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brent0saurus · Sep 3, 2005, 08:39 PM

Hi, i just added a 1 gig stick of ram from newegg.com to my 1.67 ghz powerbook g4 and was wondering if it's possible that my ram is slower than a 1 gig stick of ram that i would get from apple.
My computer reads the ram and passed all tests but my girlfriend just bought an 1.42 ghz ibook g4 with 2 sticks of 512 (both from apple) and it seems to be running much faster, but maybe that's because i have a lot more files on my mac than her ibook(she has only had it for a day)?

I keep hearing different things from different people. Some people say that ram is ram no matter where you get it, and others say apple is better but it's my understanding that Apple doesn't actually make ram. Also, people have told me that it doesn't matter how many files you have on your computer, it should still run as fast as it did when it was new. But i defenitely feel a difference in speed. Especially after being on my girlfriend's ibook. iChat and Safari always opened with one bounce on her ibook but it always takes mine about 9 to open iChat. And i also remember the sound of logging in and the appearance of the window were simultaneous and now i hear the sound first and then after a few seconds, the window pops up. Maybe i'm just being really picky about little things, but it just doesn't seem to run as smooth as a new mac.
I've been using macs for about 2 years, but this is the first one i've actually owned one myself. Thanks for any help you can give me!

Brent

bradoesch · Sep 3, 2005, 10:41 PM

You're correct that Apple doesn't manufacture their own RAM.

Do you have a link to the RAM you got from newegg? If you bought brand name RAM with the correct specifications you should be alright. Apple doesn't have faster RAM but they do have quality RAM that meets their specifications.

How much free space do you have on your hard disk? You shouldn't let it get under 5 GB or else you may notice performance issues.

Now I'm just getting picky, but iBooks now come with 512 MB soldered to the logic board with one free DIMM slot. Your girlfriend must have 512 MB built-in and a 512 MB DIMM.

Big Mac · 01:14 AM

When people talk about faster and slower RAM for the same computer, they usually refer to essentially insignificant differences in timing that are completely imperceptible to anything other than a benchmarking program. The only time when RAM can truly slow a machine down is when it's defective - defective RAM will either crash your system, cause it to fail to boot or slow your Mac literally to a crawl. If you still believe your PB is slow, try running Xbench, which will allow you to compare it to other PBs and your GF's iBook.

brent0saurus · Sep 4, 2005, 11:38 AM

Yeah, my girlfriend had a 512 mb stick added. I have about 42 gb of hard drive space left. And i believe i have the correct specifications. here's the link. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820155111
It's a KINGMAX 1GB 200-Pin DDR SO-DIMM DDR 333 (PC 2700) Notebook Memory - OEM.

So should her computer be running faster because it's new and she has no files on it? Like i said, i have about 42 gb of hard drive space left and she probably has like, 54 gb left from the 60 gb hard drive (because of the apps that come with it)
thanks for the help!

Barry · Sep 4, 2005, 11:45 AM

based on experience, I would never put non apple certified ram into my Mac. I have seen way to many people who tried to save money on RAM have to pay more because the computer needed to be serviced. There are some decent shareware and public domain programs that can test memory, like rember ( a gui to memtest).

brent0saurus · Sep 4, 2005, 11:52 AM

so i tested it on xbench and submitted it and it looks like the compared my powerbook to a powermac...i don't know why. I'm not familiar with this so could anyone tell me if my computer did well? http://ladd.dyndns.org/xbench/merge....setCookie=true
it doesn't look like i did, but compared to a powermac g5, i'm not surprised...but again, i'm not familiar with it. Thanks!!!

Barry · Sep 4, 2005, 12:57 PM

if the RAM passes, then there could be other factore crudding up your computer. Do you ever leave it on overnight and just dim the monitor (not sleeping)?? The computer does maintenance at 3 and 4 AM if left on. if this maintenance doesn't get done the works can get gummed up. I would download one of the many free/shareware programs that will run these maintence routines for you and see if that helps. (onyx, macjanitor, tiger cache cleaner are examples)

brent0saurus · Sep 4, 2005, 01:05 PM

i didn't have my mac plugged in for the previous test so this time it did better but still only tested around 30 for the ram....
http://ladd.dyndns.org/xbench/merge....setCookie=true

i'm so confused! i'll try the macjanitor thing now!
thanks for all of your help!

bradoesch · Sep 4, 2005, 03:38 PM

How about repairing permissions. Disk Utility (located in the Utilities folder), select your internal HD, then click "repair permissions."

If it still seems like the RAM is funky pull it out and see how the machine performs with just the RAM it shipped with.

brent0saurus · Sep 4, 2005, 09:09 PM

i just tried the repair disk permissions and it didn't do anything different. Am i supposed to be getting all 100s on the xbench test? i'm getting around a 26 for memory which seems really low. i can't try taking out my ram yet because i'm at college and left my little screwdrivers at home but does anyone else have any suggestions?
Also, do files slow down your computer? i have lots of music and my the top bar and icons always used to come up almost instantaneously, but now the top bar comes up with no icons, then my desktop icons, (which is only the hd icon) and then the airport, blue tooth and all those icons load on the top bar. Is that normal? Thanks for all of your replies!

Big Mac · Sep 5, 2005, 12:42 AM

Originally Posted by Barry

based on experience, I would never put non apple certified ram into my Mac. I have seen way to many people who tried to save money on RAM have to pay more because the computer needed to be serviced. There are some decent shareware and public domain programs that can test memory, like rember ( a gui to memtest).

Apple is not a memory manufacturer and does not certify RAM. It purchases RAM from name brand vendors like Samsung and Crucial. If you had said you don't believe in buying generic RAM, I would have agreed with you. But there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to pay the horrendous Apple tax by buying additional RAM that way.

brent0saurus, it sounds like you're experiencing a software issue since your Mac's Xbench performance looks fine. You may have overloaded your account with third party applications, or there could be some corrupted files that are slowing things down. A basic diagnostic technique in OS X is to create a new user account on the machine and see if it suffers from the same problems as your existing account. If it does not exhibit the same issues, then you know the problem is limited to your account and is not OS or machine wide.

brent0saurus · Sep 5, 2005, 08:59 AM

Okay, the new user feels the same. I couldn't really test itunes because i have no music on it but here are my questions about what is normal and what isn't.

1. When i click itunes, it will bounce once or twice, the black arrow will show up under the icon to show that it's running, and then the window will show up after a few seconds. iTunes opens instantly on my girlfriends ibook. So is this normal since i have 3500 songs and she has zero

2. Should my computer feel a little more sluggish then a mac with no files on it(besides iLife)? Also, my computer feels faster now that i've had it on for a long time intead of shutting it down. So it normal to be slower when it first opens up?

3. My computer never did this when it was new, but the volume control thing is kind of laggy. Sometimes if i hit the volume key a bunch of times, nothing will happen, and then a few seconds later, the volume does what i told it to, slowly, one incremement at a time. Also, if i hold it and then let go, the volume keeps doing what i told it to. On other macs it seems like it's pretty synced with the push of the button and the little volume thing coming up and showing the incremements.
4. I'm getting rid of programs i've downloaded int he past and don't need anymore so is there an uninstall process or do i just delete the .dmg file? Just want to make sure..

I'm just really paranoid about my mac and want it to work the best it can. Sorry if i'm asking redundant or trivial questions. And THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR YOUR CONSISTANT AND QUICK RESPONSES! YOU ARE REALLLLY HELPFUL!!
Thanks again and again.