Crucial RAM not compatible with late 2013 iMac

Night Music, whatever ram you try to use, make sure it is Mac certified ram...a lot of users buy ram that on paper meets the Mac specs, but is found not to work. Ram such as PKNY, Kingston Value Ram, Corsair Vengeance Ram, and others have the basic specs right but have other specs such as latency far off from what a Mac has to see.

OWC, http://www.macsales.com is exceptionally good...and they offer multiple manufacturers' ram for each Mac so you can select from a range of prices, including the ram Apple uses.

If you do buy Muskin, make sure they supply ram that has the Mac cert sticker on it, and make sure they offer a refund with no restocking fee in case it does not work.

Don't get your knickers in a twist over this small setback. Crucial Ram has been the industry leader for many many years. This is the first time that I have ever heard of an issue like this from Crucial. My quess is they got a bad batch from there supplier.

here would be my 2nd choice

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/

Hi Donald. This is the second post I have seen from this person. Have only just started looking. Sounds a bit spam like to me, certainly something to treat with caution.

Donald Morgan wrote:

Don't get your knickers in a twist over this small setback. Crucial Ram has been the industry leader for many many years. This is the first time that I have ever heard of an issue like this from Crucial. My quess is they got a bad batch from there supplier.

here would be my 2nd choice

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/

I would reverse that order, OWC first, then if they did not have what I wanted, Crucial.

I have to +1 this.

I originally ordered 32GB of RAM from crucial for a late 2013 27" iMac. This is four (4) 8GB SODIMMs in two packages. Two of the SODIMMs were DOA (or rather caused constant kernel panics then eventually the iMac refused to boot with them installed. By refused to boot I mean a loud warning tone at power on).

I ran for a week or so with 16GB of crucial ram (CT8GS160BM.M16FDD if I can make out my picture ok) + 8GB of Apple RAM while I RMA'd the initial bad pair.

I received two replacement SODIMMS on 11/22 (CT102464BF160B.C16FER) and while they worked initially within the first 24 hours I was awoken by the fans going at 100% and kernel_task taking over 600% of CPU. Thought it was a fluke but decided to reseat everything. Seemed better for a few days however today I was again awoken by fans at full speed etc etc. System has been flaky all day until I removed the new SODIMMS and replaced with 8GB of Apple RAM. Am going to return for refund 16GB of crucial ram, knock on wood the other 16GB I ordered seems to work ok.

Annoying, Crucial is Micron memory and I've never been dissapointed with their products before (multiple macs and PCs over the last decade or so) but I hesitate to recommend anyone ordering memory for a 27" haswell iMac from Crucial until this is cleared up.

-chris

Order from OWC instead.

I would reverse that order, OWC first, then if they did not have what I wanted, Crucial.

Absolutely agree - OWC sells RAM for Macs which they've tested on Macs and guarantee to work in a Mac. Crucial sells RAM for PCs and Macs and I have no idea if they've tested it on specific Mac models or if they know what they are talking about as I found out when I tried to buy RAM there.

As others have said order your ram from OWC http://eshop.macsales.com

The ram OWC sells is manufactured to meet Apples specs. I don't have a 2013 iMac but I've followed these threads closely. The problems everyone is having is always with crucial and with trying to run 32gb of ram. Posters on one of the other threads have found success using a specific ram from Kingston. The problem seems to be with the voltage, if I remember correctly the crucial ram is 1.35v and needs to be 1.5 v....or it could be the other way around I don't remember.

My point, as with others, is that OWC guarantees their ram will work with your Mac and of all the problems I've read about no one has mentioned a problem with OWC ram. I only use ram from Crucial or OWC.

I've dealt with Applecare and senior advisors several times and I've never been told that I cannot install RAM. Apple uses third party RAM (they do not manufacture it) And they change mfrs - when I got my iMac, they were using Hynix and Samsung. I think a little concern over wanting to sell OEM RAM is present here - why would Apple publish articles on how to add RAM? One example here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5540

And, when my hard drive was about to be replaced (due to a recall), Apple asked if I had third party RAM and asked that I swap it back with the original RAM as they prefer to test everything after a repair/replacement with all factory spec parts. I was told I could put my third party RAM back after the repair was done.

I would indeed buy the ram from OWC. Of course an Apple rep is going to try to steer you to buying ram from Apple.....btw 32gb of Apple ram is $800!