[Matthew Attoe]

Hi,

Something's up with my RAM, but I'm not sure what is the cause of it. Can't work out if it's a faulty stick or faulty slot.

Got the 2 x 256mb standard Apple sticks in the default slots. Bought 2 x 512mb sticks from Crucial UK and popped them in the next slots.

Everything has been working fine for the last six weeks or so. Then today, I notice that MenuMeters is showing I only have 1Gb RAM. So I check in System Profiler and it also says I only have 1Gb of RAM, made up of - apparently - 4 256mb sticks.

So, trying to get to the bottom of it, I booted from the Apple Hardware CD and it reports an error as soon as it has booted up:

post/0/2048 DIMM3/J14

So, I thought I'd swap the 2 512Mb sticks over, and rebooted from the Hardware CD, expecting to see the error for DIMM 2/J13, but I got exactly the same error message as the first time (DIMM3 J/14).

This made me doubt that I'd acctually swapped the sticks over, and somehow maybe put the same sticks back in the same slots, so I swapped them over again (still with me???), just to be sure, but upon rebooting from the Hardware CD, I still got the same hardware error.

Now, this leads me to think that I may have a faulty slot as opposed to faulty sticks. Would that make sense?

The only thing that I've done internally to the machine is to fit a Pioneer 109 burner in the machine today, but surely this wouldn't have caused the RAM problem? I can't even say that the RAM problem happened today, could've been a week ago, but I only noticed it today. I was very careful about static electricity whilst I was fitting the drive. I left the Mac (switched off, of course) plugged into the mains and touched the metal chassis to earth myself before I done anything. i even took my socks off before I started

Just to rule out the 109, I removed it, and rebooted and System Profiler still said I only had 1Gb of RAM (4 x 25mb).

Does anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks in advance.

Matthew

PS I suppose I could try pulling out the Apple Ram and sticking the Crucial RAM in the those slots, but at the moment I'm a bit loathed to start pulling the machine apart anymore.

[Matthew Attoe]

No ideas anyone?

Any help would be really appreciated.

[Eriamjh]

Take all the Crucial Ram out and re-test with only the Apple Ram. What does it say?

[James41]

Also try pulling the original ram and putting in the new ram in slots 1 and 2 then run the test and see what you get.

Dumb question of the day, are you sure they didn't ship you 256 chips instead?

[Matthew Attoe]

Eriamjh: I booted off of the Apple Hardware CD this morning with just the Apple RAM and it didn't say about detecting any errors. So I've left the G% running the extended test sequence today, to see if it find anything wrong (without the Crucial RAM in).

James41: You know what, I even started to think that maybe my 512's were 256's. I even dug out my order and it says 2 x 512mb RAM. I definately had 1.5Gb of RAM tho. Self-doubt is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

I think something has happened to the logic board. I'm going to pull the Apple RAM out toight and put the Crucial RAM in the first 2 slots and see what happens.

Thanks for the help,

Matthew

[Leonard]

Try putting the Crucial RAM in slot 1&2 and the Apple RAM in slot 3&4 and see what happens. If you still get an error on slot 3, it may actually be the slot, which means a motherboard replacement.

[Matthew Attoe]

Just out of interest, which one is slot 3?

Is it in the upper bank or the lower bank?

[Matthew Attoe]

OK,

I've done as you've requested and tried some more things, and it gets stranger, but I think it's a faulty stick now as opposed to a faulty logic board.

TEST 1
Just the stock Apple Ram and run extended tests from the Hardware Test CD. Everything passes 100%.

TEST 2
Took out the Apple Ram and put the Crucial in it's place. System Profiler still says 512mb (2 x 256Mb). Boot from Hardware CD and get error message

Post/0/2048 Dimm1/J12 (as opposed to Dimm3 J/14 when the crucial ram was in the other slots).

Swap the crucial ram round so that the sticks are in the other slots and still get error message

Post/0/2048 Dimm1/J12

TEST 3

Put the Apple Ram in the next two slots, still leaving the Crucial Ram in. System Profiler now says 1gb (4 x 256mb).

