JDV has made some good points there.

STOP!
'erase and install' wipes you hard disk, and then installs a fresh system, so you would lose all data on it. i suggested this option to you as it would ensure you removed all the unnecessary stuff on your hard disk, and you could re-fill it with only the stuff you need. if you do this, you must ensure that you have backed up everything.

burn your Home folder onto a DVD if it will fit... otherwise just grab your documents and library folders...

Thanks mate. Glad I hung around for a few mins.
Ok, 1 more disk to write first.
Thanks again.

for what its worth......... their have been quite a few reports on mac news sites of eMac's starting to fail in quite big numbers due to dodgy capacitors on the motherboard (like the first gen iMac G5's).

This usually cause freezes, crashing and bad performance... http://www.macintouch.com/readerrepo...116.html#mar02

hope this doesnt apply to yours! :eek:

Like everyone else says... good ram and a spring clean can work wonders on any computer!

Glad someone else said this. While it does sound like a RAM issue, I always suggest people going through as many problems as you're seeing, that they start from zeroes. When I moved from Panther to Tiger, I saw a bunch of errors and crashes. I finally bit the bullet, and spend a full day reinstalling everything from an empty drive. Been extraordinarily stable ever since.

Thought I'd check out the new RAM first.
Damn thing doesn't work. Hardware test showed it as being installed but is unable to use it. It shows:
DIMM1/J1601 - 256/256MB
DIMM1/J1600 - 0/512MB

Memory - 256/768MB

"About this Mac" info says the slot is empty.
Have swapped the 256 chip to the other RAM 'slot'. No probs with it so I know it's not the 'slot' that's faulty. Gonna take it back in the morning. Get it checked and swapped. :mad:

Any other possibilities other than dodgy chip?

(NB: All proper care was taken on my part.)

Did you also try the 512 MB chip in the other slot (where the 256MB chip was)?

:eek: YES.

Have just swapped that chip for another... same problem. Macs are too damned fussy.
Have just ordered one from www.crucial.com for £50 (inc. shipping). (unusable ones were £35.) Apple store wants £160. the theiving @£$@%£$%!:mad:
This should be guaranteed 100% to work. Shame it's gonna cost me to take this other chip back again though (£2.40 there, £2.40 back - twice), could've saved time and effort for almost the same price. -
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!! :(

Yeah, this is a shame...
 

It has never been clear to me why Apple-branded RAM is so outrageously priced, given that they don't manufacture it. I suppose they may do extra testing for compatibility, but quite frankly, their RAM is just as apt to go south as any good-quality 3rd party RAM is. I guess they do it because they can. As to why Macs are so picky about RAM, that seems to be partly a function of the exact models under discussion. Some are a lot more tolerant than others. I certainly know the feeling. Hope your luck with Crucial is much better.

Joe VanZandt

Apple's not the only one with some tricky memory selection. It took me 4 tries to get the right memory upgrade in a Dell Dimension XPST system about 3 years ago. I recommend asking about return policies before you purchase upgrade memory, especially on the internet. Crucial has always been good, and they stick with you if compatibility problems happen, (and they will in a service shop).
Most people justify the usually-higher prices for Apple RAM, by expecting that to be part of the warranty without question. 3rd-party memory will often get the blame from Apple (not always with good reason, but, there you go!)

Yup - Macs are picky about the RAM they accept. According to apple, this is to make sure you dont put cheap-ass RAM in which leads to system instability.

Crucial are always the place for me - much cheaper than 'direct' from apple and they are of the best quality.

YEAH!! YIPPIE!! WOOHOO!!

My new RAM turned up this morning.
Crucial are the bomb.:D Will be putting it in very shortly. Nice lovely extra 512MB. Yummy.:p Did compatibility test first, made sure. Might get another 512MB in a couple of weeks.
I think I might spend the day on Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. I can even turn up the graphics on Postal 2.:D :cool:

Couple of weird things still happening but nothing worrying or 'detrimental'!
Damn-it I'm so happy.:)

Will let you know if probs re-surface.
Thanks guys.
;)

MEMORY = 768MB SDRAM.

YEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!
:p ;) :D :) :rolleyes: :cool:

haha. beat you. me gots 1.25GB(~1208MB) SDRAM :)

Not that big of a deal though. I do some GIMPing and stuff.

ahem. iBookG4 maxed to 1.5GB.

Deicide - RAM is the cheapest way to get more performance out of a machine. OSX just loves the stuff.

hope this solves you problems - but i think freeing up at least 10% of your boot drive would be a good idea too. external hard disk, dvd / cd whatever!

if you still get problems, do an archive & install so you have a nice clean system. note that to do this you will need 5GB spare space for the transition.

New Ram is still working great. No probs so far.

Is there any way I can upgrade my graphics card?
I've heard (from a PC user) that you can't upgrade the internal hardware in an eMac. Is this true?

this is definitely true. in fact the only mac you can really upgrade is a desktop which limits you to the current desktop tower (g5, mac pro). You can upgrade things like ram and HD and optical drive but you can't upgrade the video or add any pci cards are anything like that.