Quick RAM Q

Hey all, I have read a lot on what RAM I can use for my comp so I just want to get a quick couple comments. I got my Black MacBook December of 06, its the Core 2 Duo, 2.0 GHz. I currently have 1 GB of RAM but it is not enough as I often have many applications open and sometimes do some complex computing. I have been looking at Transintl and OWC. Both are the same price. What do you all prefer? Also, I know my MB can take 4GB but only access 3GB. Is it worth $25 more dollars to go with 4GB?
http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2664&RequestTimeOut=500
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/53IM2DDR3GBK/
Thanks
Ricky

Howdy,
I have OWC RAM in my MacBook and haven't had any problems. I would recommend them. That being said, I have Transintl RAM in a new Mac Pro and that has been flawless as well. I don't think you could go wrong with either.
As I understand it, even though your MacBook will only make use of 3GB of the RAM, adding (2) 2GB sticks will allow the machine to work in dual channel mode which will give a very slight performance benefit. I doubt you will notice the performance difference however. Of course, it is not much extra money either.

Similar Messages

Quick ram question

im looking at this for buying ram:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory
i have 1 gig in my mac pro right now, 2- 512's
I'm confused on what I should get. It seems like what I figured would be more expensive is less and vice versa.
i can get 2 gigs of 1 gig sticks for 239.99
i can get 2 gigs of 4 512 sticks for 314.95
i can get 2 gigs of (different) 1 gig sticks for 229.99
please help! what do I want?

DIMMs have to match exactly within a pair. However, between pairs you don't have to match anything. Also, there's absolutely nothing wrong with 3GB RAM in this configuration and will be more efficient than a 6 x 512MB configuration.

Quick RAM upgrade question.

Just got new 3 GHz Mac Pro that came with 2GB of RAM in 4 x 512 configuration.
I just took delivery of an extra 2GB of RAM from Crucial in the post. This new ram came as 2 x 1GB sticks.
Can anyone advice which board I insert them into, the same one as where the 4 x 512 sticks are, or the empty board?
Cheers.

Yes and no. What you should do is to actually try it to see what gives better performance.
The reason it's yes is that the Mac Pro, for whatever reason, does favour Riser A in some way. So, with the standard 1GB RAM you will get better performance with it being in Riser A than Riser B. Go figure! This is why Apple says to fill them in the order they do.
The problem is though is that Apple does not presume as to the size of the DIMMs you're filling your slots with. The RAM in the Mac Pro performs best when there is balance. Where there is an inbalance you favour Riser A. So, from this you put your better 2GB RAM configuration into Riser A which is the 2 x 1GB DIMMs (lower latency when using the full 2GB as slots 3/4 aren't used). This goes against Apple's fill order.
So what do you do. Well… try it both ways and just do what performs best. In actual fact the best thing to do is to buy 1 or 2 more GB (prefereably 2 x 1GB) to fill all 8 slots. It's why it is recommended that you either have 4 or 8 DIMMs so these "conflicts" don't come into play like they do here.

Quick RAM question... 8GB on x100e

i know the x120 accepts more than 4GB of ram, but is there any reason a x100e will not take 8GB of ram?
ill be running win7 x64. thanks.

Hello,
It's not a Lenovo-supported configuration, but I was able to install 2×4GB DDR2 SO-DIMMs in my X100e and access most of it (I believe some of it was reserved for use by the video card).
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
I am a volunteer and neither a Lenovo nor a Microsoft employee. • Dexter is a good dog • Dexter je dobrý pes
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New MacPro 8 Core 12gig or 16 gig of ram?

Hello All,
I want to upgrade my memory but I am wondering what to buy? Should I get the (6) 2gigs? or the (8) 2gigs. I keep reading about not to fill up all 8 but only 6 for better performance?
Or should i just get the (4) 2gig each stick? This way I only loose 4 (1)gig chips. I am so lost.
Or should i just fill it up with (4) 2 gigs and leave (4) 1 gigs to give me a total of 12gig?
Thanks

I'm not an expert in AE (I use Motion more), but you're right: AE doesn't use more than 3GB +per render instance+. That's the key. AE CS4 will use all the RAM you have if you are maxing out all 8 processors - up to 3GB a thread I believe, when rendering. Bare Feats has more info on this, so check out that site.
Now just building your project, previewing, etc. doesn't use more than 3GB AFAIK, nor does any 32-bit program. But when you run compressor, or the new AE multiprocessor render engine in CS4, it spawns multiple 32-bit instances, each of which can use (potentially) 3GB of RAM. That's where the real power of 8-core computing comes into play and, frankly, is one of the few reasons to own such a beast. That's also where your RAM comes in... the more the better. Where you have to think is whether 6 sticks being faster than 8 outweighs the advantage of having 12GB vs 16. (32 seems prohibitively expensive right now as 4GB DDR3 modules are insanely expensive).
In general use, we're lucky to get use of 4-cores, never mind 2. These Mac Pros and their extra processors and RAM are best used for insane multitasking (multiple programs that use a few GB each and a processor or two), or mega rendering/calculation programs like AE, Compressor, Mathematica, XCode, etc. Personally, I render a lot of HD video into H.264 from ProRes. The MacPro is a no brainer in that regard.
vtonangi wrote:
Controller - this should probably be a new thread but you sound like you know what you are talking about. Currently I have 8 GB of RAM, and I was thinking if I should get another 8 GB to make AE render more quickly. But I read that AE really doesn't use more then 3 GB - so now I'm confused. I have a pretty powerful machine (at least I think it is) Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 8 GB of RAM, but some of the effects I use in my compositions just take forever for a quick ram preview. Would getting another 8 GB of RAM help this? What are you preference settings on AE CS4 regarding previewing and rendering? I would really appreciate any enlightenment you can give to me on this issue. Thanks.