Boot from Hardware Test CD still shows error message

Post/0/2048 Dimm1/J12

TEST 4
Zap the PRAM 3 times but System Profiler still says 1Gb

TEST 5
Press the PMU button. System Profiler now says 1.5Gb. WAHEY!!!!!

TEST 6
Boot from Apple Hardware CD and it reports no errors on booting up and says I have 1.5Gb of RAM.
Run Extended test just to be sure. Logic board passes. Memory fails with the error

2MEM/5/4: Dimm1/J12

Not WAHEY!!!

So, what now?

Does it sound like a faulty stick to anyone else. If so, I'll contact Crucial. If not, I'll contact Apple.

Thanks a million,

Matthew

[James41]

Originally Posted by Matthew Attoe

OK,

I've done as you've requested and tried some more things, and it gets stranger, but I think it's a faulty stick now as opposed to a faulty logic board.

TEST 1
Just the stock Apple Ram and run extended tests from the Hardware Test CD. Everything passes 100%.

TEST 2
Took out the Apple Ram and put the Crucial in it's place. System Profiler still says 512mb (2 x 256Mb). Boot from Hardware CD and get error message

Post/0/2048 Dimm1/J12 (as opposed to Dimm3 J/14 when the crucial ram was in the other slots).

Swap the crucial ram round so that the sticks are in the other slots and still get error message

Post/0/2048 Dimm1/J12

TEST 3

Put the Apple Ram in the next two slots, still leaving the Crucial Ram in. System Profiler now says 1gb (4 x 256mb).

Boot from Hardware Test CD still shows error message

Post/0/2048 Dimm1/J12

TEST 4
Zap the PRAM 3 times but System Profiler still says 1Gb

TEST 5
Press the PMU button. System Profiler now says 1.5Gb. WAHEY!!!!!

TEST 6
Boot from Apple Hardware CD and it reports no errors on booting up and says I have 1.5Gb of RAM.
Run Extended test just to be sure. Logic board passes. Memory fails with the error

2MEM/5/4: Dimm1/J12

Not WAHEY!!!

So, what now?

Does it sound like a faulty stick to anyone else. If so, I'll contact Crucial. If not, I'll contact Apple.

Thanks a million,

Matthew

I think i would be calling Crucial and asking for some replacement chips as there does seem to be something wrong with those. For one thing they are sposed to be 512's not 256's and then there is the error thingie...

[Matthew Attoe]

HI,

Yeah, I've been in touch with Crucial and they're sending me some new sticks just as soon as they receive the old ones back.

Here's hoping that that is what the problem is.

Thanks,

Matthew

[howardphillis]

How did you get on with the replacement crucial sticks?

I've had what sounds like a very similar problem, with a few variations.

On a G5 dual 2Ghz (4 slot) machine I added a Kingston 1Gb kit and the mac wouldn't boot at all. I removed the kingston RAM just leaving the original apple supplied and the mac booted fine. So I assumed the RAM was faulty and sent it back. When I got my replacement I had the same problem.

So I sent it back again and this time got a Dane-Elec 1Gb kit as a replacement. This time the mac would boot but System Profiler only reported the RAM as 4x256Mb instead of 2x256 and 2x512. So I sent it back again. This time the supplier ran hardware tests on the RAM and reported that there was nothing wrong with it so they sent it back to me.

Now when I installed the Dane-Elec RAM on it's own it's not booting at all. Dane-Elec and apple-supplied 512 kit boots into open firmware and reports a memory access error. Apple-supplied 512 kit and a Kingston 1Gb kit will boot but only show up as 4x256Mb. Apple hardware test reports the POST/0/2048 error on startup.

I'm sure the problem must lay with the motherboard, so I guess I'll have to send the whole mac back.

[Matthew Attoe]

Hi,

The replacement sticks fromCrucial worked fine. Not had a problem since. Well, not a memory-related problem anyway.

Good luck

Matthew