[slpdLoad]

Here's the background. I have a 15" PowerBook G4 1Ghz. It has the "Lower RAM slot failure" that a lot of 15" PowerBooks experienced. This means I can only have a single DIMM of RAM in at any one time.

Right now I'm running on a 512 stick from Crucial. It works great, but I really could use more RAM, so a while ago I purchased a 1gb stick, also from Crucial. It also worked great for about 8 months. A few weeks ago I narrowed the cause of many many kernel panics down to that piece of RAM, so I sent it to Crucial and got a replacement.

When I install this new 1gb stick, the computer won't boot. I get all the way to the login screen, and then at the exact same point every time, the machine locks up completely. I also can't get it to book off of a tech tools disk with this new piece of RAM.

Now normally, I would just assume I have a bad stick of RAM. It happens. However, I have probably gone through half a dozen 1gb sticks, and all of them have at some point cause the machine to kernel panic. I'm very hesitant to think it's not the computer.

Anyone have suggestions to fix this problem? Is there any chance that having a dead RAM slot is limiting how much memory the computer can address?

Thanks

[seanc]

There's another post near the top of this forum with a similar issue, however, since you're covered to have the logic board replaced under the repair program, i'd suggest doing that because then you know that any other problems with your current logic board that could be contributing to this are gone.

[slpdLoad]

Originally Posted by seanc 

There's another post near the top of this forum with a similar issue, however, since you're covered to have the logic board replaced under the repair program, i'd suggest doing that because then you know that any other problems with your current logic board that could be contributing to this are gone.

Unfortunately that's not an option. I should have mentioned that the RAM slot failure occurred after the AppleCare Warranty went out (this is a 2003 machine), and my serial number didn't fall within the range to have Apple repair the failure, I'm out of luck in that respect. I'm also not willing to send it to a third party to get it repaired, since I don't feel like spending $250-$300 on a machine I'm only going to use for another year.

I'm fine with having only a gig, and I can accomplish that with a single slot.

Cheers

[seanc]

Well you could take it into an Apple store and try and persuade them. It is a documented and very common problem, otherwise, try borrowing a 1gb stick of RAM off of a friend to see if it's any different, I know you've tried multiple sticks but they may be using a different brand etc which *might* work.

[mousehouse]

I'n not 100% sure which PB model you have, but my Titanium Powerbook 1GHz (it uses 133MHz SDRAM) only supports 1GB using 512MB modules... maybe the same holds true for your model?

[slpdLoad]

The manual specifies that it will support 2gb via 1024mb DIMMs