RAM not made for snow leopard or lion?

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Level 1

136 points

RAM not made for snow leopard or lion?

Still running leopard.

Snow leopard still gets terminal error and shuts down after heavy useage or after a period of time. have troubleshot everything to the point where my RAM is in question. I did upgrade to 32 GB RAM shortly before first attempt at installing snow leopard. Bought RAm new from trusted source-OWC. How can I determine the cause of my failure to upgrade OS?

yes, have attempted clean installs with just base software. have tried various cloning methods. different hard drives. SSD hard drive. resetting all RAM, unplugging everything, removing all windows 7 and all windows components. still get terminal shutdown errors in anything besides Leopard.

2X2.8 QCIXeon Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8), ipad 3G, iphone 3G, MacBook C2D, imacdv, ipodtouch, HP130NR, Kon

Posted on Jul 12, 2011 3:31 PM

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Answer 1

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Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jul 12, 2011 3:35 PM in response to Sam Beaver

The only definitive way to know if RAM is the issue is to remove RAM in pairs until you find the pair that is causing the problem. Then replace the pair. A pair is usually one from Riser A and the matching slot in Riser B.

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Answer 2

Sam Beaver Author

Level 1

136 points

Jul 12, 2011 3:37 PM in response to Kappy

wouldn't I get terminal shutdowns while running Leopard if a pair of RAM was bad?

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Jul 12, 2011 3:45 PM in response to Sam Beaver

The modules need not have completely failed. All that's required is for a bit or byte to go bad then each time software tries accessing that area of RAM it will fail.

If it's not the memory then it may be a motherboard problem.

Is your problem only with the Terminal application? If so then you may just have a bad preference file.

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Answer 4

Jul 12, 2011 5:22 PM in response to Sam Beaver

terminal error and shuts down

You are playing a little loosely with the terminology.

Do you get kernel panics? If so, those are logged, and you can look at the log and try to determine the cause of the problem.

Do you mean your Mac Powers Off? that is most often caused by overheating, which is most often caused by dust bunnies inside -- but do not vacuum !!

Home vacuum cleaners plastic wands generate large static charges that can kill electronics. Move your Mac to an area where you don't care about dust and blast them airborne and out of your Mac with compressed air.

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Answer 5

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Jul 13, 2011 8:05 AM in response to Sam Beaver

Heat, air flow, etc

Monitor the temps and sensor readings

Boost the fan speed before it warms up

make sure the case has good air flow and circulation

fbdimms are hot, they also consume 10-15W for each DIMM

there should be very hot air out the back

graphic cards and air along with temps

Take a look at iStatPro and/or Temperature Monitor along with SmcFanControl 2.2.x

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Answer 6

Sam Beaver Author

Level 1

136 points

Jul 18, 2011 3:57 PM in response to Sam Beaver

yes, better terminology would be a kernal panic.

my bad, can never remember or screen clip the proper name.

not a dust issue. mac has plenty of breathing space.

motherboard issue would present itself in either OS leopard or Snow Leopard.

checked and verified all of the RAM was working 100% with an app that checks that sort of thing.

nothing in the kernal logs consistent to determine any specific problem with a devise or a software. and, since the kernal panic happens anytime in SNow Leopard: on a clean install with no software or external hardware attached as well as a completely loaded system, by process of eliminating neither software nor the drive would not be a source of problem-error occurs tested using multiple internal hard drives.

Hopefully, Lion will fix whatever has prevented a lasting upgrade over all of this time.

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Answer 7

Jul 18, 2011 7:22 PM in response to Sam Beaver

If you are getting kernel panics, the reason stated in the log can be very helpful. You can post the entire log of an event here, and readers can help you decipher it.

Mac OS X: How to log a kernel panic

Reasons like machine check indicate Hardware failures. Reasons like pagefault/segfault could be caused by lots of things. There are tons of others.

A new version of Mac OS X is unlikely to make things better -- very likely to make things worse.

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Answer 8

Sam Beaver Author

Level 1

136 points

Jul 20, 2011 3:41 PM in response to Sam Beaver

So far, looks like lion solved whatever problem it had.

when lion instaled, it said to remove what i assume was an old hp printer or scanner driver from system /ibrary/extentions/hpplugininit.kext (got rid of the printer). looks promising.

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Answer 9

Sam Beaver Author

Level 1

136 points

Nov 12, 2013 1:31 PM in response to Sam Beaver

never could get the computer to go past 10.5.8, but have had no problems running leopard.

all ram checked out perfectly, but i read somewhere that higher os'es did not play nicely with aftermarket Ram, even RAm from reputable vendor.

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Answer 10

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Nov 13, 2013 3:02 AM in response to Sam Beaver

Amazon has excellent FBDIMM for $25 for 2 x 2GB OWC is not when it comes to same FBDIMMs and 4GB DIMMs cost more. You got a bad set is all I replaced all mine from Amazon

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Answer 11

Sam Beaver Author

Level 1

136 points

Nov 15, 2013 10:11 AM in response to The hatter

thanks, I'm thinking the problem I have might be related to ancient hp.kext files. doing a full flush on all hp, seein' if it'll clear it out.

reading about the issue, it seems that the hp scanning driver would run hidden in the background and take up alot of the CPU.

now that it is flushed, I no longer seem to be running at 10-20% CPU while idle.

will see if this works as i'm trying to get back into running snow leopard.

spent over 3 grand on my ram, so it's not going anywhere.

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