Dec 29, 2003 5:48 PM
MacOS X installs on beige G3 with 128 MB, not 384
I've just been through a hellish experience, rebuilding my beige G3 system after having to replace the motherboard. During the course of this process, I discovered a few strange issues, all of which I eventually found ways around; but I was wondering if any of these were previously known.
This thread is about the first issue. When I originally installed MacOS X 10.2 on my beige G3, it had only 128 megabytes of RAM, and the install went just fine.
During this rebuilding process, I had 384 megabytes, and couldn't get the install to complete. The install would always go only so far, and then the whole system would either freeze up, or black out.
After trying many other things, I removed some of my RAM, sothat I had only 128 megabytes. With only 128 megabytes, the install went just fine.
After I had MacOS X 10.2 installed, I encountered a similar issue trying to install the Developer Tools. With all 384 megabytes of RAM in place, the install would go only so far, then I'd get an error telling me that the install had failed, and to try again. When I removed the extra RAM, taking it down to 128 megabytes, the install went just fine.
Anyone ever heard of any issue like this before?
Some of you may recall from some previous postings of mine that I had a brief expereince with a defective 256 megabyte DIMM, which I ended up returning, and receiving in it splace another 256 MB DIMM which I am satisfied is quite fine. When I originally got this system, it had a 64 MB DIMM, and two 32 MB DIMMs, for a total of 128 megabytes. The 256 MB went in in place of one of the 32s. My new motherboard included a 64 MB DIMM, that went in place of the other 32, so my system currently has the 256, and two 64s, for a total of 384 megabytes. In getting MacOS X 10.2 and the Developer Tools to install, I had to remove the 256, leaving just the two 64s.
Now I know that officially, the beige G3 is only supposed to be able to use DIMMs up to 128 megabytes in size, but that some 256 MB DIMMs will work in it. Is it possible that there is some issue related to the use of a 256 megabyte DIMM that is biger than what the machine can officially use, that could lead to this installer issue? If, instead of a 256 and two 64s, I had three 128s (for the same total amount of memory), do you think I might not have encountered this issue?
Any thoughts on this?
