt that upgrading to 10.3.9 was the culprit. None of this convinces me however. My lower slot failed while I was still running 10.2.8 and I hadn't done in updates in a long time.

Hi, I can just confirm Boyds in his opinion.
I just ran into problems (after 2 years of pure joy) some weeks after an upgrade to 10.3.9
No warranty. Had to remove the memory from lower slot.
Now everythings back to normal - not really with the memory cut into halves.

Hi, I have had this problem since June/July and I've been running on my upper slot since. I just lost the start up chime. Does anyone know or can guess how long a machine lasts once one has that problem? This is important as I'm just finishing a thesis, and naturally can't afford to muck around with lost data etc..
Thanks in advance,
J

I bought a PowerBook 15" Combo back on April 12th. After 2 weeks the PB stopped starting - it just gave me that ominous beep. I took it to an Apple store & they said it was the logic-board. They immediately gave me a new machine. Great! In a heightened sense of euphoria with Apple Support I purchased an additional 512mb which I had installed. A couple of months later (July) I noticed that the PB was only recognizing 512 of memory when I knew I had 1gb. So off I went to my local Apple Store where they said that the logic-board again was at fault & that it was now a 'known issue'. They ordered a new logic-board & replaced it within a couple of days. They assured me that the new boards where free of this issue. (As an aside I had to return the PB the next day as the Apple engineer had failed to fully reinserted the AirPort card - genius?) Anyway, here I am a few weeks after the replacement & guess what? The lower memory slot is failing to recognize the memory...again! BTW I am a convert to Mac from Windows. My switch happened about 18mths ago ... so far the hardware has been an issue! I also have a PowerMac G5 that has been problematic. Hopefully, Apple will acknowledge this issue before we see the Switch campaign head in the other direction.

Me too, me too, me too!

My machine has been sluggish since upgrading to Tiger, but I wrote it off as the new operating system. When I upgraded to 10.3.9, I lost the start-up ding, but I blew it off. Then I noticed that the back light on the keyboard stopped working. Then I noticed that I "lost" memory and that my bottom memory slot reads empty. Now my machine gets really hot when I used it for hours at a go.

I have two weeks until I finish my dissertation then I will be sending it in for repair.

I guess I'm the newest member ot this awful club.

I've been trying to find out why my computer got slower, and today I looked at the ASP to check the memory. Unfortunately, I only had two 256K modules, so now I'm left with a mere 256K RAM.

I'll have to bring it to be serviced ASAP.

Hello.

I'm going for my second logic board now.

My PB was purchased in February 2005. Every two months the lower slot failed.

oleastro,
sorry to hear of yr plight.
two boards: can you tell us what machine spec you have?
thnx

Bad switch to apple, even if OS X Tiger is nice my powerbook is working in one leg.
This happened after upgrading to Tiger 10.4.2 ?
Worse, my powerbook is 15 months old = no applecare = no repair.
It's sound crazy if we must buy applecare to use apple product more than 12 months.
French law call this "vices caches" and garantie must contnue to run after 12 months...
I hope apple will cure and give a pacific solution.

french law is great.
"hidden defect" it definitely sounds like to me!
thanks for posting.

Power Book G4 15" 1.5 Combo 1Gb RAM5 - now 512Mb 😟

Folks,
Some of you may, or may not be surprised to hear that this problem has even made the pages of Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBookLower_Memory_Slotfailure

Something must be done!
J