Re: Lost RAM
Adrian
(in article <1jqgj79.43frwdcy5t1cN%henr...@eircom.net>):
> Yesterday, my wife complained that her 2005 PB G4 1.67 had suddenly
> become much slower. I checked it over and found that it had stopped
> recognising the SODIMM in the lower slot. I can't think of any obvious
> reason for this -- the PB hasn't been dropped or bumped, etc. And it's
> not the SODIMM itself: swapping it with the other one yields the same
> result, upper OK, lower not. The System Profiler sees that slot as
> Empty. I ran the Apple Hardware Test and got the following error
> message: post/0/2048 SODIMM0/J25Lower.
>
> Is this likely to be permanent, or is there a chance that it might cure
> itself? I was planning to get a new MBP in the Spring but it could be a
> long six months at this rate. TIA.
>
> cheers,
>
> Henry
My daughter has a 1.33GHz Powerbook and while I was replacing the expired
hard disk in it I also noticed that she had lost half her RAM. Just as you
have found, the lower socket had died. A quick search revealed that it is a
common problem with her model which is about the same vintage as yours.
No known cure I'm afraid other than a new motherboard, which would be
prohibitively expensive.
Erik Richard Sørensen
Henry wrote:
> Yesterday, my wife complained that her 2005 PB G4 1.67 had suddenly
> become much slower. I checked it over and found that it had stopped
> recognising the SODIMM in the lower slot. I can't think of any obvious
> reason for this -- the PB hasn't been dropped or bumped, etc. And it's
> not the SODIMM itself: swapping it with the other one yields the same
> result, upper OK, lower not. The System Profiler sees that slot as
> Empty. I ran the Apple Hardware Test and got the following error
> message: post/0/2048 SODIMM0/J25Lower.
>
> Is this likely to be permanent, or is there a chance that it might cure
> itself? I was planning to get a new MBP in the Spring but it could be a
> long six months at this rate. TIA.
Sorry to say it, Henry, but this is a known problem on both the 15" and
17" models and it's a permanent situation for this G4 model. I presume
from your description that it's the one with 1440x900 monitor resolution
and ComboDrive (DVD-R+CD-RW)...
The problem is that the lower RAM socket itself loosens from the
motherboard connection. The problem was solved on the latest series of
the 2005 model and the very last G€ G4 (nov.05-febr.06). This problem
hasn't necessarily anything to do with drops or kicks of any kind, but
occours because of the heating and cooling during use.
I don't know whether Apple still has the extended warranty on this issue
or if they have stopped this now. But I know of more people who got the
PBs repaired for free though they were out of normal warranty.
If the PB else is working error free, my guess is it will be affordable
to get it repaired - especially if she still needs to be able to use
classic and/or PPC/G4 only applications. - So my recommendation will be
to contact the nearest certified Apple repair shop to ask how much it
will cost to repair this - in my oppinion - really fine machine.
I have one of those 1,67ghz - the 17" model - myself - a series produced
in sep.05, so I indeed hope that it will stay fit for many more years.:-))
Cheers, Erik Richard
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC, <mac-m...@Mstofanet.dk>
NisusWriter - The Future In Multilingual Text Processing - www.nisus.com
OpenOffice.org - The Modern Productivity Solution - www.openoffice.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Erik Richard Sørensen
Henry wrote:
> Erik Richard Sørensen <tu...@tulle.dk> wrote:
>> ... this is a known problem on both the 15" and
>> 17" models ...
>>
>> I don't know whether Apple still has the extended warranty on this issue
>> or if they have stopped this now. But I know of more people who got the
>> PBs repaired for free though they were out of normal warranty.
>
>
> If it was an Official 'known problem' with an (unofficial) extended
> warranty, there should be some sort of link about that, yes?
I can't find any link to this. But all those I know of who have had the
problem contacted Apple support directly and got shipping cases sent to
the addresses, so they only had to put the PBs into it and send it...
Sometimes Apple is very nice. I had an old PB 190 that had some problems
with the trackpad. A friend of mine wanted to buy it, so we agreed that
he sho9uld pay a symbolic price + the repari. It was sent to my Apple
dealer, they gave me a certain price and then they sent it directly to
Apple Europe in the Netherlands. 10 days later they called to tell me
that I could pick it up again, and when I did this and took the credit
card to pay, he told me that this would be veeery expensive... - a big
round zero, because Apple tech could see that this was an old issue -
therefore no cost for the repair... My friend got a cheap PB..-)
> In the summer of 2009, four years after purchase and one year after the
> expiration of the extended AppleCare warranty, this machine succumbed to
> the 'known' narcolepsy failure. The motherboard had to be replaced -- at
> considerable expense -- but even the warranty on that repair, 15 months
> ago, is expired now.
