Unstable after RAM upgrade

For what it's worth, I went through 2 sets from OWC too since they were THE place to get apple memory and both caused lockups. I went with crucial 1 month ago and it's been working flawlessly since.

Sorry to hear about your Apple support experience too although that's pretty much what I experienced with my last macbook. Each time I sent it in (about 5 times I think) it came back either scuffed or not put together exactly right.

I've had the Ramjet for a week, after returning OWC memory. I don't think the ramjet is stable either, though the symptoms are slightly different. Had a freeze the first night, went several days without a freeze. Then today, I was working at home in the morning, closed the lid and came to the office (with a couple stops in between), and when I opened my briefcase the fan was blowing really loud and the laptop was very hot, as apparently closing the lid did not put the laptop in sleep mode. When I opened the laptop, the noise persisted, the screen was black, and the keyboard was unresponsive. I had to do a hard reboot.

Now I don't know what to do, other than springing for the $300 apple memory. I don't believe any of the aftermarket memory works with the macbook reliably at this point. What burns me is that I know the apple memory is sourced from the same places as that which I've bought, but is twice as much money. I guess that's the price of getting apple support if I have a problem.

Kevin

Absolutely ridiculous! I have been an Apple fan girl since i started college 4 years ago. My first Macbook had a faulty screen (flickered all the time) and it caused a line on my screen from when the laptop screen touched the keyboard. The next computer was a Macbook Air that had a problem waking from sleep and a trackpad problem. I returned it and upgraded to a Macbook Pro. That Macbook Pro was an early 2008 one and had a severe nVidia graphic card problem and I had to have the whole logic board replaced. Then i bought the new late 2008 macbook pro and quickly upgraded to OWC memory. It always freezes while watching video and puts weird lines across it and makes a high pitched noise. I brought it to Apple and they replaced it. Now I have the same thing on my new one. OWC has replaced the memory but I am still having the same issue. I love Apple, but it seems that every product I buy (including replacing 2 iPhones) I have an issue and they need to be replaced. I have yet to have a problem-free Apple computer. Now one of my USB ports doesn't work in the new one. It is ridiculous and I am very careful with my computers and gadgets. I have Powerpoint presentations in class and I shouldn't have to worry about my computer freezing up. Today, I was sitting in class on my mbp and it made the terrible screeching noise as it froze up. The entire class turned to look as i frantically tried to do a hard restart. All I want from Apple is a good computer.

Please fix this Apple!! It is obvious that firmware updates will fix this problem for LOTS of people!!

I suggest that you try Hynix RAM, I had mine replaced with those a week ago and instead of getting 4 - 5 crashes a day, I haven't had any this week since the RAM change!

I am not sure that a firmware upgrade will help, I am more convinced that the NVidia chipset is the issue in as much that it cannot drive 4GB RAM unless the 'sink' current required is low enough.

Why not register on the Developer Connection website and report a bug!

It appears everyone is having problems with 3rd party memory. Why haven't they (OWC, et al.) instituted a recall? While no one has reported lasting damage to their machine (yet), it is clear their product is defective and incompatible with the new MB. OWC may have been courteous to many of you out there, and I know we've been conditioned by rapacious corporate America to expect rudeness and to believe these guys are doing us the favor by accepting our hard-earned money, but in all truth-- this is shameless and unacceptable! They know that when used as intended their products cause harm-- why haven't they done anything? This is how all class actions begin!

An anecdotal (Positive) Data Point:

I bought my UBMB 2.4GHz the weekend after launch in October. This is my first Mac ever and one of the reasons was the "standard" memory and HDD and ease of DIY upgrade.

After noting some CAS and other timing differences in available DDR3 SO-DIMMs I opted to go with OWC's 4GB kit who claimed to have tested and warranty with the UBMB. I kept my Apple 1GB sticks because I'm a "Murphy's Law" kind of guy. I've been running the OWC sticks for about 6 weeks now with no issues. I ran the Apple Hardware Test overnight as well after install as well with no problems. The SO-DIMMs show up in System Profiler as:

Manufacturer: 0x830B
Part Number: 0x4E54324743363442384841314E532D424520

and with different populated serial numbers. My system is running all the available updates. I've really exercised this system by running both Virtual Box and VMWare Fusion virtual machine systems, enormous OpenOffice 3 documents including presentations and all manner of 3rd party freeware utilities. Oh, and ZFS. 🙂 I regularly plug-unplug a VGA-MDP connector connected to various projectors and panels up to 1680x1050.

