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Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / June 2008Increasing memory on 800 MHz 640MB iBook G4
I read somewhere that I can increase the memory on my iBook G4 which has suddenly become slow as treacle. I have tried verifying permissions and checking the disc itself but everything happens about 30 seconds after I press any command. It doesn't seem to matter much how many programs are loaded, the delay is always the same. I cant believe this computer was designed to load everything and execute every command that slowly? Can this thing have caught a virus? There is a curious file which has appeared on my desktop called eBayISAPI.dll. I hadnt thought that you used dll files in OSX? Is there a trick involved and/or should I upgrade from Tiger to Leopard to use less resources? Or would it use MORE resources to load all the new OS's features? Or will Leopard even install on an 800 MHz 640MB computer? At the moment is is loading a 73 mb 2008-003 security update. It has been installing for about an hour. > I read somewhere that I can increase the memory on my iBook G4 which has > suddenly become slow as treacle. I have tried verifying permissions and [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > desktop called eBayISAPI.dll. I hadnt thought that you used dll files in > OSX? What does the Activity Monitor tell you? Or open the terminal and type the Unix command "top". > Is there a trick involved and/or should I upgrade from Tiger to Leopard to > use less resources? Or would it use MORE resources to load all the new OS's > features? Or will Leopard even install on an 800 MHz 640MB computer? At > the moment is is loading a 73 mb 2008-003 security update. It has been > installing for about an hour. Leopard itself will not install since the check for 800 MHz will show insufficient resources. However, there are hacks to bypass this check. I use a similiar iBook G4 800 MHz 12" and upgraded to 1 GB (+ 128 MB internal). Take the proper DDR SDRAM (I guess it was PC2100 or PC2400). - Martin > I read somewhere that I can increase the memory on my iBook G4 which has > suddenly become slow as treacle. I have tried verifying permissions and > checking the disc itself but everything happens about 30 seconds after I > press any command. macs don't 'suddenly' become slow and 30 seconds is unusually long for even a slow computer. it sounds like there may be a hardware issue, perhaps a failing hard drive. >> I read somewhere that I can increase the memory on my iBook G4 which has >> suddenly become slow as treacle. I have tried verifying permissions and [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > even a slow computer. it sounds like there may be a hardware issue, > perhaps a failing hard drive. Oh not again!! This will be my eighth 2.5 inch hard drive to go in about three years on eight different computers, most with the same symptoms. But I had just assumed that the reports on the drive on DiskUtility along with the SMART report were sufficient. And I had assumed that as only one of them was on a Mac (a Powerbook G4), they were somehow more reliable than PC drives. This is one of thoseMacs in which you have to take virutually the whole drive apart to get to the drive, isnt it? As to Leopard, does it run properly once it is installed if I buy a gig of PC2100 memory? (I was sure I had read on the Apple site that you cant put any more than 640 MG in it) > Oh not again!! This will be my eighth 2.5 inch hard drive to go in about > three years on eight different computers, most with the same symptoms. But > I had just assumed that the reports on the drive on DiskUtility along with > the SMART report were sufficient. > > And I had assumed that as only one of them was on a Mac (a Powerbook G4), Oh and can I poll opinions on whether it is worthwhile paying as much as a couple of second hand hard drives for Disk Warrior please? > Oh and can I poll opinions on whether it is worthwhile paying as much as a > couple of second hand hard drives for Disk Warrior please? diskwarrior is worth its weight in gold, but it won't fix a mechanical problem with a drive. > This is one of thoseMacs in which you have to take virutually the whole > drive apart to get to the drive, isnt it? perfectly true - but taking the docu from ifixit it was mainly time, but not that difficult. I had to open the laptop anyway since it caught the famous C-clamp soldering failure. > As to Leopard, does it run properly once it is installed if I buy a gig of > PC2100 memory? (I was sure I had read on the Apple site that you cant put > any more than 640 MG in it) This was an early limit, which never was true, since the PB 12" was released earlier and could handle 1 GB SDRAM. However. later docu increased the 512 MB limit up to 1 GB. - Martin > Oh not again!! This will be my eighth 2.5 inch hard drive to go in about > three years on eight different computers, most with the same symptoms. But I > had just assumed that the reports on the drive on DiskUtility along with the > SMART report were sufficient. if smart says the drive is bad, it's bad. if smart doesn't say it's bad, the drive might be dying or it might be fine. so just because you are getting positive reports doesn't mean that a problem isn't lurking within. > And I had assumed that as only one of them was on a Mac (a Powerbook G4), > they were somehow more reliable than PC drives. the same drives are used in both macs and pcs. > This is one of thoseMacs in which you have to take virutually the whole > drive apart to get to the drive, isnt it? ibooks are a *bitch* to swap hard drives. > As to Leopard, does it run properly once it is installed if I buy a gig of > PC2100 memory? (I was sure I had read on the Apple site that you cant put > any more than 640 MG in it) g3 ibooks were limited to 640 meg. g4 ibooks can take more. >> Oh not again!! This will be my eighth 2.5 inch hard drive to go in about >> three years on eight different computers, most with the same symptoms. