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drcarl · Jul 9, 2004, 05:01 PM

Today, I installed a 512 Mb memory card into the open slot of my 15" Al PB. I thought that my experience could help others.

My first issue was that I couldn't remove the screws on the memory panel with my eyeglass screwdriver. After consulting these forums, I was about to go get a high quality screwdriver set containing a Phillips #000 and #00. At least one member said to try using the tip of the blade of a pocketknife instead of a tiny screwdriver. I tried the pocketknife trick and it worked perfectly!

I installed the RAM, replaced the panel and the battery, and booted up. Problem was that the PB still only recognized 256Mb of RAM. Not good!

I decided to try once again. I noticed that the gold finger contacts on the 512 Mb memory card were showing quite a bit more than on the factory-installed 256Mb card. With some nervous finessing and a tiny bit of force, the 512 card slid a considerable amount more into the slot. Very little of the gold fingers were showing now.

Now the PB recognizes 768Mb! Yes!

Many people claim that only certain brands of memory will work with the PB. While that may be true, it could also be that they didn't install their memory properly. FWIW, I bought my RAM at newegg.com. Brand name: Transcend. Price: $88.00.

Hope this helps!

drcarl · Jul 9, 2004, 06:34 PM

My PB runs noticeably faster now. 0 pageouts!

VertigoBob · Jul 9, 2004, 06:54 PM

thanks for the hints, I myself got a brand new Powerbook 15" three days ago from Apple.com with 512mb of RAM factory installed, and might upgrade it to 1gb with another SO-DIMM...so yeah this little tutorial should come in handy

JBgrim · Jul 10, 2004, 03:36 AM

Heh, I too had trouble not having a small enough phillips screwdriver. Got my new 15" PB home (1st mac) and decided I would install two 512mb sticks of PC2700 ram that I had. Following the instructions, remove battry.. check, remove screws...damn those are tiny

. Rather than improvising and maybe doing some damage I waited till the next day to buy the proper screwdriver. The local Tru Value had a #00 phillips for like 2 bux. Everything went smooth from there and the PB saw the 1gb of ram.

Synotic · Jul 10, 2004, 05:29 AM

I've wanted to upgrade my ram so thanks for this thread. My only annoyance is that Apple decided to put two 256 chips instead of one 512 in my PB. So if I want to get another 512 chip, I only gain 256 mb of ram. Is it worth it? And what do you do with your extra 256 chip? 88 to 100 is pretty reasonable and 180-220 would be reasonable for a 1GB chip but they're going for about 500 bucks which sucks

Anyways my question is, should I pay a hundred bucks or so to get a 512 chip now and the later pay even less to get another one for a full gig or stick with 512 and wait till the 1GB chip goes down and then be happy with the 1280 MB of RAM I'll end up with? Thanks

drcarl · Jul 10, 2004, 04:43 PM

Originally posted by Synotic:
I've wanted to upgrade my ram so thanks for this thread. My only annoyance is that Apple decided to put two 256 chips instead of one 512 in my PB. So if I want to get another 512 chip, I only gain 256 mb of ram. Is it worth it? And what do you do with your extra 256 chip? 88 to 100 is pretty reasonable and 180-220 would be reasonable for a 1GB chip but they're going for about 500 bucks which sucks Anyways my question is, should I pay a hundred bucks or so to get a 512 chip now and the later pay even less to get another one for a full gig or stick with 512 and wait till the 1GB chip goes down and then be happy with the 1280 MB of RAM I'll end up with? Thanks

Going from 256Mb to 768Mb made a BIG difference for me. I don't know what 512 to 768 will do performance wise.

Check out dealram.com. You can find a 1Gb stick for about $240, which might fit your price range. Or you could buy 2 512 sticks for about $180. I read that you can sell your 256Mb sticks to 18004memory.com--Maybe the $ you get from there could justify purchasing the 1Gig stick so you'd have a total 1.25Gb of memory!