How do I free up more RAM from the harddrive?
PowerMac, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier
There is no RAM on a hard drive. RAM refers to the installed memory. Free up memory by not running so many applications or install more RAM in the computer.
If you need storage space on the hard drive, then delete files you no longer need or buy a larger hard drive.
Make sure the RAM is paired properly. Although the official word was that not pairing would only cause a little performance hit, I found several Macs of that generation and architecture that would crash or not start at all in the presence of unpaired RAM.
You have eight slots in two banks of four. It he banks are A and B, and slots in each bank are numbered 1 through 4, you wnat this type of arrangement (sizes shown are just for an example):
A1: 32MB B1: 32MB
A2: 32 MB B2: 32MB
A3: 16MB B3:16MB
A4: empty B4: empty
It's also recommended to "cascade" the RAM modules by size; the largest modules go in the lower-numbered slots like I show in the example
One more thing to consider. What OS are you running. Are you managing your memory allocation properly with the control panel?
Thanks. I think you are on to something. Unft I don't know what opperating system its running ( my brother has the computer and he is 7 hours away). ITs the original OS that came with the computer back in 1997. What simple steps in the control pannel gets me to reallocating memory?
Ed
I did successfully install 128MB or additional RAM. It helped a little.
ed
thanks
Eddie,
The original OS was 7.5.5 or 7.6.1. The machine would benefit greatly from OS 8.1. That was my all-time favorite OS on Legacy Macs.
Go to the Apple in the top menu. Select "About This Mac." That should bring up a window that shows the information about memory allocation. If the OS is hogging a lot of memory, report back. If it is only taking a small percentage, then the OS is not the issue.
Go back to the Apple. Scroll down to control panels. Select Memory and see what it says.
powermac 8600 keeps freezing up, not enough RAM
