Switching from Windows to Mac--Help

[Jack]

A note on memory in the Macs: You can click on the Apple, go to About This Mac > More Info > Memory, and get a status report on each stick in your system. I use the OWC ram in my Macs and have had to RMA my two earliest sets for the MacPro due to ECC failures. Nice thing about OWC is their RAM is lifetime warranty.

 

[woodyspedden]

Woody,

I'll go even further than that--sometimes memory tests don't reveal faulty memory--simplest test is to take all the stick of memory out of your computer and replace them with other sticks, and run it for a day, two or three and see if you're still getting the freezes.

If, by swapping out the memory, the freezes go away (and I suspect they will), you can figure out what stick (or sticks) of memory were bad by carefully swapping some in and checking again. A good Genius might be able to help you with the extra sticks of RAM, or even offer to do the swap testing themselves if you can show them how to make the desktop freeze up pretty reliably.

Hope that helps,
-Brad

Thanks Bradley and Carlos for your thoughts.

I am using only the 8Gb of Apple memory that came with the system. Of course some of the memory may be bad but it is not an issue of mixing and matching memory types.

I find this all very frustrating as the reason for my switch back to Apple after a number of years with the PC was the regularity of crashes with the PC.

I think I will take this back to the Apple store nearby and have one of the "geniuses" look at it.

Thanks again

Woody

 

[stephengilbert]

I second Carlos' recommendation for OWC. They have helpful tech people, Apple "approved memory," and online installation videos. I've bought both memories and hard drives from them for my Mac Pro and was very happy.

 

[Terry]

Just to reiterate for those who don't relish the thought of opening up a brand new laptop Apple really has cut their memory prices. Going form 2gb to 4gb by Apple adds $200 to MacBook pro price. Buying 4gb from OWC is $99 plus shipping. Granted you could try and sell your 1gb Apple sticks which now retail for about $50 new for both. On my iMac where access to the memory slots is super simple only undoing one screw, I did it myself.