Color Space Ram Preview

Yet another problem seems to have arisen with the new CC 2014.
When I try to do a RAM Preview even of a small section at lower rez the RAM Preview will not play back in real time and the audio is way off.
I get a note saying that "Color Work Space is on" which indeed it is. If I go into Project settings and switch Color Workspace to "None" my RAM Previews play perfectly.
In previous versions of AE including CC this was never an issue. Playbacks were fine even with a Colorspace and Linear workspace chosen.
Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a solution other than having to manually turn off my Color Workspace every time I want to do a quick RAM Preview?
Thanks
TAK

Takasaurus, can you be more specific about the RAM preview playback speeds you're getting with Display Color Management enabled?
For example, on my MacBook Pro, RAM previewing a 23.976 5K R3D comp at 32bpc in full resolution with color management enabled, in either After Effects CC 2014 (13.0) or After Effects CC (12.2.1), I get the following results:
Display Color Management enabled, Color Management Quality set to Faster or More Accurate Except for RAM Preview (same meaning in this context): ~11fps
Display Color Management enabled, Color Management Quality set to More Accurate: ~5fps
Display Color Management disabled: 23.976fps (real-time)
Under the hood, when Display Color Management is enabled After Effects does an additional color transform of every frame at the time it is displayed. These frames are not cached, the transform happens live at display time. (Note that you can enabled or disable Display Color Management without affecting the state of the comp's image cache; ie., the green bar in the Timeline panel.) This live transformation of the comp is what is impacting the ability to play back the frames in real time. Granted, a 5K R3D in 32bpc frame is almost a worst-case scenario in terms of memory and performance, but it shows the limits of the machine.
You can compensate for the memory usage with the same techniques that you usually would: reducing the RAM preview resolution or frame rate in the Preview panel, or reducing the color depth. Sounds like you're already doing that.
When using Mercury Transmit for video preview, something similar happens: After Effects does a live transformation of the video frame for the Mercury Transmit device, which can be even more complex due to scaling and/or frame rate limitations. Add color management to that and you get a double-whammy.

[P6N SLI Platinum] black screen NO BOOT after D-bracket replug [RMA-SOLVED]