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > are getting positive reports doesn't mean that a problem isn't lurking > within. Is it still the case that you cant boot from a Drive Fitness Testing cd with a Mac and test the drive? Or CAN you boot from UBCD4WIN just to check the drive? Or Ubuntu if there is some drive testing utility in it? >> And I had assumed that as only one of them was on a Mac (a Powerbook G4), >> they were somehow more reliable than PC drives. [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > g3 ibooks were limited to 640 meg. g4 ibooks can take more. > Is it still the case that you cant boot from a Drive Fitness Testing cd with > a Mac and test the drive? Or CAN you boot from UBCD4WIN just to check the > drive? Or Ubuntu if there is some drive testing utility in it? If Drive Fitness Testing and UBCD4WIN are written for a PC, they won't boot any kind of Mac with a Power PC G4 chip in it. A Linux CD written for PPC chip should boot it. The install CD that came with the iBook will definitely boot the machine and you can run the disk utility from the CD and get the (admittedly limited) diagnostics and repair functions that it provides. Apart from out and out failure there is also the possibility that the drive is close to full. That will make the computer slower and less reliable. If that is the case, new drives are cheap, but of course replacement of a full drive is as much pain as replacing a failed drive. I see tiny Torx head screws rolling off the table... >> Is it still the case that you cant boot from a Drive Fitness Testing cd >> with [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > and you can run the disk utility from the CD and get the (admittedly > limited) diagnostics and repair functions that it provides. Things dont look all that good: Though the drive has Tiger installed on it, I used original install discs. I selected repair on the Fujitsu drive itself and it told me in red that 15 reserve fields in the catalogue count have incorrect data and that there is an invalid leaf count (It should be 16 instead of 18) It then said the iBook G4 (HFS) drive was repaired successfully AND that it tried to repair 2 volumes (presumably the other being the Fujitsu drive?) and that the other volume could not be repaired. On Verify Permissions, All sorts of verifications come up wrong and ultimately I get a 'DISK UTILITY INTERNAL ERROR D. U. has lost its connection with Disk management Tool and cannot continue, please quit and relaunch disk utility'. then it announces that if you quit you may destroy your OS. It then does go into 'repair permissions' and I get the same get a 'DISK UTILITY INTERNAL ERROR D. U. has lost its connection with Disk management Tool and cannot continue, please quit and relaunch disk utility' with lots of suspicious sounding clicking at aroud 80% complete. Running verification again passes the verifications which were repaired but ominously starts the clicking at the same place again. I wonder if this means trouble with the platters! Something SMART couldnt repair with replacing bad sectors with spare ones? Anyway re-running Disk Repair gives invalid leaf record count and the HFS Vol is OK, the other one could not be repaired again. > Apart from out and out failure there is also the possibility that the > drive is close to full. That will make the computer slower and less [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > a full drive is as much pain as replacing a failed drive. I see tiny > Torx head screws rolling off the table... > I read somewhere that I can increase the memory on my iBook G4 which has > suddenly become slow as treacle. I have tried verifying permissions and [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > the moment is is loading a 73 mb 2008-003 security update. It has been > installing for about an hour. If the iBook has suddenly started to slow down the problem may be fixable and not need a new disk. I am assuming you have not tried using the utiliies that come with the OS. Get out your Mac OS X install CD-ROM, and startup or restart holding down the 'C' key. When the install app appears go to the menu and select Disk Utility. First of all check permissions and repair if necessary. Second run the Verify Disk and if necessary run Repair Disk. I can't guarantee that it will fix it, but it is worth doing and could not be cheaper. :-) I have AppleCare on my iBook so I also run TechTool if necessary. Between the two of thwm I have never failed to fix my disk partitions on my G4 mirror-door; the iBook has never needed this treatment. HTH  SignatureThanks and regards, Shane. "A closed mouth gathers no feet!" Email: Beware the invalid word! shane at wonk dot demon dot co dot uk Website: http://www.wonk.demon.co.uk/ |
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