Is My Ram Fried?! Is My Graphics Card To Blame?

I'm super upset.

I think you need to get as super drunk as I already am. :-/

Given you can put your 1GB DIMMs in and only get 1GB RAM available to you suggests to be that there's a logic board issue. Any difference when you swap the risers?

Now, all is not lost. What you can do is to contact an Apple Store (be thankful you have them in you country) else an authorised service centre and see if you can have them order parts without you giving them your MP. That way you can simply take it in when the parts are on hand, meaning your down time is like a day. This is what I'd do if my head wasn't trying to fall off my shoulders in every direction.

By the way, will you MP see the RAM if you put all of it in one riser, and one riser only? It's still unclear, to silly old me at least, whether it's a logic board or riser probem.

wow, all I can say is check that it's all seated properly and if not then take it in. You're definitely suffering from some kind of problem.

I can say though that the arrangement you have described in your most recent post should work.

-- Mark

Hmmm… how bizarre! If you put RAM into slots 3/4 of riser B and get nothing then it's hard to see anything other than a logic board problem.

One thing, as best you can document all the steps you've taken to debug your problem. The more you do this the less they'll have to and hence, the less messing about they'll do which ultimately means you should get up and running again sooner.

PS While there's not much that'll probably make you feel better you might want to try hitting your b/f. It seems to make a lot of g/f's happier when they do. 😉

Remove all 512 chips and put the 1G chips into slot 1 & 2 on the upper riser. If the computer boots and you have only one gig of ram , then one of the chips is faulty. Although I doubt it will boot.

I recently got two 1 G chips from OWC (Netlist). There was something wrong with them and they have been replaced overnight with functional ones.

But when the faulty chips were installed no other ram on that riser could be seen by the Mac Pro. I had 3 G prior to adding the 2G of faulty ram, and when the computer booted it would only show 2G instead of 5G. The bad chips prevented the other chips on the same riser from being accessed.

So it may not be your logic board.

Buy the way OWC lowered the price on their Ram by a few dollars, and the OWC branded Ram I ordered was actually Netlist: so I'm not sure it's necessary to pay the extra money for the Netlist since you will be getting that anyway.

Haste makes waste unfortunately.

And while it may not be intuitive, or come naturally, doing one thing at a time, and having method to your madness, a plan, and a chart, is often the only way.

With my system, I find it easier when working inside to lay the case on its side. I found that inserting Risers took much more pressure and force than I expected it to before it would "click" in place.

Swapping parts on some systems could result in kernel panic. On the G5, for some reason peculiar to those systems until late 2005, NVRAM would either be corrupt or not "rebuilt" properly when swapping RAM around.

The SMC reset button is small and was hard to find the first time, but good to do. So would PRAM/NVRAM reset (command option pr keys, all four, held down during boot process for two full cycles before releasing). And unplug power cord while working inside.

Mechanical parts are rarely really random, there is usually a pattern.

When there is a question about RAM working, try with just one pair set at a time. Try Riser #1 then #2 in the top slot.

It was harder to insert Riser into its slot with the case upright without also putting one hand behind the case to allow safely pressing it fully. And lean on the DIMMs with your thumb and make sure it is seated also and the side latches click in place.

If it was fried you would smell it, and it would not be able to boot. 😉

Haste makes waste unfortunately.

Haste or not, regardless of whatever RAM configuration that was tried, barring the mismatching of pairs or poor installation, it should have worked.

When you reset your smc the other night, it is very possible that you didnt leave the system unplugged quite long enough. When you unplugged your system to take it in to the genius bar, the smc likely drained and when they plugged it in, the system reconfigured itself and all was right with it again. Glad you got it working. =)

I've made another Apple appointment and hopefully it won't do the same thing tomorrow

While I'm sure it'll be under stating things but say that you're not best pleased. One thing's that got me thinking is what's different between the Apple Store and you home and why would it work there then throw a hissy fit when you're home. And, the only thing that I can think of is electrical. Your problems might simply be a manifestation of a poor/changed electrical supply.

So, are you using a UPS and if so which one?

Additionally, the only other changes would be the peripherals that are connected to your MP. While I doubt they would be able to give the behaviour you're getting one just never knows.

Regardless, when you go to your Genius appointment go there with as much documentation as you can and be sure you can describe the behaviour clearly and what you've done about it. If you get a good Genius he/she will know that you do in fact have a problem and whether they can see it or not. They'll help you as best they can and won't treat you like the "crazed lunatic" you may feel like (which you aren't by the way!).