Quick setup specs;
P6N SLI Platinum
E6600 (box/stock 2400mhz basic)
2x 1Gb DDR2 6400 Gskill HZ
Sapphire ATI X1600Pro (PCI-e basic)
Aerocool Zero DBA 620W
(2 HDs sata, 2 Hds pata, 2 optical pata at first -all OK at first, disconnected after, so irrelevant here ,( )
(XP Pro clean new install from start)
I tried to check the forum old posts before trying to write that new one, but could not find any really related totally adequate posts so far (or i missed them, sorry if so, then -?). I could already find very useful informations on first aid usual 'rebooting' procedures to follow with minimum new boot configurations, d-bracket new LED signals etc. But so far no luck, all same, nothing better, nothing cured here for the stuation here. ,(( Also excuse my english if not perfect, i am not english either. ,(
VERY bad & sad problem here... ,(((( :
All was working perfectly great during 5 days.. the P6N SLI platinum install went GREAT initially (as normal, not a first pc built, all normally happening, so far so good, etc).... all hardwares compatible together at first (dedicated ATX 'full' 8x8 pins connector too for the cpu only for ex -all working perfect at first try. quick tensions 5V/12V under msi dual core control tool perfect too etc), was great easy going/ great strong ultra-stability feeling on the hardware side.. i was just now concentrating on the software side (no special BIOS tweaks even attempted so far, all on basics-normal e6600/ddr2 auto-settings, apart at the end ddr2 quick test -when problem occured- on 450(900?)Mhz at 2.1V, far far easy under its possible specs max anyway.. and had been working perfect for 3 days with that little ddr2 boost try -no time for special bios further tweakings now, etc), reinstalling and transfering/reorganizing slowly my necessary files/hds/softwares from old to new setup, no oc, nothing special tempted (i was planning oc, new cpu more suited fan/silver6 etc only for the end..), LAN file sharing setup done, Realtek audio setup test done, etc ; installation had been so far one of the quickest and problem free ever... explaining maybe also my fatal lack of cautioun for just (too much) 3 sec in the end after 5/- days of perfect working new ring going on.. ,((( :
At first, i also tried to immediately install the D-Bracket too to check possible hardware install problems -very useful feature i of course thought too..and wanted to try too, "in case of"..- (installing it from quick reading of the printed manual..with no colour pic coding inside..and quick error coming from there thereafter with an initial mismatch usb/jbd1 inverted plugs connections.. *both* having the exact same pins numbers and dispositions, beeing side by side on mainboard layout.. and so able to connect both headers indifferently.. so i did not see it immediately (( .. and no way to see it otherwise as such, anyway.. ,( ), just to be sure all was ok. I noticed that LED were of course, never lightning (not normal).. but as EVERYTHING else was working fine (GLAN, sound, etc etc).. i did not bother more than that -- error checking not necessary.
Till that fatal clumsy day i wanted suddenly to.. check the D-bracket too. ((((
All was working well, XP pro opened for hours as usual etc..
i had not yet totally finished to install the motherboard in the pc-case (always on desk, free in sight..)... so i could always see the connections on it. ... and i noticed that ... the colour headers codes were NOT matching (usb=yellow..).. i had just stupidly initially badly connected the D-Bracket jdb1/usb adjacent plugs (inverting them), so... And still, all had ever worked perfect.. except the D-Bracket, of course, was sending back no lights then, obviously.. so i did the fatal error.. confident all was stable enough and strong if even that initial plug error had had no consequences at all.. i did the fatal bad move to try to UNPLUG the D-Bracket connectors and put them back in right orders WITHOUT switching OFF the power supply so... like an hot USB plug, sort of, in a way. fatal error.. :( :( :(
As soon as i began to remove the usb/jdb1 connectors and put them back in normal order... the system suddenly SHUT DOWN ... no special bad noise, no special smell.. just sudden SHUT DOWN.
From there.. impossible ever to boot back again the so far perfectly working machine (((((((((((( , always same till now :
i switch on the power supply.. orange led appears on motherboard (ok)... i switch on the motherboard.. green led on motherboard appears (ok)... CPU fan begins (ok), video fan begins (ok) .... and... NOTHING.. total black video screen. no more even possibility to see the BIOS. :( total dead startup .. and the fans are going on eternally, blocked eternally in that inital startup with leds on too (no sudden shut down after a few seconds.. just.. nothing)... :(
Suprem irony.. the D-bracket LED seems to 'work' now.. "of course". Just the PC no more booting at all ^. Only thing is that only green LEDs are appearing, no red ones... simply the sequence, from start and never changing :
1. GREEN 2. GREEN
3. GREEN 4. (---) (not red, just nothing -?)
If i look in manual, it means "Testing RTC (real time clock)". I don't know exactly what it means *here*, but sounds to me it is the most basic initial first BIOS checking.. and BIOS can't be reached for even that so ; BIOS fried???? :( :(
I tried every 'standard' things recommanded usually here in older posts, for new boots recovery attempts thereafter in such 'boot errors' situations (clear cmos button pushed in every possible ways -quick, long, quick etc..-, removing little by little everything but the very minimal least energy taxing setup; keyboard, cpu, video, motherboard; 1 ddr2 nearest cpu slot.. point).. NOTHING. Worst, i tried to boot with one of those elements missing.. exact same D-Bracket lightning from start to.. eternally (123 GREEN 4-nothing). Even tried to remove the little (cmos?) KTS lithium battery for a few hours -that could work sometimes with the old already ultra-sensitive amd/nforce2 chipset bioses problems, so i tried there too-?-; same 3 green lights and fans running and nothing else happening from there.. ((
Always the same; total dead boot as above. black screen. no possible access to even bios panel. ,(((
So my desperate questions, now: of course, the origin is obvious here; all happened "by my fault" when i tried 'too quickly' to 'hot-plugging' replace correctly the D-BRACKET plugs *without* switching off the power supply... all shut down suddenly when i put back correctly the usb& jdb1 headers... :( ;
- do you think there could be any possible last HOPES to recover the situation that i had missed (a well known situation in such d-bracket handling 'common' (?) connection error, a simple trick to try i had missed ??)
- do you think i FRIED something in the process on the motherboard ?? :( :(
- do you think it is 'only' the BIOS (fried????) ?? :( :(
- do you think i could have fried a specifical external key component in the process (not necessarily motherboard) : ddr2 modules, cpu, video card????? :( :(
- is my only solution is to send the motherboard to RMA (no other ways now) ???
please, don't hesitate to give me any possible hints to try to avoid the RMA process.
can i avoid it, right now?
is that possible to fry an whole board just with such a D-Bracket 'hot plug switch' (on a so far perfectly working -light- setup - no oc, little video card, etc) ???? :( :(
That is the only C2D Intel/ddr2 motherboard i have here around. No possibility to test elements by elements for precise error checking (cpu, ddr2 modules, video card or powersupply).
Only things i could check so far are;
- the power supply (aerocool 620W zeroDBA) ;
i tested it back on my old amd xp-m nforce2 setup.. always working apparently. NOT 'fried' so, apparently. but no way of course to test for exemple the special 8x8 (or 8x4) Intel ATX cpu connector on old xp-m motherboard. But power supply NOt fried at least, apparently -?
- the video card.
no way for me to really test the pci-e card on other motherboard around but.. i tried a very old PCI VGA card.. that one works on old setup.. and on P6N, no effect, doesn't improve the situation. So, not sure the new pci-e video card isn't fried.. but a new video card doesn't correct the dead boot problem.. (
No way for me to test the ddr2 or CPU directly though.
Do you think DDR2 or CPU could have been fried in the process too ???
or just, as i fear anyway, 'simply', the motherboard BIOS fried -??? :-(
Really, thx for any suggestions..
if there could be an 'hidden' trick i did not try yet to try to recover the (initially working perfectly!!! (( ) setup, WITHOUT engaging the motherboard RMA process (at least 2 or 3 weeks lost here to wait the return..online store etc..)....
please, suggest me.. ,((
i am *really* very sad of that stupid clumsy idea to want to 'enable' the D-Bracket.. all was working great so far.. and i lost all with just that stupid idea to try an hot plug bracket reconnection without switching off the power supply it seems.. can it be possible,sigh?? all seemed so stable before that, that i.. just lost my usual cautious just 3 sec too long it seems... :-(
Thanks in advance
hoping post not too long too, but i tried to expose the situation as precisely as possible; first time i ever had such a problem with a motherboard/system install.. that is quiet ironical knowing it was also the best and quickest/easiest easy going new built i ever had so far too.. till then ,( .. and all came from the 'helper' d-bracket 'luxury second hand possible boot helper diagnostic tool' checking in the end too, here.. really hoping i can avoid an RMA process.. and no other hardware elements (apart the motherboard?) could have been damaged in the process ? ,(((