>
> Considering also that the optical drive failed and had to be replaced
> (under warranty) just before the end of the first year ... this is
> turning out to be not the most reliable of the eight Macs I have owned
> in the past 26 years.
Telling this I wouldn't say that it will be affordabnle to repair it any
more. Instead it even will be cheaper to find an used 12", 15", 17" PB
1,5ghz-1,67ghz in very good condition, - again, if your wife still needs
classic and/or PPC only access. - Else I'd recommend to switch to the
MacBook or MacBook Pro. - I have rather good experiences with the 2.2ghz
late.2007/early.2008 model - the one with the non-glossy screen. They
are now beginning to come out on the used market for reasonable pricing
in very good to excellent conditions. Then - if I were you, I'd go for
the 15,4" version and not the 17". The 17" is good, yes, but it's rather
heavy.:-)
> 1984 -- original 128K -- Flyback Transformer failure; repaired
> 1989 -- SE/30 -- 'stiction' failure of the HD; replaced
> 1993 -- Centris 650, upgraded to C 650 PPC 601 - still OK
> 1997 -- 7300 / 200, upgraded to G3 450 -- still OK
> 1998 -- Wallstreet PB G3 -- problems with screen, sound, power and more;
> retired
> 2000 -- PM G4 (Gigabit ethernet) -- "known" problems with power / USB;
> repaired, still OK
> 2005 -- PB G4 -- this one, the machine under discussion
> 2008 -- iMac 24" 2.8 GHz -- so far, so good
I can beat this list though not in year.:-)
1991: LC - borrowed from a friend
1993: PB 165 - still working like new
1995: PM 7200/90 mobo replaced, Apple withdraw some 7200 series and
exchanged the mobos because of AT faulure. Sold but I know it's still
working
1997: PM G3/233mhz DT. Problems and problems until it was sent to the
factory in the US. Everything was exchanged except PSU and housing. Then
it worked and still is.
1999: Beige G3/300mhzMT, CPU upg. to 1133mhz in 2003. Mobo died two
months ago. CPU now working in a B&W G3.
2000: PM 9600/350mhz. Worked until two months ago. Died the same day as
the Beige G3 - due to a mains failure. Given away for spare parts -
apprx. 1,2gb RAM, ATA PCI, USB/FW PCI etc.etc..
2001: PM G4/400mhz, sold but still working
2001: PM G4/400mhz, upg. to a dual 1,4ghz G4, sold but still working
2002: PB Pismo G3/500mhz, now sold but still works fine
2002: B&W G3/400mhz, CPU upg. to 900mhz. Died half a year ago with the
known mobo/PMU problems known on some of the 400mhz rev.1 models, so now
I'm looking for a well-conditioned B&W for the CPU. - Else I can use the
old G4/350mhz PCIGraphics I got for free. This model can be 'downgraded'
to a G3...
2002: PM G4/350mhzAGP, CPU upg. to 1,4ghz. Was my main machine until the
two QSs, then used it as a backup machine. mobo died of a mains failure.:-(
2003: PM G4 QuickSilver 733mhz, CPU upg. to dual 1,8ghz, sold and now
working as a music recording studio
2003: PM G4 QuickSilver 867mhz, CPU upg. to dual 1,8ghz, now also sold
and still working - funny enough only running OS 9.2 + 10.5.x as a
'backup' system.
2005: QuickSilver dual 1ghz, died of the known mobo/PMU problem, CPU,
RMA and HDs put into another QS 800mhz single CPU, sold but still working
2005: QuickSilver 933mhz, sold again but still working
2007: MacPro QuadCore 2,66ghz - my best ever buy though it was expensive!
2007: MDD dual 1ghz, working like a dream
2009: MDD 1,25ghz, woriking like a dream
2009: PB G4/1,67ghz/sep.05, working like a dream (at least until now...)
2010: MDD 1ghz/FW800/late2004 + MDD dual 1ghz with dead mobo. CPU moved
to the FW800 model and now works like new.
2010: G5 dual 1,8ghz... Bought last week and will get it in the upcoming
week...
There have been other models that I only had for a few weeks, then they
were sold to others who wanted to have a machine which was a bit faster
and newer than their older ones....