Macbook Freezes after 4 GB RAM upgrade

the firware updates sorted this out.

Run the EFi & SMC updates.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL744
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL742

did you check system profiler for the boot rom & SMC versions?

if you are just looking at software update, then it may not be correct.

Please note, I am fairly new to Mac, and only found this info after much searching on-line...

I also have had problems after upgrading to 4GB of RAM, I bought Kingston from Best Buy in Edmonton, AB. I have spent a great deal of time searching for a solution, and just thought I would share what I have found.
It seems to be an issue with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card and the way it accesses memory, and it seems to affect anything over 3GB of RAM. Now that being said, on Nvidia's website, with some searching there is a pdf document stating which RAM is compatible with this video card. I should mention that this issue also affects MacBook Pro users with the 9400/9600 graphics card. According to the pdf, my Kingston memory is not on the compatible list...I'll try to include this list:

The tables below list the SO-DIMMs that NVIDIA plans to support on their GeForce 9400M G platform.

Note: Using an SO-DIMM from this list does not imply reduced or simpler design validation on the part of the OEM. NVIDIA recommends customers to perform their full suite of memory interface design validation testing on their systems.
The information in the following tables is preliminary and will be updated as necessary. Table 1. DDR3 SODIMM
Manufacturer
Speed
Latency
Density
Part number

Elpida
DDR3-1333
9-9-9
2GB
EBJ21UE8BASA-DJ-E

Elpida
DDR3-1333
9-9-9
1GB
EBJ11UE6BASA-DJ-E

Elpida
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
2GB
EBJ21UE8BASA-AE-E

Elpida
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
1GB
EBJ11UE6BASA-AE-E

Elpida
DDR3-800
5-5-5
2GB
EBJ21UE8BASA-8A-E

Elpida
DDR3-800
5-5-5
1GB
EBJ11UE6BASA-8A-E

Hynix
DDR3-1333
9-9-9
2GB
HMT125S6AFP8C-H9N0

Hynix
DDR3-1333
9-9-9
1GB
HMT112S6AFP6C-H9N0

Hynix
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
2GB
HMT125S6AFP8C-G7N0

Hynix
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
1GB
HMT112S6AFP6C-G7N0

Hynix
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
512MB
HMT164S6AFP6C-G7N0

Hynix
DDR3-800
6-6-6
2GB
HYMT125S64ZNF8-S6

Hynix
DDR3-800
6-6-6
1GB
HYMP112S64CP6-S6

Micron
DDR3-1333
9-9-9
1GB
MT8JSF12864HY-1G4DZES

Micron
DDR3-1333
9-9-9
512MB
MT4JSF6464HY-1G4BZES

Micron
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
4GB
MT16JSS51264HY-1G1AZES

Micron
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
2GB
MT16JSF25664HY-1G1D1

Micron
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
1GB
MT8JSF12864HZ-1G1D1

Micron
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
512MB
MT4JSF6464HY-1G1B1

Nanya
DDR3-1333
9-9-9
2GB
NT2GC64B8HA1NS-CG

GeForce 9400M G Memory AVL
Manufacturer Speed Latency Density Part number

Nanya
DDR3-1333
9-9-9
1GB
NT1GC64BH8A1PS-CG

Nanya
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
2GB
NT2GC64B8A1NS-BE

Nanya
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
1GB
NT1GC54BH8A1PS-BE

Qimonda
DDR3-1333
8-8-8
2GB
IMSH2GS13A1F1CT-13G

Qimonda
DDR3-1333
8-8-8
1GB
IMSH1GS14A1F1CT-13G

Qimonda
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
2GB
IMSH2GS13A1F1CT10F

Qimonda
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
1GB
IMSH1GS14A1F1CT10F

Samsung
DDR3-1333
9-9-9
2GB
M471B5673DZ1-CH9

Samsung
DDR3-1333
9-9-9
1GB
M471B2874DZ1-CH9

Samsung
DDR3-1333
9-9-9
512MB
M471B6474DZ1-CH9

Samsung
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
2GB
M471B5673DZ1-CF8

Samsung
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
1GB
M471B2874DZ1-CF8

Samsung
DDR3-1066
7-7-7
512MB
M471B6474DZ1-CF8

Samsung
DDR3-800
6-6-6
2GB
M471B5673DZ1-CF7

Samsung
DDR3-800
6-6-6
1GB
M471B2874CZ1-CF7

Samsung
DDR3-800
6-6-6
1GB
M471B2874DZ1-CF7

Samsung
DDR3-800
6-6-6
512MB
M471B6474DZ1-CF7

Samsung
DDR3-800
6-6-6
512MB
M471B6474CZ1-CF7 March
The first part is the manufactrer name, next is type of memory, then latency, then density, then part number.

Another solution seems to be to edit the com.Apple.Boot.plist to set maxmem to 3456, which cuts available memory after rebooting to 3.5GB, on my MacBook, I got fair results with 3072, basically 3GB, it doesn't freeze as often, although I haven't played any movies, etc, for a few days, which always seemed to lead to my freezes. But the system seems much more stable for the moment.

