Q: RAM Issue Macbook Pro Late 2012

Hello everyone,

I apologize in advance if my post isn't clear -- I'm not the most computer savvy person in the world. I'm sorry if this post is long as well, but I've been having issues for about two weeks now and I'm desperate to find a solution.

I am dealing with a MacBook Pro I received as a birthday gift in November of 2012. I have a 2.9GHz Intel Core i7 processor, two 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory slots, and a storage capacity of 750GB. It's running OSX El Capitan verison 10.11.6.

In the four years I've had this computer, I've had no major issues with it. Recently towards the end of August my RAM started acting up. I had been using the computer as I normally did (online gaming, school work, internet browsing, etc.) when one morning I turned on my MacBook to hear the three "beep, beep, beep" sounds.

After speaking with Apple support I managed to get the computer working in safe mode, then managed to get the computer to turn back on normally. That didn't last long, and a few hours later it crashed again. Once again, I called Apple and received more steps to troubleshoot the computer. I don't remember the exact details, but I managed to get the computer to work by turning it on while pressing some buttons on the keyboard.

Again it worked fine for a few hours, then crashed again giving me the same "beep, beep, beep" sound on startup. I called Apple one more time and was given instructions to turn on the computer by holding down "D" and running a test of the hardware. After a short test, and extended testing, the results found no trouble with the MacBook Pro. So again, we proceeded with the same troubleshooting and turned the computer back on and it was working fine.

I decided to take the computer into the Apple store as a safety precaution to make sure nothing was seriously wrong with it. Lo and behold, when I sat down at the Apple store to turn on the MacBook Pro I was getting the three beeps again. The employee took the computer in the back, re-seated the RAM pins, and gave me back the computer. The employee warned me that if the computer is slightly dropped or bumped it may cause the issue to pop-up once again. I left the store with the computer working once again. Since then I have taken extra care of my computer; I have turned it completely off before moving it anywhere and I have made sure not to be too rough with it while it is in my backpack.

Just today, I was working in the library and went to go search something on google, the computer was on a flat surface for about 30 minutes and was working fine. I typed in my question, hit "search" and the webpage began to search, turned white, and then the computer crashed, giving me the same odd colored squares as it did back in August when it was crashing. I turned the computer off and when I tried to turn it back on I received the same three beeps as before. I took the computer into Apple again, got the pins re-seated again, and that's where I am now.

The Apple employee informed me that this issue shouldn't be occurring so often and I might have to replace my logic board for $280. He also told me that he personally wouldn't make this investment into fixing the computer, and would choose instead to keep opening the computer every time it crashed and keep re-seating the pins until the computer no longer worked and the replacement was absolutely necessary.

So, what do I do? I don't know if I can justify spending $280 to repair this computer when I can spend that money to just buy a brand new computer. My instincts tell me that there could be another smaller issue, as the diagnostic check came back negative. Could this be an issue that's not related to the logic board? Could the snaps that hold the RAM in just be loose and I need to find a better way to tighten them? Has anyone faced this problem before, or does anyone have any ideas as to what could be going wrong with the computer?

Thank you in advance for reading my post, and I apologize again for such a long submission.

Message was edited by: WolverineSpartan18