iBook woes

Hi guys, I'm pretty new to the forums.

I was just wondering if anyone else is having the same problems as me. I have an iBook G4 1.2GHz (256ram its awful I know) and it frequently freezes when I'm typing notes during lecture! I only use my iBook for lectures for about 2 classes a semester. I've had it for about 2 years. I dont download on it. I have a real/legitimate version of Office student. I dont use it for music/pictures/video since I have a desktop that I use for everything else when I'm not in class.

I figured the 256mb of ram had something to do with its freezing, but my friend has a MacBook Pro which he paid an arm and a leg for and his started freezing on MS Word well before mine did. He sat next to me so I saw everything it happened! And then not long after, mine began to do the same thing. It's infectious or something. And it never recovers a thing! it just says the program has to Force Quit. So basically I lose important notes.

We both use MS Word, the notebook setting, with audio recording for lectures that are about 1 hour and 20 minutes long. It was working fine and without glitches for the past year. But I dont know what brought this up.

So I'm considering, upgrading the ram or selling it since it's practically new. What do you guys think? I don't know how much of a difference upgrading the ram on old computer would make, and I know RAM is pretty pricey.

Thanks so much.

 

Computers freeze, Mac and PC. I wouldnt' say it's in a computers nature to "freeze up" more and more as they get older. Components can fail though, operating systems can require more from your aging computer, files can be damaged, and your hard drive can become cluttered. How much percent free space is left on your hard drive? You could replace the ram with new.. It's not expensive. Ram can fail, and could be a reason for freezes occuring, but it should happen with other programs and situations, not just word. Adding ram could help also since OS 10.4 likes more than you currently have. I assume this is your computer http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/stats/ibook_g4_1.2_14.html I think it used ddr2100, but you'd have to verify that in your system information. Is it worth it.. If you don't want to get rid of your system anytime soon, ya. You could also consider restoring your system, perhaps the latest OS updates have somehow "broken" Word. Just some thoughts

 

reinstall the program giving you trouble.

if that doesn't work, reinstall the operating system.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

Jimy, that's a really good point

Because I always update it when the latest software fixes/updates pop-up. I don't have the Office disk unfortunately since someone just gave me one of her serials that she wasn't using.

Thanks for the help! I'll check which kind of RAM it takes.

 

arg..ya with out the disk restoring the system would wipe your applications. I don't think you can role back the updates either. But Word™ should be pretty cheap if you're a student so you could always buy it if you can't borrow it again. For ram I like buying online from Newegg or Fry's Outpost etc. Ram may not fix your issue, but it will make your iboook run more smoothly.