Memory? alone here in the moon light?

hndsmman · #1 April 20th, 2008, 12:07 AM

I just added 2 512MB's to my G4 bringing the old gal up to 1.25GB...I don't really notice a difference? should I? When should I?
I put them in the outside slots...is that why?

DeltaMac · #2 April 20th, 2008, 06:27 AM

Sure - in your About This Mac info box. The number will be larger!

Also, if your hard drive and your system software are operating with no problems, you should not see the 'spinning wheel' very often, or for very long.
You can expect the system to be more stable, a little smoother, less 'crashy' overall.

You can also launch a number of apps at the same time, with much less lag from your system while they start up. You should be able to actually use several apps simultaneously, where, before upgrading, the same tasks would struggle.

Mikuro · #3 April 20th, 2008, 09:37 AM

You should notice the difference most when switching apps. When I had only 256MB, there would frequently be delays of 30 seconds or more when switching apps. With 1GB, there is rarely any delay, and when there is it's much, much shorter.

hndsmman · #4 April 23rd, 2008, 08:02 PM

Still haven't noticed any great difference. I load the 512's in the outside slots...does that matter? should I try every other slot? or the 2 in middle? or does it really matter where they are. They both a recognized by System Profiler...But, I still get the spinning pinwheel...Maybe it's just a G4...I need tp upgrade machine...oh poop! she heard me say that!!

Mikuro · #5 April 23rd, 2008, 08:19 PM

When do you get the spins?

I think it's more likely that there's something wrong with whatever programs you're using. Some programs are just slow and buggy. Safari is one of them, especially when dealing with animated gifs or plugins.

Even the slowest processors are not so slow that you should get a lot of pinwheels.

Take a look in Activity Monitor to see how much of your memory is being used. It could be that there's a runaway process eating more memory than it should.

ex2bot · #6 April 27th, 2008, 09:23 PM

Look at your manual for instructions on installing the memory. Or the web.

As for performance increase w/more memory. I like to have several apps open at once. On my 768 MB iBook with 10.5 Leopard, having more than a few apps open slows it noticeably. My 1.5 GB MacBook Pro can handle many programs open without slowdown.

Which G4 do you have? Try Googling "[your computer model] memory instructions" or something similar. Edge Tech Corp (www.edgetechcorp.com) for example has some basic instructions and a general memory installation video. Here's another one I haven't checked: www.macinstruct.com/node/162

Still, your memory installation is probably fine if it's showing up in System Profiler.

Doug