How do I know they really installed 2 GB of RAM?

Question

Here's what happened and why I ask:
Computer is back home after spending the better part of a month in an authorized Apple service center shop. Took it in to upgrade RAM from 250 MB to 2 GB. A routine procedure I was told that would take no more than an hour. It's been a computer nightmare.
First, the shop had "issues" installing the RAM. Then, while trying to do so, the logic board "failed." They got a new logic board. Brought it home. Trouble and back in. Incredibly, that logic board failed. Installed another one. More problems, highlighted by "kernel panics," the CD drawer not opening, and other things. Back to the shop where they say everything's been fixed. CD drawer needed a "new cable." Don't know what they did to fix the logic board/RAM thing. All things thoroughly checked and machine is working perfectly. Incidentally, I was not charged for any of these "extra, unanticipated" things.
I don't know yet whether the computer is really fixed. Starting to use it to see if it really works. After about a day.....no apparent problems. We'll see. But,
How do I really know they actually installed the 2 GB of RAM. The reason I ask is that after one trip in and back home, I noticed that the computer's serial number did not show up in the "About this Mac" and the Macintosh HD info window. After telling them that, next time I brought it home, sure enough ... the was the serial number showing where it was supposed to.
Appears to me they knew how to type it in and did so. Couldn't they do the same thing with the RAM info? Because the computer seems to be working ok after one day, could they have taken out the 1 GB RAM chips or boards or whatever they're called (because they just didn't work), and re-installed the 256 MB one? Then just typed in the info for 2 GB RAM boards in the "More Info" window of "About this Mac."
And...........I notice no difference with the apparent 2 GB of RAM compared to 256 MB. Shouldn't I realize something? More speed in working with applications? Or something? How do I know they actually installed 2 GB of RAM?
Thank you for your thoughts.
(Obviously, not I'm not a computer whiz.....don't know a logic board from a chess board–although I've learned it's a pretty important component.)

Answer 1

Firefox is free (Mozilla/Firefox) and in some cases it appears to work
quickly for some web content; I use both, Firefox mostly, then Safari.
GarageBand can be a CPU-intensive application; depending on what
you are doing with it. Composing music and layering effects could do it.
To supplement chip RAM, you'd likely need a larger capacity hard disk
drive and leave more free space for both the application to run and also
to have room for larger demands of the system; virtual memory mainly.
Newer drives also have larger buffers, so one with a 16MB buffer could
also add some speed too. The stock 80GB drive 1/2 full could be slow
since your computer would be read/writing more often to the drive as it
is used more and more as virtual memory and also to record changes
to your GarageBand music compositions; plus normal system demands.
Of course, you could use an external FireWire enclosure and put a much
larger hard disk drive into that; large enough for a full system clone and
then boot from the external when doing things such as GarageBand; the
work you do would be saved to the external and its system would be
like having a second computer, booted and running from the FW HDD.
There may be better ways of doing this; one may be to consider a Mac
with faster bus, processor, RAM type and speed, among other upgrades.
Upgrades involving service tech access to the iMacG4's base unit are
to be done in the proper way so as to be sure the thermo paste and other
safeguards in the cooling system (heat scavanging is essential) are
restored properly when the machine is reassembled. Some upgrades to
these computers can add more heat-generating capacity, so cooling is
essential to reduce the odds of probable failure from overheating; since
the processor, more RAM, and a busy hard drive add up.
If the machine is used in a warm room (a dusty/smokey environment)
these details will add to higher heat output of the computer; in that
it won't be as cool as it could be. Of course, in this matter, you could
get a sensitive thermometer with a sensor and put the sensor near the
computer's air output to get a second comparative heat gauge on it.
Not just the Temperature Monitor software's take on internal heat.
If the machine should overheat, it will affect more than the recordings;
and how the computer's resources are allocated to tasks and the effic-
iencies (or lack of) in how they are used will affect applications, do have
an impact in a wider range of overall machine health.
The Activity Monitor can help, in that you can monitor and see what is
going on inside the computer and maybe control system resource use
by not multi-tasking when using a major application. There may be a
way to allocate system resources to your primary application in use,
but in OSX that is fairly automatic (unlike older OS9's RAM use.)
In Discussions, there is an area for Application discussions and
perhaps more detailed replies from knowledgeable users of Garage
Band would be generated from questions you may have, in there(?)
I have GarageBand, and recognize its value, yet seldom use it.