hi, thx a lot for the quick answer. sorry for the length indeed (i did not know exactly how to describe the situation.. without omitting any later possibly important details).
Alas, i already tried that many times in following interesting asnwers on similar problems in old posts here; did NOTHING. ,(
But after your post, i tried it again, and removed for the remaining *hours* (6/8h?) the cmos battery as suggested again *too* so -pushed again the clear cmos button etc when battery out, then when in again, then replugging the powersupply etc; NOTHING better alas too. always same, no boot, black screen, no bios. ,(
Problem always the same, to sum up, for clarity:
power supply on => orange motherboard led is lightning up, motherboard on => green motherboard led is lightning up, cpu/video/case fans are working up as normal and.. that's all. nothing else forever. black screen. no signal. not a single chance to get again the bios setup screen.
another detail i omitted, maybe; keyboard lights are all lightnng up too.. and stay blocked in that state too. tested with 2 different keyboards, same. to shut down the leds, fans etc, only one solution, shut down the power supply button directly, at that stage.
right now, i test on barebone minimal system as recommanded too;
cpu, 1 dimm (closest cpu slot), video, keyboard. all rest disconnected.
i of course tried to reset the cmos with the 'magical red button' many times before, with power supply cable plugged out, pushed the button trying almost every possible way so far (quick, long, long sequences, short sequences etc etc)... changed NOTHING so far -is that thing working?? ,(. and right now, same after hours with cmos battery removed too. ,(
the d-bracket leds are always (now it is correctly plugged..) :
123 GREEN 4 (nothing)
"Testing RTC (real time clock)"
another 'interesting' detail is that; those leds are appearing IMMEDIATELY after the motherboard is switched on, from start (green led appearing on P6N). and it is staying as such till the end. nothing else. i tried to connect also the case speaker ; no bips, no sound signals at all too.
I also remind the system was WORKING like a dream during 5 days *before* i had that sudden TOTAL boot problem.... AND i touched almost nothing in the bios too all along, for initial security reasons too.. (i was concentrating on the software installs anyway right now, NOT on the oc side..). The ddr2 quick little change i did was also the ONLY change i tempted to simply test quickly some setting i already saw working without problem with that P6N and that kind of ram.. and it was working without problem so far too, so.. all the time idem. And it had been perfectly working for 3 days as such untouched from there; no problems at all (those memory modules have been seen on that motherboard largely at those specs, why i did that quick test anyway.. far under their possible max -micron chips). it was even working so well i forgot to put the setting back as default after that quick ram test.. so much it was stable too (even if i had not time to do real memtest test on that one - i did for many hours with the initial automatical default settings too, to check the ram quality, was perfect for many hours, so ok too, no bad ram initially too-; was so stable for all my XP software installs operations etc.. that i forgot it thereafter, to be true..why it stayed like that till that moment (incidently).. but i preferred to mention it 'just in case' though, yes. i also did not push at all the dimm voltages in the process, it was always far inside the specs at 2.05V to be exact -usual for that ram too up to those numbers easy for it. i did not push the ram voltages either so..).
The problem ONLY appears when i wanted to unplug the *initially* badly connected D-bracket headers so (inverted headers.. but that caused NO problems either so far too for the system stability.. only the LEDs were of course not working so far..) : i did the error to NOT switch off the power supply. :(
*then* immediately the system shut down... and above situation appeared. ,(
BUT all was working perfect before.. ram setting included so. ,((
So my simple questions now too ;
- do you know what means *exactly* the d-bracket message 'Testing RTC" (123 GREEN, 4 nothing).. initial bios problem, isn't it?? other ways to recover it now?? ,((
- is it a WELL KNOWN PROBLEM when we try to disconnect and replug too hastily the d-bracket headers without switching off the power supply (*my* main erorr here, it seems :( :( ) ????
... and of course, do you think it could have *fried* another key component (cpu, ram -?? why i reminded the setting, just in case-?-, video card? .. ) with that d-bracket initial disconnection error ... ,(
as i said, i have no secondary c2d/ddr2 motherboard here : no way to test the cpu and ddr2 modules on another motherboard to be sure too here. :( i absolutely can't know if they have been damaged or not, here.. :( :(
any other idea for the motherboard itself though ??? ,(
once again, thx a lot for any suggestions and precisions on that problem (is that a COMMON well known problem with the d-bracket, when we unplug and replug it without extrem care like i did -my main inattention error it seems.. mainly because all was so stable before too.. ((( - without shutting down the power supply/system FIRST ???? can it be possible 'only' that shut down all the system??? (( )
thx in advance again +

Harddrive Setup CS6 - 1 SSD, 2 Velociraptors, 1 1TB WD Caviar

Hi guys,
I've been doing a lot of research and I've been finding conflicting data on how to set up my harddrives for optimal workflow. I will be mostly using Premiere Pro and After Effects. My current computer is as follows
i7 3770k Overclocked stable on water to 4.7ghz
32 GB of Crucial Ballistix 1600 Cas 6 ddr3
GTX 670 FTW+ edition (4gb of gddr5) (text file added)
1 160GB Intel SSD - OS + Programs drive
2 600GB WD Velociraptors
1 1TB WD Caviar Black (7200 RPM)
I will be shooting primarily with a 5d mk2 but I also have an hf200 that shoots AVCHD.
Now I would love to Raid 0 the Velociraptors as I have the ability to store data externally. How should I set up my source media, previews, exports, media cache, and projects? Would I be better off using the drives separately? If I did have to bite the bullet and buy another drive, how would you then set it up and what would you recommend? Also, do I even need a pagefile if I have 32 GBs of quick ram?
Thank you guys in advance for your insight, this has been driving me crazy.

.........though far from being as knowledgeable as the actual experts here.......I believe for BEST performance, you would want to buy one more HDD to match the existing Caviar black. Then, setup as follows :
"C" SSD for OS, programs and Pagefile
" D " 2 Velociraptors in onboard RAID 0 for all media and project files
"E" 2 Caviars in onboard RAID 0 for all previews, all cache files and exports, ( as previews should NOT be used for exporting).
In addition, an additional large HDD should serve as the home for your precious original source material, ( your "backup" ). These files would then be copied to "D" for fastest performance during editing.
The above setup has been recommended on this forum many times for those who seek better performance, without taking the more expensive,and even BETTER performing step of using a high quality,dedicated RAID card,( like Areca).

