Now that the original problem is solved, we can chase this rabbit a little.
I'm also a Crucial fan. They're about as reputable a memory company as there is. They're owned by Lexar, after all.. It's very irrational to imply that all Crucial memory causes kernel panics.
Crucial is also affiliated with Micron, if I'm not mistaken.
I'm glad that using Crucial R.A.M. hasn't caused you any problems, Jerry. You're very fortunate. And I beg to differ: their product is poor, I.M.O. I'm basing this on my own, recent personal experience with Crucial. I've been working as a PC/Mac/Linux technician for over a decade. Throughout that time I have installed Crucial R.A.M. on a number of different PC's and advocated the use of Crucial to many customers. However, the R.A.M. installed in my G5 Quad and Mac Book Pro was supplied by Crucial, and my thorough testing of the R.A.M. PROVED it to be defective. It may be irrational to suggest that ALL Crucial memory will result in kernel panics on UNIX based OS, but after losing several weeks of work due to this disastrous episode, I have a very bad taste in my mouth and wouldn't order anything from that company again.
Might be a dumb question, but did you make 100% sure your machines can even handle the 4GB sticks you got? Only the newest Mac Pros can handle anything more than 2GB DIMMs, and Macs are extremely specific on every aspect of memory.
No. Let me be more specific: it was a 4g.b. U.S.B. Flash Drive unit, not standard D.I.M.M. sticks. I tested the drive on a number of different machines, including customers' machines, and it couldn't maintain the integrity of several .dmg, .exe, or even .pdf files. ALL of the files in question worked fine on my other F.D. Everything was THOROUGHLY tested. And, no, there is nothing dumb about your question ;-)
Even if it is a memory defect causing the problem, it's unfair to condemn a manufacturer until you've given their warranty service a chance. Every single company in the world has some percentage of defects in manufacturing that aren't caught by quality control. That's why there are warranties.
I did give their warranty service a chance and promptly returned defective memory to them for a refund. Of course, minus outlandish shipping costs, which I had to fight to be partially reimbursed for. And I do maintain the right to be critical of any company that charges customers for services and sends them defective products - after all, wouldn't you do the same?
But if both systems were behaving the same way, chances are it was an incompatibility. If they labeled it as "guaranteed compatible" with your Macs (using their system selector thing) then you can give them a call and I'm sure they can figure it out, but I've never had incompatible Crucial memory with all the Macs I've had.
Perhaps you were not using mixed memory from various manufacturers. That's often the rub when it comes to memory related issues.
I also have to agree that wiping and reinstalling the OS is a very drastic measure if the problem was only defective memory. Memory problems don't normally cause permanent damage to the OS. That's the whole point of kernel panics, to prevent damage to the system. Without hearing your diagnostic procedures, I have to be very suspicious about blaming the memory for all of the problems.
Persistent memory problems leading to constant kernel panics will eventually lead to writing corrupt data to your H.D.D. This is often related to Logic Board issues, though. However, in my case, it was due to Crucial's defective R.A.M.
I hope this is a bit more clear and helpful.
Cheers,
Steve
P.S.- In terms of R.A.M., I've seen more outlandish things: The use of Rambus R.A.M. in some Dell machines has dramatically tarnished my opinion of Dell, too.
