adding memory to macs

i might as well get some memory for the ol' iMac too while i'm at it.

it's gonna have to be after xmas, tho'. unless santa is reading this.

x-post: no, but each new application released assumes more and more base memory. so the net effect is the same :)

I added 256MB to my 3-year-old 600MHz eMac recently, bringing it up to 512MB and I only really notice the difference when running Photoshop. iTunes is still much more sluggish than it was, just cause I think it doesn't like huge libraries.

It's not that bad at all, though, certainly nothing like using an aged PC at work. You know, a 3MB picture might take three seconds to come up or something. Which is why I'm surprised that colette is having problems with her year old one. Sounds like there's something wrong with it to me.

It's not too hard. But I've always had the genius bar at the apple store install RAM for me. They only charge $30 or so to put it in for you, and I figure $30 to make sure that my $$$ laptop isn't ruined is pretty good.

3. what do i do with the old memory that i'm taking out? can i sell it on ebay or something?

Yup. Ebay/Craigslist/etc

changing ram is simple. $30 is a rip.

Colette has the stock 256 (or 512) plus another 256 in the second slot - so yeah, you'll need to remove that one. Definitely go for a gig, it's amazing what a difference it makes.

however when i go to apple.com the only option they give me to upgrade is a 512 MB

how do i go up to a gig? do i have to use an APPLE chip or just ANY OL' CHIP??

i am going to have to upgrade this stupid machine, as i am running out of hard drive space as well AND i'm still running jaguar. i guess this is what i get for avoiding doing anything to it for 3 years.

roll on, january pay packet.

i'd really find it hard to stretch to two hundred dollars on this, but is it even worth doing just the 512?

thanks for all the thoughts!

xpost.

I have a year old 12" powerbook with 768 megs of RAM and iPhoto runs fine.

I suppose if reinstalling does help with whatever's screwing up her machine, then an upgrade to Tiger will do a similar job. So yeah, go Tiger if you're set on it, colette. But I'd do that first and see if the install helps, before spending money on RAM.

jesus! don't do this. it's not windows. brrr. nick, you're a mentalist.

have you ever let it run its overnight maintenance things? if not, open terminal and type:

sudo periodic monthly

it'll ask you for your admin password. enter this, and wait. then do:

sudo periodic weekly

(which will take ages)

and

sudo periodic daily

you might find this helps. failing that ... you might try getting hold of diskwarrior, or whatever diagnostic tool the mac professional of choice uses these days.

actually: the built-in usage monitor thing is fucking helpful. i cannot for the life of me remember what it's called - i just have it running in the dock - but it's something like "activity monitor" and it'll be in /Applications/Utilities. it will tell you, at a glance, what processes are running and how much CPU/memory/etc they're using.

but woo, don't go reinstalling the OS unless your machine is actually melting or on fire or something :)

x-post

Also, run disk utility and check to make sure the "SMART" status of the drive is ok. I had a pbook disk die on me and performance was the first sign of it checking out.

Also, if anyone is interested in an awesome backup / system cloning solution... find ye one "carbon copy cloner"

Isn't all that sudo periodic daily stuff just the same as what MacJanitor does without poking about in terminal?

"Activity Monitor" is in /Applications/Utilities. is good

(Mike Bombich is my homey)

yeah, I used this to be safe (with external HD) when I did the reinstall.

MacJanitor

yes. but i couldn't remember what it was called. and messing about in the terminal makes me feel OLD-SKOOL.

Mac's definitely have the edge on stabilty now (just). It annoys me when programs do still lock up in action though and "but, it's just the GUI" (mac zealots). Honestly! Without posessing 1337 ninja-fast command line powers it makes f-all difference HOW it crashes. Just that it does often enough to still be problematic.

Of course I can count the number of times I've had to power-off reboot my iBook on one hand. XP would require a tally chart to keep track. Even if it's not a thrice-daily occurence anymore (see: Win98x OSs).

xpost: I don't think I've ever had the Mac mini crash, though Safari does quit a lot.

camino for OS 9
launchbar
double blue aftershock and vodka

etc

no, OK, that horrible mozilla thing that ate my bookmarks.

Which isn't a defense of the Mini, I thought it was kind of a ripoff then and still do.

RAM RAM RAM that's all I ever hear.

Once you get down below 1GB your swap partition gets mucked up

good point. i've been there, with the iMac. it's horrible.

i've got a ton of memory-- like 40gb (keep music on an external drive, another question for another day, sigh). it came with 256 standard and we added 256 straightaway, so that's how i'm at 512.

using the nifty activity monitor tells me it's all firefox's fault-- taking up about 80% of CPU...is that normal? so yeah, it all gets sluggish when i use firefox, iphoto and pretty much any third programme (usually itunes or word, or mac the ripper).

i think i'm just impatient and i should actually take out that extra 256 of RAM that was installed, and instead read buddhist tennants, or something.

no, that's just working till like 10 at night talking! more RAM! faster, faster!

I can't remember how you find them, but if memory is your problem there will be a log file showing the number of 'pageouts' you've had recently.

Not true. You could easily upgrade it with stock RAM, with nothing more than a putty knife to open the case. In a lot of ways, it was even more simple to do it than it is with a PC.

That said, no matter how much memory you have in the thing, it can still be a beast, and a lot of that's probably the fault of the hard drive--it's a notebook drive, and consequently it's really slow. You can upgrade that too, if you want.

Opening my daughter's Mini to add RAM was not exactly easy, but it was doable. I had to sharpen the putty knife to wedge it in at all, and you have to have a few small shims handy to hold one side open while you wedge the other.

no, it most certainly isn't!

that's insane. does it always do that? mine's sitting here on about 3%. normally 80% would suggest it's running some mental java lunacy ... do you have extensions on it and stuff?

wow.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/broadbandtuner10.html

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Memory_Leak