P45 Platinum - Triple Posting/Dual Posting

Hi...
I searched many places on the net but could not come to a resolution. This seems like 'the' place. Well I have a P45 Platinum. It always double posts/triple posts before boot up. And this only happens on cold boot. So if I power down, and leave the UPS on, boot up is normal. If I turn the UPS off, then it mult-posts.
1. Will start (fans spin and no display) for 2 seconds.
2. Goes off for 2 seconds.
3. Again (1)
4. Again (2)
5. Again (3)
6. Again (4)
7. Posts and starts normal.
My system config is as:
MSI P45 Platinum (BIOS 1.6 dated 02/20/2009)
[email protected]@1.432V + CM Hyper 212
Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5(5-5-5-15)@2.1V@1016Mhz (could not get it to 1066 Mhz)
2 x HD4890[Xfire]@1000/900[MEM/GPU]
Corsair 650TX
Seagate 180GB+80GB
The CPU OC is perfectly stable. Have stressed it using OCCT / Prime95 / RealTEMP / Furmark. Can game for hours with no issue. Temperatures are good too.
thanks a ton....!
Anil

Quote from: Jack t.N. on 06-January-10, 22:58:18
Remove your OC Settings...
Okay I bought the system to default, by loading and committing all values using the F6 in the BIOS. The system is first posting perfect.
FSB:DRAM ration = Auto
V - DRAM = Auto
SS = Yes
Ram is running at 534.6 Mhz (1:2 DRAM:FSB) @ 5-7-7-24.
Now the question is: How do I get this baby to run at 4.0 Ghz. With the quickest RAM speed. If I can not get quick RAM speed no issue, but I want the 4.0 Ghz speed for the CPU.
Quote from: Del UK on 06-January-10, 22:37:31
With the overclock you achieved and components..... I am 90% sure, that PSU (Even though good quality) does not have the power for first cold boot.
If you leave UPS on, parts of system still receiving power, so not as hard on PSU.
As quick test, what happens, if you removed 1 of the graphics cards and boot from cold?
I will give this a try, but default settings are working fine -- if I cannot get the 4.0 Ghz with quick RAM option, will load the OC and try with one GPU.

PowerMac G5 - Crashing, Hanging & Having Kernel Panics

Okay, I've got quite a situation here folks. I bought a used PowerMac G5 1.6GHz. The first time I fired it up the fans sounded like a jet engine. After a quick thermal calibration that issue was solved. I'm only mentioning it in case it could having something to do with today's issue.
So now what I've started getting with this machine is steady hanging (the screen freezes and everything is unresponsive) and kernel panics (both the fancy new "Please hold the power button" ones and the good old text ones). After I started experiencing this, I did some research. Almost everything pointed to bad RAM.
I opened up the machine and found that the memory was installed in the following configuration:
---Slot 1--- 256MB PC2700 Chip with (M) logo (I believe this is Apple standard)
---Slot 2--- 256MB PC2700 Chip with (M) logo (I believe this is Apple standard)
---Slot 3--- 256MB PC2700 Chip (generic brand, mysteriously says DDR400 not 333)
---Slot 3--- 256MB PC2700 Chip (generic brand, mysteriously says DDR400 not 333)
I ran quick RAM tests and found no problems with the RAM. Then I checked out an Apple document that says ram should be installed like:
---Slot 1--- Empty/Upgrade
---Slot 2--- Original RAM
---Slot 3--- Original RAM
---Slot 4--- Empty/Upgrade
Tried moving the memory to this configuration and had the same issues. Then I tried removing the generic chips and leaving the Apple original stuff. Same result. I figured that had narrowed down the problem to one of those two chips, but I tried it with only the generic chips installed and had the same problem.
On a whim I ran hard drive and CPU tests to double check that the problem was in the memory. No problems in those tests. I've tried everything I can think of:
I reset the PMU
I zapped the PRAM
I tried every RAM arrangement possible
I reinstalled the OS with a fresh copy
No luck folks. Any ideas?

I am having virtually the exact same problem--I also purchased a used 1.6 G5 and have very frequent and seemingly random crashes. I thought it was RAM also, so completely removed the existing sticks and replaced them with the good RAM I have in my G4 (which still runs and purrs like a **** kitten, although needs a new fan so is a bit loud). Had the same result. Swapped out a new 250g HD and formatted it with ONLY OSX and the basic upgrades in Software Update, but no other apps that I had initially installed on the existing 80G HD. Still crashing. I have gotten a couple crazy kernel errors and the really creepy "System Failure: Corrupt Skip Lists" message. I'm starting to flip out because all the forums are suggesting it could be this and that, but nothing seems to help! Have you found anything out yet?

New PB G4-15-Widescreen, Disappointing, and slow

I just took delivery of a brand new 15" Aluminum Powerbook 1.67 GHz G4 (Widescreen Edition) as a replacement for my aging 15" Titanium Powerbook.
My first thought was how much I was underwhelmed by the appearance: that is, I recall first seeing the TiBook in person, holding it at my side, and being really impressed with the whole design, ergonomics, etc. The AlBook seems to have dumbed down the TiBook's appearance to a much less impressive look and feel, less svelte, clumbsier, etc.
However, I can understand that some of the changes were necessary: ie, the lid had to be a little thicker to prevent keycaps from marking the LCD, etc. Fine...I can live with that.
But upon using it I was constantly wondering why the AlBook felt so much slower than I expected: so I ran some benchmarks.
Using xbench 1.2 on both PBs, my TiBook generally ran a benchmark score from as low as 20 to as high as 24. The AlBook, however, is topping out at 42, and more often than not scores in the 40 range. 3.5 years newer and barely twice as fast?
What sense does this make? And how could it be?
1. Both PBs have G4 procs. The AlBook at 1.67GHz should be 250% the raw speed of the TiBook's 667MHz.
2. The AlBook supposedly has 128MBs of a "much improved" graphics processor, compared to the ATi Mobility (16MB I think) of the TiBook.
3. The AlBook has 1.5GB of supposedly much quicker ram, compared to the TiBook's 768MB.
4. The AlBook supposedly has 80GB of a 5400rpm HD, which is less than half full, compared to the 30GB 4200 rpm 90% full drive in the TiBook.
5. Here's the unknown: the TiBook still had OS X 10.3.x (latest available) compared to the AlBook's OS X 10.4.2 or 10.4.3 (ran both). However I ran top to ensure that neither had any extra processes running that would impact benchmarks (ie, I shut down dashboard, etc).
I've used various system utilities (Cocktail, Macaroni, SOX) to ensure that both are as up-to-speed as they allow, and ran iDefrag just to ensure I didn't have any strange fragmentation on the new PB (I didn't).
I'm also not a new Mac user: I've owned literally hundreds, going back to my first - a Mac Plus, which I saved up for and bought while in Highschool - and have worked as a Mac consultant for several years over the past 15.
So somebody please tell me: what's wrong here? Is there a chance I just have a lemon? Did I get a slow drive? Underclocked proc? bad ram? Or is there that much extra load from 10.4 compared to 10.3 as to make this difference?
Thanks,
DM

