I'm not sure it's ram. Although I generally have many apps going simultaneously & some r greedy for ram, at present (I'm only running 8 apps but they're all small mouths to feed.) I have 1.5 GB so I suspect you're probably hitting the nail on the head when you suggested the instability of Java. I thought Java was a nice hot island in Indonesia. Overs the yrs I've had issues with Java on other macs.