At 11:10 AM -0500 11/18/02, Heok Hee Ng wrote: >Tom, > > I think the issue is with it the buffering of the RAM and affects only >Newer Tech upgrade cards (there's an article about this somewhere in >MacGurus). Powerlogix and Sonnet upgrades aren't affected. I've used "el >cheapo" RAM (not that I'm a big advocate of doing so) that did not state >compatibility with G3/G4 upgrades on my Sonnet-upgraded 7500 without any >problems.
Do go so fast on Sonnet. Their designs are very much like Newer Tech, indeed, Sonnet hired most of Newer's design team when Newer went belly up. Newer & Sonnet boards have a propensity to be sensitive to RAM quality. Over on the Umax list (I've got a Umax C-series box based on the Performa 6400) we've gone round and round repeatedly over RAM. In short, knockoff RAM will almost certainly require extensive onboard testing, usually several thousand iterations, with the target chip "sandwiched" between two known good chips. If the machine locks up during the test (booted without extensions & no other apps), then the stick should be replaced. Just a few passes with a RAM testing program is not sufficient--it must be overkill. When Velocity Upgrades was selling dirt cheap 128 MB sticks a year ago, many Umax owners bought RAM to load up their six-slot wonders to a GB of RAM but soon discovered stability went south afterwards. The RAM Sandwich test found the offenders and were replaced. Often it took several replacements before stability was achieved. Having a quality RAM vendor is equivalent to yesterday's local butcher shop--it's not just having the goods but trusting those goods to be quality. -- Pax, Pastor Mac Made on a Macintosh, of course. -- MichiMac is sponsored by Dan Knight of <http://lowendmac.com/>. / Buy books, CDs, videos, and more from Amazon.com \ / <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/lowendmac> \ Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> MichiMac list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/michimac.html> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/michimac%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