Well...I guess I'm still disappointed. Every previous new computer for me has been like buying a new house: you get to buy a little more square footage, live in a nicer neighborhood, have a bigger pool, with better landscaping, and so on.
This new AlBook is like getting a new pair of shoes: not as worn out as the old pair, certainly shiny and nice looking, and a somewhat more modern style, but all in all providing the same basic experience as the old pair did when new.
I'm still disappointed with the overall look and feel, though it's better than the cheapie ($499) Dell laptop I bought as a spare PC for the wife a few weeks ago. I guess it's sort of like the difference between the Lombard (which I owned) and the Pismo (which I did not), the latter being a slightly clunkier, less fresh, slightly faster but not quite as sexy version of the former.
That said, I like the built-in Bluetooth, key-lighting is very cool, seems to be quieter than my TiBook. Unrelated to the hardware, but specific to my full-time jump from 10.3 to 10.4 I have to say that I think that Dashboard Widgets are done a bit more nicely than Konfabulator was (and I loved Konfabulator as an OS extension; easy to understand why Apple copied 'em). I imagine this comes from having a crew of coders that are part of the OS team.
Where it fails compared to the Dell, however (especially when considering that it's 4x the cost), is in some fairly critical performance issues: Airport range is absolutely, unbelievably bad. I have a Linksys wrt54g with Talisman firmware, jacked up to 200mW, coupled to a pair of Hypergain 14.5dBi antennas, which will let me get across the street with the Dell (and its cheapie built-in Intel-based wireless chipset) on 802.11g, and 24+Mb bandwidth. The AlBook fails outright 30 feet away (and I've tried different options, ie Interference Robustness settings).
This means that some critical aspects of my life - such as sitting in bed with the AlBook on my lap - just plain can't happen.
Now that I've disabled a big chunk of my Ram, the 'book isn't crashing and the WiFi isn't dropping out...as much. But it still doesn't live up to it's forebears.
I'm still holding out hope that there will be some future OS or firmware upgrade that will address several of these things. As a multi-platform user (considering my old TiBook could boot into OS 9, OS 10, YD Linux and Win2k via VPC) I still vastly prefer the Mac OS to the alternatives. It's still a joy to use, mostly, compared to the hum-drum experience of using Win XP and it's siblings.
I suppose what bothers me the most is that I have never in the past been disappointed with a new Mac. They've always met my expectations, and exceeded them in some respects. It's hard for me even to admit it, because in general I'm an optimistic, idealistic sort of guy. But in the end, much as it hurts me to say so, this upgrade has been a significant disappointment.
I'm already looking forward to - hopefully - trading it in on the first generation of Intel-based Powerbooks.
DM

MS-6368 freeze w/ blinking cap & scroll lock

When running linux (both Redhat 9.0 & Mandrake 9.2) the system freezes with a blinking caps & scroll lock. The case Power LED does NOT blink. This can occur from a few minutes to a few hours after booting up.
I've tried pressing keys, moving mouse, clicking mouse, but it does not unfreeze.
Pressing the power button will interrupt the blinking for a short time. Holding the power button down will shutdown the system.
This occured in the MB's original 6.0 BIOS, and still occurs after flashing 6.1. The MB is version 5.0.
I'm using the optimized BIOS settings, with LAN boot off.
I've tried adjusting the ACPI settings to disable, the PM Control by APM to no, and the Video off option to All Modes->off without seeing any change.
The screen is still visible after the freeze, even with the All Modes->Off video option.
PC Health seems fine, with the CPU not more than 85F when examining it after a freeze.
I'm able to exit the freeze by pressing reset. Of course, that forces a reboot.
I've seen no information on what the blinking caps & scroll lock might mean. I would guess standby/suspend/etc, but I can't wake the system and it occurs even when moving the mouse or typing on the keyboard.
Any ideas?

Thanks!
I was so busy searching for "ms-6368" and blinking cap and scroll lock that I didn't think to check under Linux instead. This is a big step in narrowing down the problem.
I'd like to further narrow it down to a root cause from one of the following categories: a Linux problem; a RAM problem; or a MS-6368 problem.
Steps I'm taking/have taken to do this:
I've checked the syslog and found no suspicious entries at the time of the freeze.
I've done a quick ram check, no errors.
I've started a full ram check that takes 75 hours.
I'm researching what to look for to identify the root cause of the freeze in Linux.
I can swap RAM and see if that corrects the problem.
I can install a Windows OS and see if there are problems there (of course, how would I tell the difference?)
If the problem still occurs after all that it seems like the best possibility is it being the MS-6368. I'll post if I find anything interesting.
Is there anything I've missed?