I also replaced the stock Toshiba 250GB HDD with a non-Apple 128Gb SSD. A USB Shell and Drive Utility were all I needed for a drive clone. I kept the original drive in the USB shell as a bootable backup and use it for TimeMachine as well. No issues with this either. I had a few slightly tilted keys but a little gentle pressure "clicked" them into place. While I had the bottom plate off for memory upgrade I noticed that my optical drive's SATA cable wasn't completely seated and fixed that. A SATA glitch could well freeze a system, so I'd suggest checking that and the HDD connector if you have the system open.

Given that it's a new design and manufacturing process, I've been pretty impressed and give the overall v1.0 hardware experience a solid A-.

Last thoughts: Memory and controller chips are notoriously static sensitive. If you're upgrading it yourself make very sure to be grounded at all times to the grounded chassis and handle the sticks by the non-connector edges only. The SO-DIMM slots and sockets on the UBMB and UBMBP seem to be a tight, er "precise" fit, so firm but not excessive pressure is required to remove and insert the SO-DIMMs. I'd be curious to know what percentage those with issues represent? I suspect that it's an unfortunate very few and thus no "recall" required.

I have had two times where I had a partial and a total freeze, but both of those had to do with my fat-fingering on the command line. Darwin is still a "classic" UNIX and doesn't handle device driver errors particularly well compared to, say FMC in OpenSolaris. 🙂 Here's hoping for some overhaul as well as 64-bits in Snow Leopard!

James

Pity the poor "Mac Genius'" whom I have grilled in the store! 🙂

I've got a new late '08 Macbook - seems to have been manufactured the first week of production. I got it the second week of November and immediately put in 2x2GB OWC Ram and a WD 500GB hard drive. I haven't had a lick of trouble with it, and I'm compiling code, running iTunes, synching my iPhone, watching video. I had an early '08 white Macbook with 4GB in it before (same CPU- Peryn) that was a great machine- just thought I'd upgrade. This machine is great, although the CPU temps (as measured by Temperature monitor) is a little higher than what I saw on the white Macbook. It runs fine, rarely ramps up the fans. It's traveled with me to and from Iowa to Atlanta, Alabama, etc. So far absolutely no issues. In fact, in 24+ years of Macintosh computer ownership (first Mac was an original 128K in '84) - I've never had problems with my machines. My G5 powermac is now three years old with a 1.5GB software RAID inside and it has run continuously all that time.
It's obvious that there is something going on here with this memory, but I would expect that it will take some time to sort out. Memory kits for the older powerbooks had similar problems initially- it's, unfortunately, part of version "1.0" stuff. Not the best answer, but obviously your posts here exemplify this. I would suggest taking your laptops to Apple and seek replacement. If the problems can't be recreated and they continue to plague you after numerous memory replacements (and in some cases) system reinstalls- it would seem that you have a machine that is definitely exhibiting "intermittent" failures that can't be attributed to CPU load, heat, or system configurations. The fact that some of these posts indicate that the failure occurs when watching video is interesting as the 9400M does share it's video partition with the main memory, although I'm not sure how that memory mapping occurs. Running a Unix memory test probably wouldn't catch failures within that partition of the memory stack, as it would be locked off by the video circuitry and not reallocatible for memory testing. I've had similar "ghost in the machine" random failures with hard drive based ipods, and Apple has always, with gentle prodding, replace the units. I think that the company genuinely wants to stand behind their products and will reasonably work with the customer to do so. As least, that's been my experience. My 3 year old G5 had a hard drive bay temperature sensor fail (something I diagnosed conclusively by running the Apple Technician hardware test utility- Apple System Diagnostics) and the local tech was professional, inquisitive and quick to get a part and replace it. As Apple grows, they're going to suffer pains with respect to maintaining their level of quality in customer support. I would bet that they are every bit as frustrated by this memory issue as the customers. So take the machine in, be patient, concise, and clear in your explanation and give them a better opportunity to help you if you're suffering from these lockups. I'm sure that problem will sort itself out over the next month or two!

It seems both the MacBook and MacBook Pro are exhibiting this behavior and I wanted to share my research/notes on this with you guys if you are interested.

Issue - Complete System Freeze/Lock-Up
Each time it freezes, I have to hold the power button down for 5 seconds to get any kind of response from the system (no cursor movement, no keyboard response, clock doesn't update, no apple-option-esc, no keyboard brightness adjustment, shutting the computer lid elicits no response, no sleep etc). If audio is playing in the background it is now looping the last half second of it.


