For the last couple of weeks, my PowerBook G4 has been unbearably slow. Now “one or two extra Dock bounces” slow. CRAWLING.
I just now figured out why: half my RAM is dead. I got the machine with 1 GB and am now down to 512 MB. What a difference that makes! As I’ve committed to waiting until MacBook Pros are shipping with OS 10.5 Leopard installed before upgrading (November, at the earliest), I’m definitely going to have to get that fixed. It’s really slowing down my work. I got the extended warranty and there is an Apple store in Tampa. I wonder what the odds are that I can get it fixed up same-day while I wait?
David Precious says
Why not ring the store in advance and make sure they’ll have the appropriate RAM in stock when you go there – then it’ll be a straight swap, no hassle?
Unless of course it’s the motherboard that’s got a problem, or the RAM just isn’t properly seated (could be worth reseating it to see?).
Mark says
Unfortunately, it’s not the RAM. It’s the RAM slot. I tried swapping the chips. And it requires a “logic board” replacement. Not sure if that means motherboard or portion of motherboard. There was a recall of certain PowerBook G4s because of this issue. Mine wasn’t one of the serial numbers recalled, but I’m not the only one who has had this problem with a non-recalled PB G4. Good thing I got the extended warranty. For now, since I couldn’t afford to be without my main computer for that long, I just bought a 1 GB stick of RAM and put that in the top slot. So I’m back to where I was, at least. I’m probably going to be getting a MacBook Pro when they update them with the new backlights, so once I have everything migrated over to the new machine, I can get the PowerBook fixes. Don’t know what I’ll do with it after that… maybe get Synergy running on it and use it as a dedicated chat/IM/e-mail screen.
Usayd says
Hey mark 🙂
Logic board replacement = Motherboard replacement in a Mac (from what I gathered when I was told the bad news…!) Unfortunately my PowerMac G4 never actually worked, it would sporadically crash all the time. Took it to Apple and the logic board needed replacing which would cost me almost £300. Not actually worth it…Put me off Apple (although I have had them forever anyway).
Dale says
That would definitely explain the slowness, Did they give a reason as why it died. I thought macs were unbreakable
Dale
http://dzrbenson.com/blog/