My eMac is also freezing. Would more RAM help?

I have an eMac, 1.25GHz, with 768MB of memory, 40GB hard drive, and combo drive, running OS X 10.4.6 (Tiger).
I talked about recently installing Tiger in a previous post. I got more RAM to solve the problem of the constant freezing I was experiencing. It worked....mostly.
But I still freeze. Like this morning. 4-5 times already. Whatever application I'm on freezes and I have to turn off the computer using the Power button. I did not open any Classic applications at all this morning.
Sometimes I can work on the computer fine for hours. Though I have been careful not to have too many applications running at the same time and to always close down Classic when I'm using Safari or Firefox. This is because I suspect Tiger has a problem with Classic.
When an application freezes, I can move only my mouse/pointer. Typing keys does nothing.
I checked the power and video problems mentioned about some eMacs (mine is within the identified serial numbers) but I have never had any of the symptoms described. I have never had any power or video problems.
Would more RAM take care of this intermittent freezing?
Should I delete Classic from my hard drive (and upgrade my Classic applications)?

"When an application freezes, I can move only my mouse/pointer. Typing keys does nothing."
This is typical of the video/power problem. The name is a misnomer, the first sign is freezing as you have described above.
Open the ram hatch underneath and check if the capacitors are leaking or swollen. I would have Apple look at it since it is within the serial number range. Do a search of this forum for bad capacitors and you will find hundreds of posts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_capacitors
My eMac began freezing a year ago, just as described above, checked the capacitors and they were leaking brown goo. Apple fixed it free of charge.
Note that the program extends the coverage for 3 years from the date of purchase, hopefully, your computer isn't that old.
Message was edited by: kasa
Message was edited by: kasa

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Running Windows XP on my Mac. Would more RAM help?

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B

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The VM software can require over 1 GB of RAM when running the installed VM assuming you have allocated the minimal RAM needed for the version of Windows you are using. So a system with 2 GBs of RAM is obviously stretching the RAM resource pretty thin. If your particular Mac supports more RAM, then it would be a good idea to install more.
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Will more RAM help handle large Excel files?

Hi everyone,
I know this message may be better suited to the Office for Mac Forums website, but the site hasn’t been able to validate me as a new user so far (it's been weeks of trying!), and I’m therefore unable to ask a question. So I have to resort to annoying you here.
I run Excel 2008 (12.1.7) on a 8-core Mac Pro (early 2008) with 6 Gb of RAM (OS 10.5.6). I encounter a lot of problems working with big files, such as a 385 Mb file comprised of over 600,000 row and 50 columns of mostly data (only a few columns are filled with simple formulas).
After loading the file (which took quite a while), the Activity Monitor indicated that Excel was using 1.12 Gb of Real memory an 2.11 Gb of Virtual, while 3.66 Gb of RAM was free. When I then attempted to create a PivotTable with this data, the amount of memory used by Excel gradually rose to 1.94 Gb of Real an 2.93 Gb of Virtual (2.85 Gb of Free memory was still available) while reading the data. At this point I then got a message stating that there’s not enough memory. I had to resort to breaking the file up into smaller ones to analyze the data, which is quite annoying.
I was told that being a 32-bit application, Excel 2008 was limited to handling 4 Gb of RAM. But I thought that 4 Gb being way more than the size of the file on disk, and having 6 Gb of RAM on my machine, I shouldn’t have any problem working with it. Obviously I was wrong. Can someone please clarify what’s going on here? Would more RAM significantly help?
Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Yes, I bet the Windows version of Excel is better. I think it’s definitely time to try it.
When you say “having 8 DIMMs”, do you mean filling up the 8 memory slots, or having 8 Gb? I believe I remember seeing that 10 Gb was the sweet spot, with all 8 memory slots occupied. Is that right? And what brand of RAM do you like currently, still OWC?
Thank you Hatter.

EMac crashes (totally freezes) - Has new RAM, HD, & Tiger...

I bought one 512 MB PC 133 Module for my eMac 800 from OWC. (They claim extra good compatibility with Macs.) A Mac specialist at an authorized service center installed it, plus a new Seagate 300 GB hard drive, and a new Pioneer DVD burner.
Tiger 10.4 is freshly installed on the brand new hard drive. And there is no third party software yet.
Machine now freezes constantly even with no programs open. The new HD, RAM, and Tiger have not even been online yet!
Possible solutions?
Is the 300 GB hard drive too much for it?
Is the old 256 MB module not compatible with the new 512 MB module?
Do I need to reset something?
Install a Firmware update?
Will 10.4.1 update help? (I have to wait until I am at a high speed modem again to download that.)
Or would something else help?

