Okay, I'm the idiot.
I thought I'd gotten two bad memory mods for the MacBook. In a row.
One is possible, even plausible; two is operator error.
So I took out the old, 512-MB memory module and reinstalled the new, 2-GB module, on the wild chance that they just didn't like one another and I had to send them to the neutral corners and give someone a standing eight-count and...I have a noticeably faster computer.
Quirky, sure, but I've worked with computers more than long enough to know that they pull finicky crap all the time, and this one wants to be either a mediocre one with a barely-adequate memory or a fast one with plenty of memory, not both at once, please.
Feh. Picky machine.
One is possible, even plausible; two is operator error.
So I took out the old, 512-MB memory module and reinstalled the new, 2-GB module, on the wild chance that they just didn't like one another and I had to send them to the neutral corners and give someone a standing eight-count and...I have a noticeably faster computer.
Quirky, sure, but I've worked with computers more than long enough to know that they pull finicky crap all the time, and this one wants to be either a mediocre one with a barely-adequate memory or a fast one with plenty of memory, not both at once, please.
Feh. Picky machine.