Yeah, so it looks like I bit the bullet and bought a new(ish) 1.25Ghz G4. It's stock at the moment, still has 6 months warranty, and I bought it from a shop. *gasp*

Now, I was going to get some more RAM for it, but the local price is DOUBLE the international going rate for quality RAM. I ended up getting two sticks of 512 for A$215.

Granted, I only shopped around for an hour or two, so this might be a good deal, but I'm pretty happy with everything. Should get the machine by the end of the week.

Now, how easy is putting in the RAM? It was a no brainer on my old clunker ( 8600 ), so I'm guessing it should be pretty easy on this new machine, yeah?

Congratulations, but did you buy a PowerMac or a PowerBook?
For PowerMac G4, just open the case, and you will be all right.

For PowerBook G4, read the manual first!

What sort of RAM is it? SD-RAM or the DDR variety? DDR RAM is cheap and plentiful here, but SD-RAM, I wouldn't be surprsied if you found it cheaper overseas. Cheapest I've seen 512mb of PC133 SD-RAM is $160, two sticks of that would set you back $320...
Where did you buy the G4 and the RAM from by the way?

Sorry - to clarify I bought a 1.25 Mhz G4 MDD, new ex-demo, still got 6 months warranty. Ram was PC333 DDR, got 2 sticks of 512 for A$215. Should be all here and good to go by the end of the week.

I have done a bit of research on the web and seems like there is/was a shit batch of Mac OEM RAM in some machines. Hopefully I'll be able to plug-and-play with the two new sticks. Should I put the new stuff higher in the slot order, or just plug em in and see what happens?

[Edit: I won't name drop where I got the goodies from until I can form a proper verdict as to the quality of the goods and service. I'll keep ya posted ]

Usually a 512mb from a good on-line dealer is around $110 a stick... where'd you get the RAM from overseas?

Okay, okay - a friend recommended Crucial for the RAM, so I go it from there. He's in the States so he's shipping it to me from there. Local price for the 2x512 was A$440.

yep i had no problems with putting the same stix in my MDD g4 its also 1.25 ghz, it flies now! i left the apple one in 0 then the two new ones in 1 + 2

Goo Dluck!

It's actually easier than on your 8600 because the case opens by just flipping the lever on the side up and dropping down the door. Your motherboard is mounted on the door. It should lie flat on the table or floor and you just slide the sticks into the available slots.

Additionally, adding hard disks is a snap as well, because Apple's mount points on the G4 Macs on the bottom of the case are a cinch to handle. You need a screwdriver and that's it.

The G5s, because of cooling issues, have relocated hard drive space up at the top and you are limited to two SATA hard drives. But it remains very easy to add RAM.

The g4/g3 tower cases with the mother board (Not the logic bored damnit) mounted on the side are the easiest computers to upgrade. Too bad they changed the case design for the g5

jameso

Okay, so, the machine is being overnighted to me tonight, so I should get it tomorrow. *rubs hands with glee*

Okay, so now I need 1) A monitor switcher, 2) a 3 port Ethernet hub, and 3) An Intuos tablet.

So, big question is.....wheres the best place ( preferably in Melbourne ) to buy this stuff?

You can get an 8-port Ethernet switch from MSY (www.msy.com.au) for $25. They don't make 3 port hubs or switches, 5 is the lowest, and you aren't going to find any for less than $25, it's a right bargain
Dunno where to get a tablet or a KVM. Check out www.razorprices.com and see the best prices on those items.

Okay, so I got the new machine today, and guess what.

It's DOA.

Booted finally after about three restarts and swicthing monitors coz I thought it was the monitor, then 30 seconds in I get this error message ( Black box with power symbol in grey in the background, error message in white in about 4 languages ), mouse freezes and it tells me I have to restart. So I restart. Doesn't boot.

The power light comes on, the fan whirrs, but there's no harddrive spinup sound. The screen doesnt turn on , and neither does the mouse/keyboard. I have nada.

The guy I bought it from ( An Apple dealer ) reckons its the logic board, but I'm amazed something like this can happen in transit, especially when it was running perfect in his display room yesterday.

Am I pissed? Not yet, but I'm getting there.

That's not too good.

What have you done? have you sent it back? Try doing the apple hardware test - if possible. It should be on one of the disks that came with it. You've got to boot up of the CD/DVD to use it.

i would be pissed, i feel for you WarwickG71.

best wishes for your loved ones fast recovery

james o'farrell

Okay, so I've spent the day screwing with it in the valiant attempt to get it running.

Managed to run the hardware test on the restore CD. Says everything is A-Okay.

Got a few minutes into a 'wipe HDD and reinstall OSX' before it froze. It won't boot from restore DVD - I get an error message telling me to restart or it just freezes.

Couple of times I get like the Unix basic screen ( basic white text on black background ). It says a variety of things like "Panic - we're hanging in here" "Invalid memory access at..." and "Unresolved kernel trap ( CPU 0) : OX300" sometimes "unknown failure code" and a whole heap of gibberish.

I have no idea what to do next. I've tried everything. Luckily they're coming to fix it Tuesday morning, Damn public holidays!!!!!!