RAM Used up quickly, Macbook Pro Becomes Slow

Over the past week or so I've noticed my Macbook Pro getting increasingly slower as the day goes by. Looking in activity monitor, my free RAM is often under a couple hundred MBs - and too often below 50MB. Figuring that I just had to clear up some inactive RAM left over from other programs, I purged the inactive RAM, but only to have it get used up again within minutes.
This hasn't ever been a problem to me in the past year that I've had my Macbook Pro, but now it becomes unresponsive very quickly. As an experiment, I booted up my laptop, and even then I had less than a GB of free RAM (never had that little upon bootup before). The only programs I have setup to start on boot are iTunes Helper, Caffiene, and Mail (Hidden). This hasn't changed in at least six months, so I know it's not one of these causing the RAM hogging.
Here is a log of my current Activity Monitor stats- after rebooting about an hour ago, the only programs I've opened were Chrome, iTunes, and Firefox. Everything was fine for a few minutes, then I noticed severe slow down and massive RAM loss, in addition to the cooling fans exceeding 6000rpm for a short while. Does anything here look abnormal?
*I should also note that I've verified the startup disk and repaired permissions, and the Page in/Page Out ratio is fine.
Active Memory: 1.23 GB
Free Memory: 30.3 MB
Wired Memory: 885.5 MB
Used Memory: 3.97 GB
Inactive Memory: 1.87 GB
Total VM: 219.16 GB
Number of processes: 93
PID    Process Name              User       CPU      Real Mem        Virtual Mem
0      kernel_task               root       1.9      339.3 MB        4.77 GB
1      launchd                   root       0.0      1.8 MB          2.36 GB
10     kextd                     root       0.0      4.3 MB          2.35 GB
11     UserEventAgent            root       0.0      8.6 MB          2.38 GB
12     mDNSResponder             _mdnsrespo 0.0      3.1 MB          2.37 GB
13     opendirectoryd            root       0.1      8.5 MB          2.38 GB
14     notifyd                   root       0.0      1.1 MB          2.35 GB
15     configd                   root       0.0      4.5 MB          2.38 GB
16     diskarbitrationd          root       0.0      1.6 MB          2.35 GB
17     fseventsd                 root       0.1      6.2 MB          2.37 GB
18     syslogd                   root       0.0      980 KB          2.36 GB
19     powerd                    root       0.0      2.1 MB          2.37 GB
20     distnoted                 root       0.0      1.7 MB          2.35 GB
25     blued                     root       0.0      3.2 MB          2.37 GB
27     securityd                 root       0.0      6.0 MB          2.37 GB
28     coreservicesd             root       0.2      17.9 MB         2.39 GB
49     ntpd                      root       0.0      1.4 MB          2.32 GB
51     warmd                     nobody     0.0      3.6 MB          2.36 GB
52     usbmuxd                   _usbmuxd   0.0      3.3 MB          2.36 GB
54     SystemStarter             root       0.0      1.0 MB          2.35 GB
56     stackshot                 root       0.0      1.2 MB          2.35 GB
59     revisiond                 root       0.0      2.4 MB          2.36 GB
63     mds                       root       0.2      87.8 MB         2.74 GB
65     loginwindow               AMay       0.0      18.8 MB         2.44 GB
67     KernelEventAgent          root       0.0      1.0 MB          2.35 GB
68     kdc                       root       0.0      2.8 MB          2.35 GB
70     hidd                      root       0.1      1.8 MB          2.35 GB
72     dynamic_pager             root       0.0      712 KB          2.32 GB
77     autofsd                   root       0.0      1.8 MB          2.35 GB
79     applepushserviced         root       0.0      7.1 MB          2.37 GB
80     aosnotifyd                root       0.0      4.8 MB          2.37 GB
82     SophosAntiVirus           root       0.1      3.2 MB          640.3 MB
83     InterCheck                root       0.2      142.2 MB        773.5 MB
84     SophosAutoUpdate          root       0.0      9.3 MB          640.8 MB
86     licenseDaemon             root       0.0      4.9 MB          2.36 GB
87     TechToolProDaemon         root       0.0      3.4 MB          644.8 MB
88     qmasterd                  root       0.0      6.8 MB          645.6 MB
102    WindowServer              _windowser 6.5      56.0 MB         2.93 GB
103    netbiosd                  _netbios   0.0      2.2 MB          2.37 GB
118    CVMServer                 root       0.0      1,000 KB        2.33 GB
128    logind                    root       0.0      1.7 MB          2.35 GB
134    launchd                   AMay       0.0      1.2 MB          2.36 GB
136    coreaudiod                _coreaudio 1.2      4.9 MB          2.37 GB
138    UserEventAgent            AMay       0.0      9.8 MB          2.38 GB
140    distnoted                 AMay       0.0      3.4 MB          2.36 GB
145    Dock                      AMay       0.0      17.0 MB         2.44 GB
146    talagent                  AMay       0.0      7.3 MB          2.39 GB
147    SystemUIServer            AMay       0.0      28.6 MB         2.48 GB
148    Finder                    AMay       0.1      19.6 MB         2.43 GB
150    pboard                    AMay       0.0      912 KB          2.32 GB
158    fontd                     AMay       0.0      5.1 MB          2.40 GB
161    com.apple.dock.extra      AMay       0.0      10.9 MB         2.40 GB
163    warmd_agent               AMay       0.0      1.7 MB          2.35 GB
167    imagent                   AMay       0.0      5.2 MB          2.37 GB
172    SophosUIServer            AMay       0.1      11.4 MB         687.5 MB
175    Logitech Control Center D AMay       0.0      8.1 MB          2.40 GB
176    LaunchdDaemon             AMay       0.0      1.4 MB          618.9 MB
180    SpotifyWebHelper          AMay       0.0      3.3 MB          639.3 MB
182    Folder Actions Dispatcher AMay       0.0      6.4 MB          2.40 GB
186    iTunes Helper             AMay       0.0      3.6 MB          2.37 GB
187    Caffeine                  AMay       0.0      8.7 MB          2.40 GB
188    Mail                      AMay       0.0      60.1 MB         3.53 GB
196    cookied                   AMay       0.0      1.2 MB          2.35 GB
204    TechToolProAgent          AMay       0.0      9.3 MB          18.43 GB
215    mdworker                  AMay       0.1      29.9 MB         2.39 GB
255    AppleSpell.service        AMay       0.2      3.1 MB          2.38 GB
289    DashboardClient           AMay       0.0      12.6 MB         672.9 MB
290    DashboardClient           AMay       0.0      36.9 MB         3.43 GB
292    Google Chrome             AMay       0.0      84.4 MB         989.1 MB
297    Google Chrome Helper      AMay       0.0      10.4 MB         740.3 MB
299    Google Chrome Worker      AMay       0.0      69.3 MB         785.7 MB
300    Google Chrome Worker      AMay       0.0      26.4 MB         757.4 MB
301    Google Chrome Worker      AMay       0.0      27.7 MB         758.7 MB
471    Firefox                   AMay       0.2      357.6 MB        3.65 GB
485    Firefox Plugin Process (S AMay       0.8      48.8 MB         2.58 GB
486    VDCAssistant              root       0.0      5.2 MB          2.37 GB
739    iTunes                    AMay       3.1      72.3 MB         2.53 GB
746    Last.fm                   AMay       1.9      23.1 MB         767.4 MB
748    ath                       AMay       0.0      3.4 MB          2.37 GB
751    AppleMobileDeviceHelper   AMay       0.0      8.8 MB          2.37 GB
783    Quick Look Helper         AMay       0.0      9.5 MB          2.88 GB
841    automountd                root       0.0      2.1 MB          2.36 GB
877    Activity Monitor          AMay       11.6     25.7 MB         2.44 GB
878    taskgated                 root       0.0      2.7 MB          2.37 GB
880    xpchelper                 AMay       0.0      4.6 MB          2.35 GB
881    SyncServer                AMay       0.0      9.9 MB          2.38 GB
884    activitymonitord          root       0.7      1.4 MB          2.33 GB
885    launchdadd                root       0.0      1.7 MB          2.35 GB
886    launchd                   _spotlight 0.0      852 KB          2.36 GB
888    mdworker                  _spotlight 0.0      6.3 MB          2.38 GB
889    distnoted                 _spotlight 0.0      1.1 MB          2.35 GB
890    xpchelper                 _spotlight 0.0      4.4 MB          2.36 GB
891    CVMCompiler               AMay       0.0      20.5 MB         2.35 GB

