[Matthew Attoe]

Hi,

I am having some slight system weirdness that I think is just down to a bad install, but I would just like some people's opinions on my RAM.

I have the following RAM installed in my G5 2.5.

2 x 256MB - 1st Pair - Apple supplied
2 x 523MB - 2nd Pair - from Crucial
2 x 256MB - 3rd Pair - Got from work as surplus to requirements
2 x 256MB - 4th Pair - Got from work as also surplus to requirements ;-)

Now, I've run Rember overnight on infinite loop and it completed about 12 full tests and every test passed. I've even run the exhaustive test from the Apple Hardware Disc and that passes too.

Tonight, I'm going to swap the 3rd and 4th pairs of RAM with the 1st and 2nd pairs (hope that makes sense!) and run the tests again.

If the RAM passes again after another 12 or so full tests, would you think it's safe to say that the RAM is ok? That would then possibly point so a software/install related issue, hopefully.

Many thanks in advance,

Matthew

[Big Mac]

Sounds fine to me. What weirdness?

[Matthew Attoe]

Hi Big Mac!

Thanks for the reply.

Just silly little stuff - for example.

I keep setting the Utilities window to show as a List, but every time I re-open the folder it's back in Icon view.

Also, the Mac won't sleep after the specified unused "delay" time. It sleeps perfectly if I select Sleep from the menu though.

And, finally, if I leave the machine alone for a little while without doing anything (10-15 mins or so), when I then click to open a folder, for example, I get some beach-balling and I can hear the hard drives spin up. The folder then opens after about 15 seconds. I checked in the Energy Saver and the "Put hard drives to sleep" isn't checked. I clicked it back on and off several times to sort of "reset" it, but that didn't help.

I've also pressed the CUDA Think that's what it is called) button in the motherboard, but that didn't help and I've also unplugged the Mac from the wall for a while and re-plugged it back in but no luck either.

So, as you can see, it's nothing tooooo bad, but just a mild annoyance.

I don't really want to have to do another OS install if I can help it, until I upgrade to 10.5.1/.2

If you have any ideas, that would be great. But you don't think my RAM is the cause of it?

Again, many thanks as always,

Matthew

[Big Mac]

Okay, those aren't symptoms of RAM problems. RAM problems exhibit themselves as random program crashes, kernel panics, boot problems. That's not what you're seeing. The Finder is notorious about losing window settings (and it's getting worse by choice - see Siracusa's Leopard review). My G5 doesn't automatically sleep either, unless all network apps are closed. That's just an OS X thing, I think. And is the hard drive that spins down your boot drive? If not, the same thing happens with my second drive when it hasn't been used in a while. I don't think there's a problem with your Mac.

[Matthew Attoe]

Hi again,

Now you mention it, I think it probably is my second drive that tends to exhibit this problem more my boot drive!

This has only started to happen fairly recently. It has started since I done a new complete fresh install on a new 750GB that i bought for my boot drive. Since then, all I've done is added the new RAM I got from work, but that passes all the memory tests!

The Mac used to sleep when it was supposed to (after 15mins I think) and I don't recall having the drives spin-up problems since recently either.

Oh well, just to be sure and for the hell of it, I'm still going to try swapping the RAM positions over and testing that, more for my own curiosity than anything else now.

Other than that, I guess it's a new install. Perhaps I'll go with .5.1 instead of .5.2 after all!

Thanks again,

Matthew

[Big Mac]

You're welcome; I hope you figure it out with minimal effort. As for the spin down issue, I bet it's just that the Energy Saver preference isn't being applied properly. You may want to look at Terminal's pmset tool.

[Matthew Attoe]

Hi Big Mac,

Just a quick update.

The RAM seems to be ok - I swapped over banks 1 and 2 then re-ran the apple hardware test and rember over night and no problems with the ram should up, so I'm hoping that the ram is ok.

One other thing did crop pup though - my power supply blew up for my cable modem at the same time that I switched my Mac back on after swapping the ram - talk about bricking myself :-) I thought I'd trashed my Mac :-(

Would you be kind enough to explain a bit more about the terminal pmset tool? I don't really know how to do it.

I'm sorry to be a drain on your time, but I would sincerely appreciate any more help that you could offer.

Thank you,

Matthew

[Big Mac]

Hey no problem. pmset (power manager set) is the backend to Energy Saver, and I have had some success with it in the past (although that was a long time ago). As I said, It's been awhile since I have used it, so type man pmset for more information.