Macbook Pro Mid 2009 ram problem - yosemite.

I don't think the RAM you have is going to work properly in your computer. I would buy some new modules. Here are several reliable vendors:

OWC

DataMem

Crucial.com

I don't know. It's hardware. Yosemite may simply be doing more rigorous tests and rejecting them.

I've got a mid 2009 15" MBP (5,4) and had the same problem.

First off, about a month ago, I went through my MBP and replaced the DC-in board, the battery, the ram (crucial 2-4GB DDR3L-1066 SODIMM MAC), 1TB HGST 7200 in the optical drive with a OWC data doubler, replaced the HDD with a 250GB Samsung SSD, and loaded mavericks.

I could never get mavericks to work right. After streaming a couple of videos in safari, it would glitch out and freeze. Luckily I kept my old HDD and ran my old snow leopard system via usb connection. But even after a lot of use (a few days) my snow leopard safari would still start to glitch out and freeze. Because my problem (even though it was less severe with snow leopard) occurred with operating systems on two different drives in two different locations, I'm guessing it is a RAM problem.

I wiped and installed Yosemite on my SSD and yet again I had the same problem with safari, after loading a few videos, it would glitch out and freeze. After putting the old ram in, my MBP wouldn't boot up at all! It would just beep at me! ***! After another attempt of reinstalling my RAM, I noticed a little fuzz in the connector, I removed a couple very small strands of white fuzz and my laptop booted right up and ran great with the old RAM. I put the newer RAM back in and Yosemite ran great... for a while.

I still have problems after a couple hours of intense use in safari. I've heard of people having RAM problems and everyone tells them to use crucial or OWC. I'm using CRUCIAL! ***? I'm considering putting in (and leaving in) the old RAM. I think before I do that, I may do my best to use canned air on the connector and see if I can't blow out any debris in there that might be fouling the contacts.

Any help with my problem would be greatly appreciated. And I hope that my story reminds people to ensure their contacts are clean and debris free... it did make a huge difference, it just didn't cure my problem completely.

Cheers!

I seem to be having a similar issue. 2009 MacBook Pro. Upgraded RAM from 4GB to 8GB in 2012. No issues with Mavericks. Now I've tried to upgrade to Yosemite. The computer restarted (I'm assuming as part of the upgrade installation) and now it won't get past the apple emblem. There's a progress bar that looks like it should fill up beneath the apple emblem. It never does, just stays on that screen for probably 45 seconds and then shuts down.

Have you had this problem?

Any luck with solutions?

Thanks!

I reinstalled my old original RAM. No further issues. I'm emailing crucial to replace my RAM.

I had the same problem when transitioning from Mavericks to Yosemite. I erased, reformatted, and reinstalled Yosemite. Works great now.

As I said earlier, my computer will not even start up completely.... apple screen with loading bar that eventually just shuts down. If I were to get the type of RAM that originally came in the computer, do you think it would continue through the update process instead of getting hung up at the start?

Also, forgive my ignorance...but if the answer to my question above is "yes".... anyone know the specific type of RAM that came in the Mid-2009 MacBook Pro's?

I have a 2009 as well, and downloaded Yosemite last night. It did the same thing you are describing. Sat on the install screen with the bar, but it got about halfway and then stopped. I left it running all night and it was at the same spot this morning. So, I brought it to work, thinking I would just revert back to the old system and forget about it. I started it up while holding "Control" "R" and it eventually came to the X screen and is now installing. With everyone else's WiFi issues listed above, I'm wondering if my WiFi was making it crash. Not sure how it's going to work once it is installed, but will post any issues going forward. Good luck!

I have a 5,5 and I'm having a similar issue, I'm trying to upgrade the ram from the standard 2gb to 8gb with a 4gb x 2 crucial kit, I checked the specs on the ram and it's all compatible. The computer won't boot when I have both 4gb sticks in but will if I have a combo of an original 1gb stick and a 4gb. This combination works with all 4 ram sticks and all possible combinations of them except any with both 4gb sticks installed. When both are installed I get the three beeps on boot up. Any advice on how to fix this? It's not the ram sticks themselves since they all work in each slot and they work in my other mac a late 2008 aluminum mac book. The only difference between the computers is that one is a Macbook Pro and has Yosemite while the other is a Macbook and has Mavericks. Also, if it is Yosemite causing the problem, then why will it read both the 4gb sticks individually but not together. I'd appreciate any advice you can give!

Any idea why having 1333mhz ram sticks causes an issue under yosemite? I want to upgrade to yosemite, but am now worried about being stuck with useless (Gskill) 1333mhz ram sticks in my mid-2009 mbp.

4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

this is what my 2009 mb pro has in it i presume its the original but brought it 2nd hand

Hi when you say you delete and reinstall what have you deleted please i do not understand what you have done as i am having issues with the external hard drive and my video card every thing else works but video card no longer drives my external video equip and the usb hard drive ,which i never need to attach a power supply to ,is not there even if i connect the power supply to reduce energy all other usb devices i.e. windows wireless mouse and connection to my I pod and all my external usb drive sticks are all as before , i would welcome any advice i am new to mac and mavericks did every thing right now i can not use time machine as it won't see my back up drive i only have 56 gig to back up i could try a stick or 2 sticks to see if i can then do a back up but am too scared to go anywhere with no back up available in windows you could do a system restore back to when it last worked ,but i would imagine that can not be done after an operating system upgrade . Any advice from apple guru's would be welcomed all my mates with apple live miles away so i can't ask them to drop in and help me out , i used to have an lovely Emac but it became redundant as stuff stopped working so i binned it my mac book is very nice machine i use it to record music for my flat mate thankfully all that still works as persons had firewire driver update to make yosemite work i was caught with my pants down with these irksome little problems .

cheers guys rodg

Hi Jhshort :

I have also a Macbook Pro Mid 2009. I had two memory sticks 2 Gb each one for a total of 4 GB Ram.

The memory , according to Apple, for the Macbook Pro mid 2009 must be

As I said , I have a MacBook Pro mid 2009 and I installed Yosemite.

Later, as I found the MBP very slow with Yosemite, I decided to increase the RAM to 8 GB. I bought two AXIOM 4GB DDR3-1066 PC3-8500 SODIMM according to the specs from Apple.

The macbook Pro MId 2009 DOES NOT START ....!!! only 3 short beeps indicating RAM Memory problems.

I made a combination of the old memory ( 2 GB ) with the new one ( 4GB ).... and the MBP starts normally and reports that it has 6 GB RAM.

If I use only one of the 2GB modules the machine start normally. If I use only one of the 4 GB modules....three short beeps again...!!!!

I am going to downgrade the MBP to MAVERICKS and install the two 4GB modules. I believe that there is some kind of limitation imposed by YOSEMITE that does not allow to have 2 Ram 4GB modules together...

If any of you have done this test, please inform us...

Many thanks..