Thomas - yes, the page outs are less than 10% of the page ins, your site was actually what made me take a look at that haha.The reason that I'm concerned about my free RAM is that it has never been this low, and I like having a certain amount of RAM free when I run certain programs (ex. Ableton Live, a music production program, where ~500MB of RAM is needed to load some drum samples).
I had just installed Sophos Anti-Virus a few hours before my post, so that's probably running at startup along with a few others, which I will have to take a look at. Are there any other startup processes that you noticed that I should look into?
Lastly, I installed Final Cut Pro 7 about a week and a half ago. I only open it maybe three days out of the week, so I didn't think that's what would be causing it. However, there may be some background processes that are running even when the actual program isn't running. Can you spot anything like that?
updating the Mac OS X version was the fix for it.
I eventually will udgrade to Mountain Lion, but I would like to get this fixed first. I'm also looking at buying more RAM, but up until recently, 4GB was working fine. I couldn't have everything running, but the programs that I did have open ran fine.
Simple stop leaving program open that you are done using. Make sure you close the Program and not just close the window that the program is using. By default most Mac programs do not close when you close the window they are using. You have to manual close, Quit, those programs.
That's the thing though- I always close programs that I am not using (cmd+q, not just closing the window). I come from a Windows background, so closing a program entirely became a quick habit of mine!

RAM gets used up too quickly - any ideas?

I am sure this is a problem which can be solved quickly by one of the many very knowledgeable guys out there:
I have a 2007 MacPro 2.66 Dual core with 8 Gb RAM (well out of date I know) but this is the problem. After booting up with no other programmes just Lightroom and Photoshop I start working on files. The 'Free' RAM on Activity Monitor goes from about 6Gb immediately to about 1.6Gb. The TIFF size I work on is about 220Mb. The computer slows right down and the only solution is to reboot to start working on the next image. This is very time consuming. I have been waiting for the launch of a new MacPro for ages but still there is nothing on the horizon and i may have to plump for a fully loaded iMac. In the meantime is there anything I can do? Something seems to be clogging the system up quickly. It didn't used to happen like this. The VM size is showing as 233 Gb but is this actually being used?
Help please?

Hi Matt,
Thanks for your quick response.
Page Outs (at the moment and it is really slow now) are: 2.82GB. I replaced the original 250 Gb HD with a 500Gb and there is currently 318Gb free.
This is the info from my Mac:
ntel ESB2 AHCI:
Vendor:          Intel
Product:          ESB2 AHCI
Link Speed:          3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed:          1.5 Gigabit
Description:          AHCI Version 1.10 Supported
ST3500630AS:
Capacity:          500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 bytes)
Model:          ST3500630AS
Revision:          3.AAK
Serial Number:                      9QG3HBVH
Native Command Queuing:          Yes
Queue Depth:          32
Removable Media:          No
Detachable Drive:          No
BSD Name:          disk1
Medium Type:          Rotational
Bay Name:          Bay 1
Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status:          Verified
Volumes:
disk1s1:
Capacity:          209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
BSD Name:          disk1s1
Content:          EFI
Macintosh HD CPC:
Capacity:          499.76 GB (499,763,888,128 bytes)
Available:          318.14 GB (318,138,114,048 bytes)
Writable:          Yes
File System:          HFS+
BSD Name:          disk1s2
Mount Point:          /
Content:          Apple_HFS
Thank you for your help
Colin

Why is my memory usage quickly reaching my max RAM, even after a reboot?

Okay so, I have a macbook with 8GB of RAM and just recently I noticed some issues while playing my gambit of online games. Naturally I closed them out and checked my activity monitor and noticed that my RAM usage was at 7.99GB. I figured restarting would fix this issue and for a moment it seemed to. However my memory usage quickly climbed back up to very nearly 8GB.
Now I am not one to fret over high RAM usage but in this case my entire computer is running slowly and most of my 'heavier' applications are refusing to launch at all. My network is also seems to be choked, it was never fast but when I open a program that uses the internet I get maybe 5KB/s, laughable really.
It seems like within a few minutes of using my laptop the memory climbs rapidly then I'm right back in the same mess in about 4 minutes. This seems like some memory leak issue, but the odd thing is none of the processes look to be memory hungry. All the processes in the activity monitor account for about 1.7GB of RAM yet the memory usage is already back to 7.97GB and I am just running FireFox and Safari at the moment.
Any help or input would be greatly appreciated!

most of my 'heavier' applications are refusing to launch at all
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.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take one of the actions that you're having trouble with. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Quick RAM Q

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