Hardware Changes and Notes
• Installed OWC 4.0GB RAM upgrade kit - 2 x 2.0GB SODIMM - specifically for the Macbook Pro (Late 2008)


Attempted Troubleshooting
• First complete system freeze happened shortly after migrating from my old MacBook Pro (1.83MHz) to my new MacBook Pro (Late 2008, 2.4GHz).
• There was a possibility that the issue was related to the RAM upgrade so I ran the Apple Hardware test and the RAM came up as functioning properly (even with the extended test).
• The freezing continued to get worse, with several per day, at random times.
• It could have been software related so I erased the hard drive and clean installed Leopard.
• Manually reinstalled software packages and copied personal data over (music, photos, etc).
• This appeared to fix the issue altogether for a day or so and so I sent in my pre-installed Apple RAM to OWC for their rebate.
• Unfortunately, the freezing returned after the short period of running smoothly.
• Removed all external hardware to test, battery only, but freezing continued.
• Nothing taxing on the system or anything to indicate what might have caused the crash (nothing of note in the console logs).
• About 1 freeze per day but still seemingly at random times.


Temporary Fix
I removed one of the OWC 2GB upgrade sticks and now my system has been stable for 8 days. Currently waiting for my new set from OWC to test. I'm currently stuck with OWC RAM (can't get a refund), but that's another story altogether.


----

[Others having the exact same issue on discussion forums]

MacBook Pro - Random Freezing
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1767718&tstart=0

MacBook Pro - Total Freeze Up
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1790757&tstart=0

MacBook - Unstable after RAM upgrade
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1757875&tstart=0

External forums - MacBook Pro (late 2008) random freezing issue
http://forums.mactalk.com.au/29/61464-macbook-pro-late-2008-random-freezing-issu e.html

External forums - MacBook Pro Unibody Freezing Up
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=95888


----

Video of crash (exactly the same as mine)
http://vimeo.com/2257488

Video of 2nd crash (exactly the same as mine)
http://vimeo.com/2266769

To be honest with you guys and with future buyers, the Unibodies are great portables, they do however lack power with only 2Gb of RAM. And therefore, as most of you guys, I upgraded to the 4Gb kits offered at kingston. I have always bought Kingston RAM for all my machines without issues. I have had crashes like everybody else, until they set up a patch, I am running the laptop through Parralles in Xp. It became obvious to me that when I allocate 3Gb of RAM to xp or 2Gb or even 1GB and have the OS X run on the balance, the computer doesn't freeze. Moreover, I ran it for about 6 hours, playing 2 Civilization games and Red Alert (god 4gb makes a difference), yet no freeze. Therefore, as mentionned above, the problem is surely a chipset one. PATCH PLEASE!

update: system has been ok ever since i installed new 4G ram from crucial (about 13 days so far). this is after two different sets from owc locked it up at least every few hours. thankfully i was able to get a refund from owc. i have had a few lockups but only at startup, so i think that it is medialink or another startup program causing that, i can leave it on for days and days with no lockups.
again, the ram from crucial is the same manufacturer and made in singapore factory as the ram originally shipped in the macbook from apple (has the M logo on it), got it on newegg for $125 which was cheaper than the owc at the time.

Hey guys, just got back from apple store, a patch is coming up by the end of this month to fix this issue. (so says the Genius at the Apple Store).

Happy Waiting!

I hope this "Genius" is correct 🙂 That would be a nice christmas present, lol

Ok not that I just want to put a "me too" os in here but...

Ordered the 2x2gb ram upgrade from OWC and experienced what everyone else here has seen.
Random lock ups after 7 to 12 hours. I wasn't taxing the processors or the RAM at all (with the
exception of running VMWare). Pulled out that ram and managed to get a 2x2gb ram "upgrade from
a local vendor. This batch was from Kingston. Had the same issues, random lock ups after about
7 to 12 hours.

Put the original RAM back in and it worked fine.

Managed to get a 2x2gb set directly from Apple (yes I am a sap and paid the premium price but
since this is a work laptop and they were paying for the RAM at this point I didn't care).

It has been running great with the Apple RAM in it. Was happy that the OWC folks and
my local independent had a decent return policy.

I have known that Macs are "twitchy" when it comes to third party RAM but this is ridiculous. Its
beyond anything that I have seen before (and will just say this, I was a Apple Genius before my
current gig and if a Genius nows about a patch, or rather says they do, there is a problem because
they don't find out until everyone else does, there aren't any "early warnings" for that from the
Mothership to the Genius community).

Message was edited by: Chiefted

I've got the same problems with my 4GB OWC ram. Since putting the stock back in, I haven't had any crashes. One issue I haven't seen mentioned is that I got the crashes much more frequently when running with an external monitor. Without one, I could go a several days without a freeze (running about 7 hours a day). With one, I'd get at least one crash a day.