Macbook Freezes after 4 GB RAM upgrade

I work on many Macs for my company, and we have been upgrading our Macbooks with 4 GB of RAM standard. But this causes the screen to freeze, image to break up into different colors and locks up the whole system.

I thought it was the OCZ RAM we were using, so we switched to Crucial. But the same problem exists, and it exists on over 10 machines so it cannot be that all of this RAM is failing. This must be a problem with the unibodies or with OS X?

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Sep 14, 2009 6:37 AM

19 replies

FerryA1

Level 1

0 points

Sep 30, 2009 5:34 PM in response to Dan STRAATHOF

JFYI, E-bay seller 1-800-4-memory is selling Micron mem modules, one of the modules listed by Dan STRAATHOF as compatible with nVidia graphic card, Micron MT16JSF25664HY-1G1D1, 89$.

http://cgi.ebay.es/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350247943773

Saluditos,

Ferrán.

MikkoV

Level 1

0 points

Oct 1, 2009 1:12 AM in response to MikkoV

Well, I just called the retailer about the situation and asked what I should do next. They are also an authorized Apple maintenance and repair, so they will take care of it.

Also, this was a very familiar problem with the late 08 unibody MacBook model to them already. Nice...

I now have a time slot allowing me to send this in on Monday, but it's still a bummer. Plus all the extra hassle of deleting all my private and business stuff (it's all backed up w/ TM, so no problem there) before sending it in.

OK, so what gets me now also, is that if and when this problem is so familiar to an authorized Apple retailer/maintenance, how come this issue has not been addressed more urgently by Apple?

FerryA1

Level 1

0 points

Oct 21, 2009 8:51 AM in response to FerryA1

FerryA1 wrote:
JFYI, E-bay seller 1-800-4-memory is selling Micron mem modules, one of the modules listed by Dan STRAATHOF as compatible with nVidia graphic card, Micron MT16JSF25664HY-1G1D1, 89$.

http://cgi.ebay.es/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350247943773

Answering to myself: I finally decided to buy one of these 1-800-4-memory 4GB mem sets. I ordered just one week ago and I have just received it, so deliver has been blazing fast, less than a week (I'm in Spain, mem has been sent from the USA by USPS Priority International Mail).

I've scared a little when I noticed the mem sticks were not the ones I ordered: offered sticks were the Micron ones I mentioned above, but I got Quimonda ones instead, so I feared they wouldn't work.

I have just installed them and I'm writing this comment on my 4GB-upgraded MacBook, so they seem to work well. I have tried to reproduce the sleep issue, and my MB wakes up with no problem after putting it to sleep, closing the lid, for several minutes. Of course, I'll keep an eye on it.

Saluditos,

Ferrán.

Nov 30, 2009 9:51 PM in response to mac_12

Hey All,

I'm a tech from canberra, and I today discovered an interesting fact. EVERY Macbook/Macbook Pro I have had come through with this issue has had 2x 2Gb RAM modules, and all of the modules have had ELPIDA chips on them. These chips are not faulty, and work in any other machine, but they are incompatible with the Apple Chipsets. I would not be suprised if there are other chips that suffer the same fate.

I believe the Apple view on this is that they recommend that you only use Apple supplied RAM upgrades in the machines. With this in mind I don't believe we will see a fix for this for a while.

on another note, chips manufactured by qimonde work correctly, so give them a try if need be.

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Macbook Freezes after 4 GB RAM upgrade