[TheZee]

I recently installed 512mb RAM in my ivory white iBook bumping it's RAM up to 640mb. Did this about 6 months ago. Recently I have been experiencing applications not being able to launch because of low memory. This happens even if I am only opening one app. SOme apps are crashing as well. I did a rudimentary check on my RAM memory using a third party application called ?Do I Need More Memory? and it repoorted that all but 46mb of my 640mb or RAM were being used. This is when I had only two apps open and they were not memory intensive apps. Any think that it could be the new memory I recently installed is defective??? How can I tell??? How can I test it??? What are the signs that a memory stick is going bad or is defective??? Please advise. Peace out . . .

[chabig]

Under the Apple menu, choose "About this Mac". That will tell you how much memory you have in your machine. If it says 256MB, then the 512 piece you added isn't working (you should probably reseat it). If it says 640MB, then your memory is fine.

On OS X, monitoring the amount of free memory tells you nothing. The operating system is going to manage the use of all of the memory in your machine. This is good design. Why would you want to pay good money for memory if the computer couldn't make use of it?

How much free space do you have on your hard drive? I'd guess that you hard drive is nearly full, and that's what is causing your problem.

Chris

[chabig]

By the way, what do you mean "applications can't launch because of low memory"? Please describe the indications.

Chris

[OogaBooga]

Could be using OS 9, right?

[chabig]

Originally Posted by OogaBooga

Could be using OS 9, right?

That would be unlikely. The white iBooks always shipped with OS X on them. And Do I Need More Memory is an OS X only program.

Chris

[TheZee]

Thanks for your guidance. In answer to your questions, I am only using a little more than half of my HD space. My HD says it's 30Gb but it scans at 27Gb and I have 12.96Gb available still. I am using OSX 10.2.8 currently. I don't use OS9 at all hardly but with my iBook it shipped with both operating systems. I can switch between the two. As far as the applications not being able to load due to low system memory; they hang when launched with the wait cursor just spinning. Quite often now the wait cursor won't stop spinning and the app won't load so I have to force quit it. The reason why I think it is due to low system memory is because I opened ?Do I Need More Memory? application and then tried to launch some applications. Each time ?Do I Need More Memory? app went in the red zone displaying RAM memory going down to like 32mb available and saying that I needed more memory. Thats just nonsense because I have 640Mb installed in the machine. I was wondering, do you think resetting PRAM would do anything to maybe address the issue. Again, any and all guidance is greatly appreciated. Peace out . . .

[chabig]

Thanks for the information. I don't think lack of memory is your problem. But you can know for sure by removing the memory and seeing if the problem goes away. If it does, then try reinstalling the memory, taking care to seat it firmly in the socket.

If the problem is not memory, then here are few forums with other troubleshooting steps that will probably help you out:

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/248286/the-thread-computer-freezes-panics-crashes/
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=13846

Good luck,
Chris

[TheZee]

Soooooooo many thanks for the heads up on the forums you pointed me to. Especially the one where posters offered a list of steps to follow for problem first aid and then troubleshooting. I printed it up and will try to folow it every time because I think they all were spot on with their advice. Trip out now, whenI try to run Apple Hardware Test all that comes up are fragmented blocks of red, grey and black color. The intercface is all smashed together on the left hand side of the screen and completely undecipherable. Any clues as to what that is all about ??? I am currently trying to backUp my data but when I try to burn the data onto a CD-RW I get an error message -3 stating that it cannot burn the information onto the disk. No more details, just that. Any advice with that one ??? I do not have access to another Mac and i have not purchased an external HD yet so I am limited to burning my data onto CDR, CDR-RW. Peace out . . .

[chabig]

Hmmm...Apple Hardware Test is a good idea. I have no idea why the display would be smashed on one side of the screen. It is important that you only run the hardware test from the disc that shipped with your type of machine, and not another machine.

Chris