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macfrenzy · Jun 24, 2004, 11:58 PM

hi to all.i'm new to mac adn got my ibook g4 14" 933hz 4 month ago. i would love to have the new ibook but i will lose too much money if i sell mine now. i've already max out my ram and was wondering if i can upgrade it to 1 gig ram? i asked the apple stores adn they said it cant be done but some stores said it can be done. will anyone here know if it can be done befor ei spent my money or damage my ibook?

ghporter · Jun 25, 2004, 06:14 PM

Deep in the bowels of your iBook is a 128MB stick of RAM. I think it's in a socket, just like the one you can get at that you have a 512MB stick in. Here's the rub: to even start to get at the "factory RAM," you have to open up the case, which will void your warranty.

So you have received two, very correct, yet mutually exclusive answers to your question about moving up to 1GB of RAM. The Apple folks will tell you "no" because the internal RAM is a mother to get at and trying will void the warranty. Other folks will tell you "yes" because they know how to get at the internal slot-and they don't mind charging you out the wazoo while they void your warranty.

My wife's iBook is running 640MB (128 internal and 512 external) and it's fabulous-what tells you that you need to go to 1GB?

psk-ele · Jun 25, 2004, 08:32 PM

GHPorter,

Thanks for the tip on the internal ram slot. I haven't heard about that before. I always thought it was soldered to the mother board.

d4nth3m4n · Jun 26, 2004, 01:06 PM

Originally posted by GHPorter:
Deep in the bowels of your iBook is a 128MB stick of RAM. I think it's in a socket, just like the one you can get at that you have a 512MB stick in. Here's the rub: to even start to get at the "factory RAM," you have to open up the case, which will void your warranty.

So you have received two, very correct, yet mutually exclusive answers to your question about moving up to 1GB of RAM. The Apple folks will tell you "no" because the internal RAM is a mother to get at and trying will void the warranty. Other folks will tell you "yes" because they know how to get at the internal slot-and they don't mind charging you out the wazoo while they void your warranty.

My wife's iBook is running 640MB (128 internal and 512 external) and it's fabulous-what tells you that you need to go to 1GB?

cant you get a 1gb ddr stick for g4 ibooks? (bringing it up to 1152mb) i think you didnt notice that this was a g4. in fact, i think apple finally admitted that you can do that, and the store sells 1gb ram chips. not that i would want to do it if i had a g4, its so damn expensive for a 1gb ram chip

</banter>

ghporter · Jun 27, 2004, 09:23 PM

I've heard reports that some G4s do ok with a 1G chip, but I haven't seen a lot of specifics, so I (as usual) went for a safe, conventional answer. It's quite possible that a new G4 iBook will work fine with a 1G chip, but right now there are no guarantees. G3 and G4 iBooks seem to have a history of (at least some units) doing fine with one model of RAM, while not working at all with another model with the same specs-this goes back to the "high density chips vs. low density chips" issue discussed here a while ago.

Whatever you do, think twice before you buy upgrade RAM from Apple! It's not that they don't have fine products, not at all. It's just that they want at least twice as much for their RAM upgrades as you should pay. We just bought a Crucial 512MB piece for my wife's iBook, and got it for about $100 with free shipping. The current price for a 512MB, PC2100 SO-DIMM on Apple's site is $200. You make the call. Right now, Crucial doesn't list a 1GB stick for the iBook, but I don't think it will take long for them to get on the bandwagon. Their 1GB, SO-DIMM with the appropriate specs is about $425, about $200 less than Kingston lists for their iBook-specific part.

Nerozwei · Jun 27, 2004, 10:53 PM

Originally posted by GHPorter:
Deep in the bowels of your iBook is a 128MB stick of RAM. I think it's in a socket, just like the one you can get at that you have a 512MB stick in. Here's the rub: to even start to get at the "factory RAM," you have to open up the case, which will void your warranty.

Interesting... Especially if there really is a standard SO-DIMM slot down there. All the G3s had the chips soldered to the logicboard. Any links to pictures, etc. information on where the slot is?

ghporter · Jun 28, 2004, 06:14 PM

Originally posted by Nerozwei:
Interesting... Especially if there really is a standard SO-DIMM slot down there. All the G3s had the chips soldered to the logicboard. Any links to pictures, etc. information on where the slot is?

Let me remind everyone that I said "I think it's in a socket." I have not seen it myself (and it'll be at least next February before I even start looking!), but I have deduced its existence. How? In my research, I found that it was darn hard to get anything other than 128MB internal memory on a G3-like pulling teeth. You can order a G4 with a variety of memory configurations that require something other than 128MB of internal memory. Therfore, it must be easier to select the internal memory on a G4, which implies a socketed SO-DIMM.

Like all theories, this is subject to be abandoned if someone proves something to the contrary-like my research about G3s may not have been as thorough as it should have been.

Remember, up until recently even Apple said that the G4 iBook would not support a 1GB RAM chip... It could easily be that the internal memory is just too darn inconvenient to try getting at.

Luca Rescigno · Jun 29, 2004, 08:44 AM

Uh... as far as I know, all iBooks have had a single soldered-in memory chip (which might just be a bunch of RAM chips soldered to the motherboard, no separate chip) with one expansion slot. It's almost impossible to remove the factory RAM, otherwise I think someone would have done it. If there were an internal slot, at least, someone would DEFINITELY figured out how to replace it. I mean, there are these long 30-some step procedures for replacing the hard drive, that involve basically taking apart the whole computer and rebuilding it around a new hard drive. No, the base RAM is soldered to the motherboard. I think the only way to replace it would be to buy new, higher capacity RAM chips and replace the current ones by soldering the new ones on.