OS X is notoriously picky about RAM. RAM that tests fine in 9 or earlier can still cause problems in X. Even if you buy brand new RAM, though, there's no guarantee you won't still have a problem due to the fussiness of X. The tiniest of flaws that passes the memory manufacturers tests might still cause OS X to crash. RAM is a bit of a crap shoot with OS X. Most of the time you win, but a fair bit of the time you lose and there's nothing you can really do about it.
On Apr 18, 5:22 pm, tentengrrl <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > I acquired a used g3 600 iMac running Tiger w/256K RAM b/c I took out one 256 > stick to test my problem. I want to use it for basic internet, Word > docs/Preview, etc and these are generally fine but will crash once in a while. > The main problem is I can't get the Safari to stay open, it keeps > unexpectedly quitting or freezing but sometimes it's after an hour and other > times, 5 min or 10 seconds. After that happens the other programs MIGHT do > the same thing. > It was like this when I first got it so I did the combo udpate to Tiger > 10.4.11 and Safari is version 3.0.4 thinking it would help but no. > Like I said, it's mostly Safari but during my testing of the sticks and slots > by swapping them around, sometimes other programs will unexpectedly quit, I > restart, Safari goes fine, other programs, too, and then a crash. Sometimes, > after using only one stick I think the spinning beach ball freeze is due to > just not enough RAM to load a page? But then I have enough RAM to run iTunes, > Preview, Safari, and stickies all at once. (So I'm not sure. I'm still > learning as I go along! > When I look at the Problem Report it says Kern_bad_access and Kern-invalid > address, or Kern_bad access and Kern_protection failure. I just can't get a > definite pattern on it b/c it seems so random but sometimes it does ramp up, > crashing quicker and quicker but I can't determine if it's one stick/slot all > the way. I have looked online and this seems not uncommon and to be > attributed to bad RAM to a preferences file all the way to "just totally > random". > Does anyone have more info on this to shed some light? I was going to buy > more RAM anyway soon but any info pertaining to what might be some other > cause would help a lot. It's driving me crazy. > I don't have any disks to run hardware tests and I don't really care to drop > a lot of money into this iMac at this time. Is this a lost cause? > Thanks!Lisa > > -- > You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for > those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power > Macs. > The list FAQ is athttp://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtmland our netiquette > guide is athttp://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