Hi all...
I also Posted this in Usage. That is getting more traffic...
First I re-installed Tiger (just in case).
Did not set any preferences or anything.
Froze again (after just sitting there a few minutes).
Then I ran the Apple Hardware Tests (just for fun).
Regular and extended tests.
As expected, everything passed.
Then I removed the remaining old 256 MB RAM.
(Following the Apple instructions.)
Froze again (after just sitting there a few minutes).
Then I removed the new 512 MB RAM and replaced the two 256 MB RAMs (which, by the way, are from different manufacturers than each other, but were working perfectly before the new parts were installed).
Froze again, after just sitting there for a few minutes.
Dont even have to move the mouse for it to freeze.
The only thing left that I can think of, is the new 300 GB Hard Drive.
Does that sound right?
I just want to be sure of a couple of things...
Is Tiger working well with eMac 800s in general?
I do have the old 60 GB Hard Drive with 10.3
I can try putting it back in if you all think I should.
But I would like to be sure since it sounds like a big job.
And, since I would like a larger Hard Drive, will a 200 GB Hard Drive work well in an eMac 800?
Or should I try wiping the Hard Drive to install 10.3? I do have those CDs.
Also... Does it make sense that the Hard Drive is causing the major freezes when it freezes after just sitting there a few minutes, with no program or anything even running? The mouse not moving? Nothing happening at all?
I did contact the service manager where they installed the new parts. I think they are going to fix this. But since it was a hard drive that I chose, I'm still not sure. I suspect the guy who installed it may have ran tests on the Apple Hardware Test CD, because it started freezing right away after I got it home and plugged it in, no third party software, no internet connection, no nothing...
Thanks again for all your help!
Jeff

What good would more RAM do?

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Barefeats made one observation recently... CS3 is the
perfect excuse for an 8-core Mac Pro!
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Will adding more Ram help?

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When you have the problem, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
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View ▹ Show Log List
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Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above. Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first. Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough. It is never necessary or helpful to post more than about 100 lines. "The more, the better" is not the rule here.
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Jim,
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Does adding more Ram help with the speed of Compressor

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I don't think so. I believe Compressor is cpu/disk io dependent. I think you have enough memory. Depending on what you're encoding to, you may be able to speed things up if your machine has multiple cpu's.

Will more RAM help?

Hi everyone,
I read that a good indication of whether extra RAM would be beneficial is to look at Page Ins and Page Outs on the Activity Monitor System Memory tab.
So… here's what it says:
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Want to go to 8GB, will replace both modules as I have heard it's best to have two modules of the same brand.
If it's worth doing I would buy them here:
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=DFA12F1EA5CA7304
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www.misterphil.co.uk

Ok - so RAM arrived today from Crucial, fitted it in about 10 mins, no problems.
Machine did perform excellently already, or at least so I thought…
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Well worth the £73.15 which included courier to Spain, 3 day delivery.
So for those interested in comparison, here's before and after (only been on for a couple of hours but still no Page outs)
Before:
After
Thanks for all the advice, seems to make much more sense to spend the extra on the processor with Apple and then do the memory yourself…

Would More Memory Help?

Mac BookPro
2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
I have recently installed East West Platinum Plus Orchestral Library on a external drive. Though I am using Logic 9 as efficiently as I can, I still get system overload messages, Memory is low, and the CPU is maxed out when working with large projects.
Would I notice a substantial improvement if I increased the memory to 8 GB? If not, since I cannot afford a new computer, would there be other steps I could take to alleviate these issues? Thanks.
Sincerely,
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System Overload is not always a RAM issue. In my experience it's usually not.
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eSata helped me. I wouldn't advise trying to do complex mixing from assets off a USB drive, that's just asking for trouble.
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Hi all,
I have researched for days and have still not been able to find an answer, last time I was here I was thoroughly impressed with the help, so I'm back!
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The short answer to your question is a resounding YES! RAM and memory are the same thing, but having more of that would most definitely improve your performance at almost everything.
Upgrading to SL may help a little, but not nearly as much as more RAM. I'm not positive, but I think that model maxes out at 4GB, so that should be your goal. If it's 8GB, even better. The more RAM you have, the better things will be with a memory hungry app like AutoCAD.

Does more RAM really speed up internet use??

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Do you every empty your browser's cache? It's a good idea to do that daily, and also to close the browser and reopen it periodically. Browsers tend to eat CPU and can end up hogging most of it when they're been running for a while.
512 is about the minimum RAM yoo can get away with, adding another GB would speed things up noticeably. Make sure you get a lifetime warranty with the new memory, a good place to look is [macsales.com].
Message was edited by: MGW

Get more Ram or new computer?

I have an iMac G5 with 1 GB (I think) of RAM. I run programs like InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and find myself watching the spinning rainbow more than I am getting any work done. Would getting more RAM help my computer run faster or do I have to resort to getting a new computer? Any help provided would be greatly appreciated!
This is what shows under my RAM window...
DIMM0/J4000:
Size: 512 MB
Type: DDR SDRAM
Speed: PC3200U-30330
DIMM1/J4001:
Size: 512 MB
Type: DDR SDRAM
Speed: PC3200U-30330

You have not maxed out your memory. Since you did not indicate which model iMac you have, see the following:
Rev A models - 2GB
Rev B (Ambient Light) - 2GB
Rev C (iSight) - 2.5GB
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MGW, the servers are wacky again.

My eMac is also freezing. Would more RAM help?

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