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tintin220 · Sep 3, 2006, 12:58 PM

Has anyone had any experience with returns/switches at Mac Solutions?

I recently got a 1 GB PC2-4200 memory chip for my powerbook g4 (latest revision) and while it is recognized and works great, sometimes the system freezes and i have to reboot (something that has never happened before).

I am running memtest at the moment to see what's up but if it is bad ram, what do u recommend i do?

imitchellg5 · Sep 3, 2006, 01:52 PM

Talk to Customer Support and they should replace it assuming it is under warranty.

tintin220 · Sep 4, 2006, 07:36 AM

It is, but the thing is that I just ran memtest and hardware test and both tell me the RAM passes. For the most part, it works great but I like to leave my computer on for long amounts of time and it periodically freezes, something that never happened before intalling the new ram.

tintin220 · Sep 4, 2006, 09:42 AM

Alright so i uninstalled virtuedesktops (because previously the system crashed when i either used it earlier or just brought up the switcher) and right now things seem to be alright (though its only been about an hour so I'll have to wait longer and see what happens.

Also, i put my ear up to the keyboard above the memory slots and i can hear a sort of buzz/clicking noises... i'm fairly certain i didnt have those before. i will check out the memory itself later (tho its obviously installed correctly as it works and is recognized by the system. it was also bought from MacSolutions so i'm sure it is compatible).

recommendations are welcome, thanks. i will contact customer support later today if the problems persist.

tintin220 · Sep 4, 2006, 01:34 PM

I'm bumping this again. Has anyone had any experience with Mac Solutions? I've contacted their support twice now and they haven't replied.....

imitchellg5 · Sep 4, 2006, 03:48 PM

It is Labor Day.

tintin220 · Sep 4, 2006, 04:53 PM

Wow, I must be slow today. You're completely right, that was rather selfish of me to expect them to be on.

I guess I'll go finish my school work now.

dino · Sep 5, 2006, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by tintin220

Has anyone had any experience with returns/switches at Mac Solutions?

I recently got a 1 GB PC2-4200 memory chip for my powerbook g4 (latest revision) and while it is recognized and works great, sometimes the system freezes and i have to reboot (something that has never happened before).

I am running memtest at the moment to see what's up but if it is bad ram, what do u recommend i do?

I had the same problem, i re-installed tiger and now it works perfect!

tintin220 · Sep 5, 2006, 03:33 PM

I'm not fanatic for reinstalling Tiger, but after I backup my files, I'll do it this weekend. Thanks for the advice.

tintin220 · Sep 5, 2006, 05:13 PM

I got my battery from the PB exchange program, perhaps no battery had an effect tho i greatly doubt this.

I a gonna like scream. It just crashed again. I have an ominous feeling that all this force restarting is bad for the system. I dont wanna fry my computer but the company still wont respond. what do i do other than reinstall tiger?

milhous · Sep 5, 2006, 06:14 PM

i hope you're trying to call them instead of e-mail. at times, e-mail is worthless if you need immediate attention.

edit: just put the stock ram in for now and see what happens, if it runs stable, then you KNOW for a fact that it's the ram.

tintin220 · 09:29 PM

im gonna have to call tomorrow. after working hours.

It is definitely the new chip. I took it out and the compy ran great for three hours straight. Then I had to go make dinner. I put it back it and its fine now, but I suspect thats related to memtest.

Every time I use up a lot of ram such as in photoshop (basically, only 600mb or less is still free) the computer runs fine but when it dips down thats when crashes tend to occur. It's almost as if the chip crashes the system if its not used.

Memtest uses basically all free ram so it hasnt crashed in the hours of using memtest consecutively. How odd...

it's wicked and performing well during memtest on purpose so i will have no evidence!! <-- ignore that, that is the manifestation of my frusrtations

P.S. / edit: I apologize if I'm coming off as a complaining bratty type. I really appreciate all the help I've been receiving from the people who care to comment. I really do.
It's just little nuisances like this added to the 6 AP courses I have this year at school among other things like sports is quite stressful and I have a short fuse the moment.