Follow Up--Firmware RAM Loss, Use DIMMCheck

As we first noted over a week ago, Apple's new firmware updates (v4.1.7/4.1.8) disable some RAM chips that do not meet Apple's specifications. One of our SO-DIMMs in our PowerBook 2000 fell victim, a 256 MB RAM chip marked PC-100 222. Glenn Anderson developed a utility, DIMMCheck, to check DIMMS to see if they meet Apple's standards. DIMMCheck reported that the replacement for our DIMM, which did not work either, was unsupported CL3 and did not meet Intel 100 MHz standards. He asks people whose DIMMs fail his test to send him a copy of the results and so we did. According to Apple, disabling out of spec RAM is a feature purposefully included in the new firmware to improve stability and there will be no "fix" or means to downgrade the firmware forthcoming. This is a great feature but we think Apple should have issued a warning with the firmware updates. [MacInTouch]