Installed 2 x 1 gig Ram Recognising 2 x 512

Win2MAC

Win2MAC

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Ok here is a good one for you. I purchased 2 AXIOM 1 GB DDR PC3200 Ram sticks and installed them on my G5 iMac 1.8 Ghz/17in/80gig HDD/superdrive.
When I go to about this mac it says i have 1 gb and when i look at memory details it says i have 512 in each slot. If I install just one RAM stick it is recognised as 1 gb. I have tried swapping them and everything else I can Think of. Any suggestions/comments/help would be appreciated. I am new to Macs from windows and have completly turned to a Mac lover.
 
That sounds a little unusual.
Have you tried the Apple Hardware Test yet? You will find that on your Restore DVD, with instructions on the disk label for booting to that test.

I would try putting just one stick in one slot (try both slots) and see if both slots show 1 GB, trying both chips (that is, one try for each slot and each chip, so 4 reboots with different ram installs. If both chips show 1 GB, and in either slot, then try both chips, and swap that pair once (so, 2 more reboots with both slots filled). I suspect that you will get all 2 GB working, or you will find that one is not working properly. This should also show up if you have both chips installed, and boot to your Apple Hardware Test, and run the extended test.
 
Okay, Have no idea what the apple hardware test is but I'll play with that later (as I said I'm new to macs, and I mean less then a week). In the mean time I took your advice and looked at it like I knew what I was doing. I was more concerned originally that it was something stupic inside the software I was missing.
Heres what I did: I tried both 1 gb ram sticks by themselves in every slot combination (4 reboots) then took the solo 256 chip that came with it in each slot solo (2 reboots) with these results.
1 GB stick A : comes up as 1GB in either slot
1 GB stick B : comes up as 512M in either slot
256M stick : comes up as 256M in either slot

So unless somone else can think of something else that would cause it I am going for BAD RAM stick and calling it a day...

On a side note: this would have taken we the better part of a day on a wintel machine after all the reboots and having to dig through the mesh of wires on a wintel machine. I was a network admin a few years ago and have done it. This took me less then an hour and no real frustration. Unless something extreme happens I'm a mac user for life.
 
I think you have one bad memory stick. Should be a warranty replacement.

Try the Apple Hardware Test. You will see that listed on the label of one of the disks that shipped with your iMac, unless you purchased this used with no disks.
If you have the disk, just follow the simple instructions on the label to boot with that test.
You may not need to do that once you get good memory in your Mac.
 
Agreed. I did purchase the Mac used though have all the disks original box and waranty info, so I'm set there... RAM was purchased seperate though still under waranty. I will run that test once i get new RAM. Thank you fro your help
 
When you do run the Hardware Diagnotics, be sure to set it to loop a good number of times (> 10). Faulty RAM and other hardware may incorrectly pass the tests on the first pass, so looping the diagnostics will give you a more accurate diagnostic.
 
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