Today I upgraded the momory of my imac 27 i7 with 2x 4G Kingston value-ram modules (KVR1333D3S9/4G) after some 30mins of work imac got a total freeze (power button shut down only). Did anyone have any experience with this model of memory as I'm not sure if this is incompatibility or rather ocasional fail and should I replace it with another modules of the same kind?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)
Chances are the RAM isn't compatible or wasn't seated well. If your machine is a late 2009 model it needs 1066 RAM, it sounds like you added 1333 RAM. Your machine probably had a Kernel Panic which commonly caused by RAM. This could be:
Incorrect RAM (that's one guess in your case)
Failed RAM
Unseated RAM (another possibility)
It has been awhile since I've seen people complaining about Kingston value-ram however it does have a history of not working well in Macs. I'd recommend OWC (www.macsales.com) or Crucial RAM.
Roger
it's late 2010 model so 1333 should be fine.
thanks for replay and I think that I can narrow it to either fail or incompatible ram. I tried 2 times removing and reseating it back and there is a pattern - removed ram working fine; seated again freeze in some short time.
I still have the original 4GB in two slots and upgrade the remaining two so the freeze is not that immidiate after start but comes after some time when I start a file in PS for example.
Yup it sounds like you bought the right spec, as I mentioned we have seen complaints about Kingston's Value RAM line. I have Kingston RAM in my iMac and it works fine, however NOT Value Ram. I can advise OWC (www.macsales.com) and Crucial's ram is excellent and both vendors customer service is excellent too. OWC will ship internationally and I'm certain Crucial ram is available in Europe. I don't know what vendors you have available to you in Poland so it may take a little homework on your part.
yeah, I just went to a PC store, now I see that not all memeory is the same even comming from good brand. I hope that this Kingston line is somehow isolated in being not compatible with imac and most of the rest ram while being within the spec is compatible.
Some people have had success with that RAM however many haven't therefore I don't feel comfortable recommending it. Give Crucial a try, you should be able to find it. If you go to www.crucial.com, they have a configuration tool that will pick out the correct RAM. Once you have that information when you shop you know exactly what to look for.
thanks for link, I try that.
as for right now I was able to exchange the Kingston modules at the store where I got them from into another two branded GoodRam - which is local Polish brand - in a PC world known as good quality.
So far so good for one hour with PS and large files yet I wonder what is the way to test the memory to be 100% certain that it is good as I can return them in case that they are not working well and in such case I definitly order those Apple dedicated. As for today I would like to run some memtest (as I did on the PC) that would scan the entire memory read/write to be certain that it works now and will in future.
Any recommendations for the memtest? - or maybe the apple hardware test from the system DVD does it as well during it's tests?
Bartek
I would run Apple Hardware Test in Extended mode. That will give it a pretty good work out. If it passes it should be fine.
imac 27 i7 mid2010 freezes with kingston KVR memory
