Q: Is this computer outdated or rather in need of service?

DiscoveryCactus wrote:

 

Do I need to upgrade the RAM?

How to tell if your mac needs more ram

How much and what type of RAM does my iMac support?  Does this upgrade require a visit to an Authorized Apple Repair shop?  Will the same RAM be available at Fry's?

2gb of 200-pin PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM. No. Not sure.  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1423#3

My HD is 128 GB with 27 GB free. 

 

Do I need to free space from my HD?

I would, but you aren't extremely low on free space.

DiscoveryCactus wrote:

 

I followed your advice.  The RAM I bought did not fit or work.

what ram?  200-pin PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM is correct for your model.

This is not NoteBook memory and it's the wrong spec for this model iMac.

Macs are picky about RAM and you are not just going to find it at the common electronics/office retail chains.

Buy Mac RAM from either of these sites

http://www.crucial.com

OR

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac

I would find a way to get more space on your HD, also.

Either purchase and external FireWire drive and archive everything to that drive free-ing up space on the iMac's internal drive.

Or find a way to delete junk or unneeded files on your internal drive and archive any important data and burn to disc for archiving.

To fee up some additional space your could try an app called

OnyX

http://www.titanium.free.fr/download.php?sid=267ad88ca56b7e5cf1dc17fdf153fb23

Pick the version for your OS X version.

This will clear out a lot of junk and other unnecessary data/files.

Also, with an external FireWire drive, you can create another bootable OS X volume to use as backup OS X in case your internal drive and OS X on the internal drive has issues in the future.

Yeah macs are picky about their memory. I'd buy directly from apple which is crazy expensive or from OWC, other world computing. I bought mine from them and it works fine. You ciick your computer model and thati's it you dont need to remember the specs of the memory.