Tim Dorr Veteran Posted December 21, 2003 Veteran Share Posted December 21, 2003 I bought my girlfriend an iBook for christmas this year and it's having some weird issues I can only seem to explain with hardware failure. I did upgrade the RAM in it, and I would like to check that prior to heading to the Apple Store. Is there any tool or trick to test the RAM in the system for errors? If possible, I'd like to identify the address with a glitch, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Patriot Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Did the iBook come with one of the system diagnostic CD's? If so, try running that. I've never used mine, but I would guess that it would at least run some type of RAM checks. Also, I'd recommend removing the RAM you added, just to see if the glitches go away. If they do, then it's most likely a problem with it, if not, then the problem is elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isus Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 try the diagnostic mode during boot... i'm assuming it at least boots to the gray apple screen... i don't know the command though... uhh, try apple-v right after the chime, mash the buttons a billion times until it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Dorr Veteran Posted December 21, 2003 Author Veteran Share Posted December 21, 2003 Yeah, I didn't think of that disc. I suppose I should explain the problem too: She was ripping a CD to iTunes and was using Safari while it did it's thing in the background. After a minute or two, things stopped responding. Not just beachballing, we're talking I-click-it-does-nothing-ing. Not even the dock moved. So, I hard rebooted it, and it didn't get past the grey boot screen. I restarted in Single User Mode and it passed the fsck all fine, but SystemStarter brought me a failure message from mDNSResponder that was stalling the system while it waited for Network Something-or-other. Then, after a subsequent boot, it got to the blue screen before the login window would show and froze. Then the next boot went fine and I'm typing up this message on it right now. I was able to get it to freeze when I tried a repair permissions, but it hasn't done anythign since then. Thank god both the RAM and system are under warranty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Dorr Veteran Posted December 21, 2003 Author Veteran Share Posted December 21, 2003 isus: command-V is verbose mode, a non-interactive form of single user mode. they're basically the same thing, you just watch OSX do it's think in verbose mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolCatBad Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 http://www.velociraptus.com/ftp/en/ Something to check Mac ram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isus Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 isus: command-V is verbose mode, a non-interactive form of single user mode. they're basically the same thing, you just watch OSX do it's think in verbose mode. i've never actually had to use single user... i guess i'll try that when i get my pbook later next summer :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Dorr Veteran Posted December 21, 2003 Author Veteran Share Posted December 21, 2003 Well, the Hardware Test CD has a memory tester on it, so I used that. Sure enough, the RAM I purchased showed up bad. So, I have to RMA it and get another stick. First time I've had problems with 18004memory.com, they've been great up until this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Patriot Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 Glad to hear you got it sorted out. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isus Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 Well, the Hardware Test CD has a memory tester on it, so I used that. Sure enough, the RAM I purchased showed up bad. So, I have to RMA it and get another stick. First time I've had problems with 18004memory.com, they've been great up until this. i prefer corsair or crucial ram... anyway, it probably wasn't the vendors fault, just a bad batch of ram. as long as the rma it quickly and without hassles, there's no reason you shouldn't go back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Dorr Veteran Posted December 22, 2003 Author Veteran Share Posted December 22, 2003 And I prefer saving 50% on my RAM ;) No, I usually go with crucial, but their prices were too rich for my blood and I went with my favorite "generic" maker, 18004memory.com. They have excellent turnaround times on RMAs from what I've heard, so this shouldn't be painful at all :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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