I'm getting conflicting message windows. First it said slot 1 is empty. Then it said 3 and 4 were empty.I have cleaned and reinstalled all 4 sticks, still same problem. I also cleared the P-ram (Cmm/option/p+r). Same problem. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Bruce
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), quad core
I would test them as pairs. And speaking of pairs, are the 4 sticks all identical or some unmatched? It can matter.
Do you know which model identifier your MacPro has? If you open up System Profiler it is listed in line 2 - Like MacPro3,1.
Hi Rick, thanks for your quick reply. My memory sticks are all identical, installed by Powermax where I bought the machine. My identifier is MacPro4.1
I did move one module around and the message consistently is that slot 1 is empty. I will try in pairs. Only once did i get a message that slot 3 and 4 were empty, all others are slot one empty.
There is a bug with the memory slot utilty that first surfaced and seems to affect only the 2009 4,1s. Try to find the threads - is a recurring thread question.
Hatter, that's great to know. This am I tried out pairs, then filled all slots and everything is working right now, all 4 show up. Doesn't really inspire confidence though. I'll ask my tech guy also. Was the bug fixed in software that you know of?
I found a thread- you were part of it. I'm a professional recording engineer, using Pro Tools (plus other apps) and I need this resolved! It seems the switching around solves things for a bit... I'll dig deeper.
Thanks again, Bruce
10.5.8 was a bad fit for the 2009 - 10.6.2+ was better. Lion has not changed how the memory slot utilty still pops it's head up. Logging in a root seems to be the only band-aide.
But musical chairs with DIMMs does not inspire confidence.
This is the "new" consolidated tech article on installing memory
bboege wrote:
This am I tried out pairs, then filled all slots and everything is working right now, all 4 show up.
I tend to have a first suspicion that the RAM is the problem and not the slot. All these years of supporting memory in Macs, when we see a problem it is almost always module related and not slot related. All it takes for a module to be bad is poor programming or a marginally bad connection either on the chips or the solder connections on the board - and more often the board since the chips are reasonably easy to test post production. The other reason to suspect board is literally anyone can have built the board. Quality control runs the full spectrum on boards, depending on who built it, what quality chips they bought, how well they wrote the eprom code and so on. There are a lot of low end memory board manufacturers. And a lot of so called 'high end' manufacturers that drop the ball - especially on Mac epromed memory.
We see far fewer issues that are proven slot related. The threads discussing how the Memory Utility will keep telling you your RAM is set up correctly until you log in as root is not related. That problem is just a pain, it doesn't cause the memory to not work.
Point being, I would always be thinking that this is most likely a module problem until proven otherwise.
Rick
My Mac Pro is not recognizing all of the memory sticks installed.
