Installing Tiger, RAM Issues, Plz Help?

[invisiblegun]

Hey there I have 128 built in RAM and 512 installed from a third-party chip. To install Tiger supposedly you need 256 built in, or at least have mac-only added RAM? Is this correct? If so, did I totally waste my money on Tiger? Is there any way around this? Thanks for any help..

 

[DeltaMac]

Installing and using Tiger requires a minimum of 256 MB memory. That will include the additional memory that you have installed. There is no limitation that the memory has to be built-in (that would leave Macs that have NO built-in memory completely out) Currently, the only Mac that has ANY built-in memory is the iBook. Assuming you have memory that is within Apple's specs, you should be OK with installing Tiger. Panther, and now Tiger CAN be less tolerant of marginal memory, but you will probably be OK.

 

[invisiblegun]

Yeah but on the Apple website (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106693) under the question it says:

If you see a message such as these, use the tips below:

* "There were problems installing the software"
* "There were errors during the installation...Please try again."
* "Because of a problem, installing Mac OS X could not be completed."

Tip: RAM issues may cause an installation failure such as this. Try removing any third-party RAM that's been installed. Remember to make sure you have at least 128 MB (Mac OS X 10.3 or earlier) or 256 MB (Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or later) of memory installed. If you identify third-party RAM modules that seem to interfere with installation, contact the RAM vendor for assistance.

So it seems that Third-Party RAM is a problem for some reason...

 

[invisiblegun]

I am getting those error messages as well, then could it be something else do you think? I do not have 4 gigs free but am not trying to install the Developer Tools or anything

 

[DeltaMac]

How much free space DO you have?

In my experience, if you get the message with the 'please try again', you should try wiping the surface of the DVD with a soft, dry cloth, and try again. I have had some systems fail this way multiple times. On my own personal system (5 year old iMac), I tried the install 8 times before it finally completed successfully. Not everyone has my patience.

In your case, you can't take out the extra memory, because tiger won't install with only 128 MB.
Something that can work, if you have access to a newer Mac, is a target install. connect the two systems with a FireWire cable. Boot your iBook while holding the 'T' key, until you see the blue screen with the bouncing FireWire symbol. Boot the other Mac with the Tiger DVD, and start the installer, choosing YOUR hard drive for the install. This process works great, and you bypass possible problems with an internal DVD drive.