Cannibalizing Old Ram

pennmichael

Registered
I have 256megabytes of ram installed in an old 266mhz G3 powerbook. Can I remove it and use it in an old 266mhz G3 imac? Where would I find instructions for doing this?
 
While the Powerbook memory modules have the same pin numbers as the iMac needs, the speed of the modules are different. Your iMac uses PC66 and the powerbook has PC100.

What OS is the iMac running? If you have OS X on it, it may not accept the 'new' memory and give you a kernel panic.
 
Thanks for your help. The iMac is running 9.2, does that indicate whether the G3's (running 9.1) Ram can be switched to the iMac G3?
 
The OS version has nothing to do with whether the ram will work or not. It is the logic/motherboard that has the last say.

If you do decide to try it, you may not get the full memory speed of the PC100. It will only use the 66 hz.

Give it a try. The worse that could happen is that it will not start up.

To find instructions to open the power book start here:

http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/catalog/

For the iMac check here:
http://www.whoopis.com/computer_repair/#new
 
You should be able to do this: PC100 clocks down to PC66 just fine, but that doesn't matter -- the PowerBook G3 266MHz you have does, in fact, use PC66 memory (266 is roughly a multiple of 66 (4 * 66 = 264) -- if the memory was being used at 100MHz, the speed would be 250MHz or 200MHz or some integer or integer/2 multiple).

They both take SODIMM PC66 modules, so I would say go for it. If the RAM module clearly isn't the same size and shape as the socket, do not go any further. Use common sense and check the connections before trying to cram that memory in there. The worst that can happen is that the computer will refuse to boot/turn on and may complain a little.
 
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