Why is my G5 suddenly reporting 1 GB less RAM???

[FMiguelez]

The other 2, the ones that report only half of their capacity, are the weird ones.

this doesn't mean both sticks are bad. Most likely, one bank of one stick is bad. This will cause the corresponding bank on the other stick not to show. Not weird. G5 RAM only works when the pairs matched.

What happens when you put those two sticks on another pair of slots?

The machine only has 4 slots. If I switch them to the other pair of slots, then they show 0 GB of RAM. If I put them in the first pair, then they show 512 MB each...

[mikehalloran]

I see. You have the 2005 version. It was the only one with twin 2.0 processors and 4 RAM slots like the earlier single processor versions.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/p ... p_pci.html

Sometime soon, I should be getting my old G5 back for recycling. If you still have a need when that happens, I'll save a pair of 1g sticks for you. I am keeping a G4 working because it can run OS 9, something my G5 cannot.

[FMiguelez]

I see. You have the 2005 version. It was the only one with twin 2.0 processors and 4 RAM slots like the earlier single processor versions.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/p ... p_pci.html

Sometime soon, I should be getting my old G5 back for recycling. If you still have a need when that happens, I'll save a pair of 1g sticks for you. I am keeping a G4 working because it can run OS 9, something my G5 cannot.

That's very nice of you, Mike. Thank you!
Please let me know if you ever don't need them anymore.

These G5s, any Mac, actually, are incredible machines built to last for years. I'm actually amazed this computer has never stopped working, despite having overworked it almost every day and brought it to its knees with projects too intense for it during all these years, until this little incident now.

When I used to have PCs, something went wrong with them at least every semester. Just sayin'

[MIDI Life Crisis]

When I got my MP I sent my G5 to my brother in law in Indiana. He used it to record his band and loved it having come off an older iMac. Last Fall he called to say it stopped working. Dead as a door nail after many good years of service here.

I felt terrible, like I had sent him a lemon. He finally brought it in to get it serviced. His roommate's dog peed on it and shorted out a bunch of stuff. Otherwise it would still be humming along. I figure my MP is good for another 4 or 5 years before handing it off to some deserving soul (who will keep it away from the dog).

[mikehalloran]

Reliability went down as the processor speed went up. Heat is the culprit. I'd be surprised if many of the liquid cooled models are still running.

The inability of the PPC Consortium (IBM and Motorola) to come up with faster CPUs that ran cooler is why Apple went to Intel. The 1.6, 1.8 single core and 1.8, 2.0 duals are the ones that keep on running if updated to OS 10.3.4 (IIRC) when Apple upped the fan speed to keep 'em cooler.

I don't know what I will do with my 1.8 Dual when I get it back. It and the 23" monitor are still working perfectly. I'm remembering that it has 5.5G Ram installed in various combinations of 1G, 512 and 256mB sticks. I'd keep it but for the OS 9 issue. I have some legacy apps with recordings of my children at play that do not run in Classic mode on a G5. Somewhere in a box is a video card with ADC so I may hook the monitor up to my G4.