3 beeps on start up

"3 Beep On Startup problem"

I had an OWC 6 gig replacement set for awhile that works in place of the 4 gig original set. Bought them a while back but made my beefed up early 2008 MBP run a little too hot. I use it for music production. So I cleaned the sockets with Radio Shack Cleaner (not Cleaner/lubricant), popped them in and wala!! Back In Business! Ha! The other set may still work, too. They may have just come unseated. I got a new 750 gig Seagate I'm getting ready to replace the 320 gig in it. I'll test this for a day or two, clean it all out real good then try the original set just to see, then keep them for spares. Thanks everybody. You have been a great help in tracking down and solving this problem fast. I had no idea what 3 Beep On Startup was until I googled. This internet stuff is sumpin' else, huh?

Great post, demo!

Thanks so much. It may help tons of future readers here.

😎

Just back from the Genius bar. The problem was simply the incompatibility of Google Drive with this iteration of Apple software (10.6.8) on the MacBook Pro. Not letting Google Drive start up fixed the problem. (It also should fix the frequent CPU whirring that occurs when that software suddenly takes off--which I had to forcequit out of in the Activity Monitor.)

Wow, wp --

And the Google being there made three beeps on startup?

Amazing.

Thanks for leaving that here for future readers!

🙂

Three beeps . . . and the computer would seize up.

Problem solved for free. (I thought for sure I had a RAM problem.)

Three thumbs up!

😉

THanks a lot. Solved my problem too

For future troubleshooting reference: I tried to wake my mac, but got the infamous three beeps. I suspected that the ram had come unseated as the laptop had been in a backpack that had been thrown around all day. When I opened the rear shell, sure enough, the top RAM stick was sticking halfway out of its slot. Unplugged the battery (only then did the beeping stop), reseated the stick, plugged the battery back in, closed the shell, and the computer started fine. Problem solved in under twenty minutes. 🙂

All you need to do is conrol option and shift, hold them at the same time and then turn your laptop on, it should work temporarily until you shutdown your mac.

Hi all!

I have the 3 beeps issue as well. Unfortunately it seems there is something wrong around the memory. If I take out the RAM from the slot below, it works well. I tried every possibility, both of the RAMs seem working fine in the slot above. Does somebody know what happened? Faulty motherboard or slot?

MacBook Pro "13 Early 2011 A1278

2x 4GB RAM (1x 4GB since then)

Thanks,

David