Unstable after RAM upgrade

Gosh! I wish I knew this before i got my kingston memory. Thanks anyway!

I bought 2 x 2GB Kingston ValueRAM (KVR1066D3S7/2G) and since I installed it in my MacBook the problems surfaced: video corruption, not waking from sleep, random freezes. I took the MacBook to a local Apple Store and they've tested it for about three days concluding there was nothing wrong at all. They didn't even had the problems I had.

I finally got it back, with the 4 GB of RAM still installed of course, and the problems resurfaced. So I decided to get the default RAM back in. Since I did that I've had no problems at all. No video corruption, MacBook perfectly wakes from sleep and no random freezes either.

It's a strange situation. I think I'll contact the reseller tomorrow to ask what I should do. Probably I'll have to RMA it and hopefully I will get RAM that will function as it should. I will keep you posted.

C'mon..... Apple is not going to give us a solution?????

I can't get my refund in Kingston, they just says me that the only thing they can do is change my kit for another one new... but the same one again.

There's no problem with this ram, us kingston told me, the problem is in the Nvidia GPU.

I sent the RAM back today. Reseller replied to my email this morning stating that the Kingston RAM 'should' work with Apple products. According to the reseller Kingston is certified by Apple to deliver RAM which is compatible with Macs.

As soon as I have got a refund, I will order some RAM that is certified by Apple or maybe I will take it to the Apple Store to let them do it, not sure at the moment. I will keep you posted.

Wow you don't know how happy I am that I found this thread. I knew there were problems with RAM upgrades but decided to try to "risk it" with kingston RAM that crashed a colleagues MacBook Pro before me: the forums said that it was pretty difficult to trace which combinations worked and which didn't.

But when my speakers and screen went AWOL at the same time I figured I had shorted some hardware when installing the RAM.

Hello, I've experienced the same problem as you guys.... I have a MacBook 2.4Ghz with 2GB Samsung RAM and works very fine without any crash. Then I bought Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB Mac Memory compatible with Macbook and MacbookPro Model: VSA4GSDSKIT1066 G) and everything went to crap.
Random hard freeze with fancy coloured lines on the screen and strange sounds coming out of the speakers. I had both firmware and EFI upgrade but nothing changes!
It's very very annoying.

What should I do?!

XP doesn't address the 4GB of RAM, that is why it's working fine, just as fine as if you limit OS X to 3GB or 3.5GB as people have reported...

I've got the Kingston 4GB kit installed, it was unstable at first. I talked to Kingston for RMA and was asked to give them the chips S/N. So I removed the RAM, reinstalled it in the opposite configuration and closed the laptop back and it's been fine for 2 weeks, and I use the little sucker all day... I guess one of the issue my be the RAM not properly seated... I also noticed that I I had done a fairly poor job at screwing everything back together the first time, the shells were unevenly pressing against each other... Maybe the issue is mainly sloppiness caused by the excitement of adding 4GB of RAM 🙂

I know by saying "it works fine" I just jinxed it and the problem is going to resurface within a few minutes 🙂

After 3 months of using the Samsung ram that I bought from Ebay with no issues at all, I am now having the wake from sleep issue again. I ordered the Samsung ram as others recommended it and after I had this same issue with the Kingston ram. How can it be fine for 3 months then suddenly start having issues. The apple hardware test comes back no fault found.

I give up. I really hope in the next OS update this issue is fixed as I can't keep buying ram.

Hi folks,

After two freezing different sets of Corsair Mac Ram I decided to try something different. I've found this site here in Italy that sells *Hynix - Nanya- Qimonda - Samsung*... I had it in a very reasonable time and everything seems to work fine!!

Now I have the Qimonda 2x2GB on my UBMB, the system profiler recognize the serial and manufacture numbers, I've ran memtest all night and no freeze at all. I keep my finger crossed because it's just 2 days since I had them but I'm quite sure they're gonna work.

I don't know if I can post a link to this e-commerce but if someone of you guys need it, just send me a PM.

There are a variety of reasons why RAM may fail a machine after an upgrade. Much of which is very difficult for Apple to do anything about, because RAM itself is inherently very complicated. Software based testing will not always reveal bad circuits even if some exist. Specs that look identical on the surface may still not indicate complete compatibility. Bus slewing on notebook machines is a feature which not all RAM modules support the same way. A good RAM vendor will offer a no questions asked lifetime warranty on their RAM, and very specifically indicate the vintage and Mac model their RAM is known to be compatible with. Apple's spec pages are very specific as to RAM compatibility, and the System Profiler in Apple menu -> About This Mac -> More Info will reveal more RAM info about preinstalled Apple RAM which may be important in the specs. RAM may be improperly seated if you install it yourself and cause problems. Suffice it to say, this thread being so long, we have lost any definition of whose problem is being solved by whom, the original poster has not posted on the board since October last year.



If you still can't figure out why your RAM is causing issues, or if it is indeed the RAM causing issues, please start a new topic thread here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1290&start=0

You'll get wider attention, and get a better chance at a directed answer to your problem.

<Edited by Moderator>

Message was edited by: a brody

Yes RAM can be tricky but the problem here is that there is one specific computer that seems to refuse every stick of third party RAM that has been put into it. Most people that have had success seem to come back later and say that it has failed. Even RAM that Apple has installed has failed. Clearly this error is not due to buyers not paying attention to specs. There is something wrong with the Macbook hardware or Apple has a bug in the firmware or software.

Well I have sent the Samsung ram back to the Ebay seller asking for a refund. Will be interesting if I get it or not. The Kingston ram that I had I also sent that back again to get a 3rd replacement which arrived yesterday. I noticed the new 3rd batch came from China instead of the USA and the chips say Qizmoda? or something like that. The first 2 had infineon on them from memory. So far I haven't had any issues with the Kingston, no freezes and no wake from sleep problems. Maybe 3rd time lucky?

me too same problem with corsair ram ... I just changed two sets of ram but same problem.

Is it a ram not compability or may be a mac problem?

Also having problems here with Corsair on my late 2008 MacBook (not pro).
When having the two 2GB Corsair modules in place instead of the factory-installed 1GB modules, the machine often locks up with horizontal rainbow lines on the screen.
A virtually safe way to provoke the issue within minutes is to have the Arabesque screensaver running.

As found by many others the modules pass memory tests and extended Apple Hardware Tests for hours and hours without the slightest problem found. Any combination of one 1GB factory module and one Corsair 2GB module works flawless and rock solid, so the modules themselves seem to be just fine.
I tried using that maxmem kernel flag mentioned a few times, but oddly the system (10.5.7) does not seem to react to this flag at all. Still shows me 4GB of RAM.

So what I need to know is just this: is Apple working on this widespread problem and will there be a firmware or software fix? Or should I take my machine in for repair?

Can anyone who has paid for the official ram upgrade from Apple tell me what brand of chips was put in and what model it was?

I know for sure mine has Hynix modules in there, but I could not find 2gb dimms.