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macfantn · Nov 12, 2005, 04:40 PM

I have an ibook g4 800 mhz, running tiger and only have 256 mb of ram, would adding more ram help much? Also what is the max ram I can have 640? And finally is all ram created equal, I am looking on dealram.com and it ranges from 40 - 120 what is the best ram to buy? Thanks in advance.

mduell · Nov 12, 2005, 05:16 PM

Yes.
640MB officially, I believe some people have reported success with 1.13GB
No, far from it. I like Crucial for $124.

macfantn · Nov 12, 2005, 05:31 PM

What makes that ram 3 times the price of the 39.99 deal at dealram.com? Will there be incompatibility issues with the cheap ram?

pcdit · Nov 12, 2005, 07:07 PM

Hi there a little off topic but ram related none the less. I have the 1.2 g4 with 256mb of ram i put in a 512mb and had 768mb (obviously). Then when doing a system check put back the original 256 and then i had 512. Now I know that 256 is built in but what I didn't know is that if you take out the 256 put in another stick of ram it activates the built in ram. Therefore if you borrow a stick of ram from a freind put it in then pull it out and place your original stick back in tadaa! 256 of ram courtesy of those sneaky blighters at apple.

mduell · Nov 12, 2005, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by macfantn

What makes that ram 3 times the price of the 39.99 deal at dealram.com? Will there be incompatibility issues with the cheap ram?

Guaranteed compatibility, a lifetime warranty, and a history of providing quality RAM. If you put cheap RAM in it may work, but cause kernel panics, freezes, and/or other instability (you can find plenty of examples of this by searching the forums).

Originally Posted by pcdit

Hi there a little off topic but ram related none the less. I have the 1.2 g4 with 256mb of ram i put in a 512mb and had 768mb (obviously). Then when doing a system check put back the original 256 and then i had 512. Now I know that 256 is built in but what I didn't know is that if you take out the 256 put in another stick of ram it activates the built in ram. Therefore if you borrow a stick of ram from a freind put it in then pull it out and place your original stick back in tadaa! 256 of ram courtesy of those sneaky blighters at apple.

I can't follow your story. You have 256MB built in. If you put 256MB in the slot, then you have 512MB total. If you put 512MB in the slot, then you have 768MB total. If you take RAM out of the slot, you have 256MB total.

pcdit · Nov 13, 2005, 12:27 PM

There's 256 on the logic board and 256 in the slot when bought, but only 256 is active (the one in the slot) take out the one in the slot and borrow another stick of ram any size 128, 256, whatever from someone and place in the slot. Return to friend then put your original stick back in the slot and hey presto the 256 onboard is activated and you now have 512

volcano · Nov 13, 2005, 01:31 PM

pcdit, it doesn't work like that. If you have 256MB of RAM, you have 256MB of RAM. Period.

Your iBook has 256MB of RAM built-in, and has one slot available for expansion purposes.

Like mduell said, "If you put 256MB in the slot, then you have 512MB total. If you put 512MB in the slot, then you have 768MB total. If you take RAM out of the slot, you have 256MB total."

pcdit · Nov 13, 2005, 02:20 PM

Like I said in my first post I had 256mb of ram with the original hynix stick. That is what showed up in activity monitor and about this mac. I pulled it out and put in a 512 made by infineon and 768 shows up. I take out the infineon and put in the original hynix and 512mb shows up. Puzzled? so am I but that's what happened

mduell · Nov 13, 2005, 03:57 PM

Perhaps the 256MB in the slot wasn't completely seated, and thus not making a good electrical connection. When you took it out and put it back in, you seated it properly.