Another solution which I am going to test when I get home and have access to my original RAM is to put one of the 1GB sodimms which came with my machine in the first slot, and one of my Kingston modules into the other slot, I've read that this solves the problem completely. Now I realize this leaves you with 3GB Ram, not the 4 I wanted, but further research showed me that the performance hit is not that significant from 3 to 4 GB, There are a couple of websites with testing results for different RAM configurations, and for my needs, the difference is minimal, I know that may not be acceptable to everyone. If I had bookmarked one of these pages, I would include the link.

Another solution seems to be a change to one of the Kext file, link is here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=127611
but this is related to kext for MacOSX on a PC, and I don't know enough about dealing with kext files to feel comfortable doing things like this to my MB.

I don't know if anyone else will find this useful, but if it does, great. In the meantime, I will be able to test the 3GB RAM configuration on Friday, and will test out the MB with movies, etc and post how it goes... one test I read about is to use the program REMBER, and do multiple hard drive searches, etc while it is running, according to the website I found that on, it leads to the freezing fairly rapidly, so at least the problem can be reproducible for those who take their Mac Books or Mac Book Pros into an Apple Genius Bar or where ever so that they can see the freeze in action.

Cheers,
Dan

Thank you for your information.

May I ask you to copy this information to another discussion board in Thailand? A lot of people have problem with upgrade Ram and your information are very helpful.

Thank you in advance

I can do that, which discussion board?

Yo Dan, just wanted to thank you for the excellent research you have collected. I've been trying to track down a solution to this for some months now and it seems you have bested me on all accounts. Not to say this is a definite solution of course, but it looks like the best direction to a stable machine I've yet seen.

Just to let you know I have directed a number of related apple forum threads to this one (giving you full credit of course).

My mission is to now convince the sales person I bought the Ram off of (5 months ago) that it's faulty - though as we all know it's likely to be fine if they test it as the crash is so bloody intermittent and hard to replicate - and to replace it with something that Nvidia deems worthy.

Great work once again.

Also Dan, is there a link you could provide to the Nvidia pdf you mentioned as this would help myself (and many others I'm sure) convince our third party memory resellers that our non-compatible ram is just that, non-compatible.

Sorry Dan, should have just got off my ar5e and searched myself, to all users effected by this problem - http://www.nvidia.com/docs/IO/60555/MemoryCompatibility_List_DA-04576-001v01.pdf

Thanks for the info.

I've been having a few screen locks, and some with serious looking graphics freak outs :

http://www.hpwebdesign.co.uk/macbook/macbook.html

Have just taken out the 2x2GB RAMs to check their model numbers, and to swap back in the original RAM.

The RAM I got from Crucial was branded Kingston, but is Elpida. So at first I thought it perhaps would be on the list, but the part number is J1108BABG DJ-E. So doesn't appear to be.

I have a couple of little graphics glitches that I can replicate, and they are still present with the original RAM, which doesn't seem to help.

They are :

1. Open up safari.

2. Open up a couple of new tabs to show your top sites.

3. Close the third wtab.

This results in a quick flash of the first tab. Not a big deal, but enough to make you wonder.

Also, if I watch some streaming video on the BBC's iPlayer (TV catch up thing), and I skip to a part of the video, I often get a graphics glitch in the video window. As in the third video on the link above.

Not sure if these are related.

I might fire an email off to Crucial about it, asking about the compatibility, and showing them the images above.

Hi, Iain, I tried the Safari one, and watched your videos, and I can't seem to replicate those on my machine. I wonder if it has something to do with Safari or if you have some extra plug-ins that I don't(I don't have very many...). The photos you have of screen lockups, the first couple, look very much like what I had experienced. I have tried several times to recreate freezing with 3GB of RAM, and have had no issues. My 4GB setup had been with Kingston RAM with Elpida chips, and the RAM was labeled Kingston KVR, which I had read on one forum did not play nicely with the Mac Book, that one said (I think) Kingston KTR(or something) worked well. For now I'm sticking with 3GB as that seems to be working well. I did some layer masking on a huge Photoshop jpeg this past weekend, and all I got was an increase in fan speed the longer I woked on the file...which makes sense, I was working the mb pretty hard for some of the editting.

MaxDemian, glad if the info I found helps anyone out there. I had started looking this issue up in Feb or Mar, and it did seem to take a lot of digging.

I have had this same problem appear randomly and beginning under Leopard since July. I bought this late 08 Unibody in early June and went on for about at least a month without problems.

Then this started happening randomly, meaning it doesn't seem to matter, what I'm running at the moment, and now it happened this morning after maybe 15-20 minutes from boot, also happened yesterday and the day before that, so it appears to become more frequent.

The 4GB of RAM was installed by the retailer and it is manufactured by Kingston specifically for these machines. And FWIW, I have done complete updates, including firmware and boot ROM and this was happening already with Leopard, and the firmware and boot ROM updated. If it is not defective or incompatible RAM, then it is most likely the video, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M.

this has also started to happen to me. about 5 times total in the past 3 months. installed my 4gig ram maybe 5 months ago. im worried that it might be the video card.

1 year apple warranty is almost up. this is worrying.