DIMMs interchangeable with SODIMMs?

jslade

Registered
My old secondary computer, a demon-possessed iMac DV SE, has finally packed it in for good ate the boot disc, too... any idea how to get a CD out of a dead computer other than with a hammer?).

So anyway, out comes my truly geriatric Bondi iMac 233 to fill the space. It seems to be doing well enough running 9.2 except it only has 96 megs of ram (SODIMM type ram, I think... I do not understand about ram differences). I am wondering if I can take the 128 megs of ram (DIMM) from the Machine from Hell DV SE and install it into my Bondi. Can mixed marriages of memory work?

My main computer, a new iMac G5 is a charmer, never causes me a bit of trouble, but my husband likes a computer for surfing, and that's where the secondary one comes in handy. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
No, because SO-DIMMs and regular DIMMS are shaped differently, not to mention they have different pin counts.

Some types are interchangeable in certain situations (like using PC-133 instead of PC-100 if your computer requires PC-100), and some are not. Some work going one way, while they don't work vice-versa (like using PC-100 instead of PC-133 -- won't work if your computer requires PC-133).

Some of them won't work because of physical differences in the chips, while other chips may appear to be physically identical but are very different when it comes to compatibility.

Short answer: this time, no, you cannot interchange those memory modules.
 
Hey, thanks ElDiablo. Okay, I wish it had been a different answer, but I sure appreciate knowing before making a dumb mistake.

Any idea on the other thing, getting a CD out of the drive of a totally dead computer? By dead I mean absolutely nothing happens except a green light, I get no response to any attempt to do anything to it, including trying to start-up on the boot CD, trying to start up in single-user mode, and trying sundry other things like zapping the PRAM. Nothing but a dead mac through all of it, no sounds, just a black screen and green light. The computer is dead (and may it burn in hell), but I wouldn't half-mind getting the disc back out of there.
 
Yep -- I think the manual eject hole is to the lower-right of the CD slot. Shove a straightened paperclip in there and gently press inward, trying to keep the paperclip as straight and unbent as possible... it takes quite a bit of force as well in my experience (more than seemed "comfortable" but it worked every time).

To go back a little, just to clarify: some machines do take mixed form factor chips, like the early lamp-shaped iMacs (one SO-DIMM and one DIMM, both SDRAM)... weird!
 
Thanks again... I will give the paperclip thing a try (well, more tries, I just tried it now and nothing so far). As for the memory, is it reasonable or safe to just pop it in and see what happens? I get the impression, from what you've said, that if it isn't the right type of memory it probably just won't fit in the slot? I feel painfully dumb about this, but if I can use the memory I'd like to. I'd like something to be useful from the nightmare that the DV SE has been.
 
You can try, but it's not gonna fit, and trying may damage something costly. The memory module must fit completely and perfectly into the socket, and the DIMM you wanna put in there is just too big (too wide to be exact).
 
I plugged in the DV SE to give it power so that I could make the CD out with the paper clip. Nothing happened. So, I absentmindedly hit the start button. It not only booted, the rat bastid did so beautifully, perfectly, quickly and calmly. I am just going to let it sit overnight, see what happens, am too tired to mess with it right now... but isn't that the damndest thing? Night of the Living Dead Macs.

I won't try the memory in the other. I just didn't want to invest any money on memory for an old Bondi 233, is all. Actually, for its purpose, it works quite well with just the 96 megs. Many thanks for your help in this.
 
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