How much RAM can I install in a mid 2010 iMac? I bought a used mid 2010 iMac and I'm having the "Black Screen" issue. The previous owner has it with 20gb of RAM (2x2 and 2x8). It does say that it's using it but I'm seeing online that it maxes out at 16. What is correct?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.1.x), Running El Capitan
I too have a a mid-2010, except mine is the 21.5 inch model. I do have a mix as shown below and never had a problem with it. As others have mentioned, Macs can be fussy about memory chips. Mine came from OWC.
Maybe try pulling all the ram except the original, then fire up the computer to see if the issues are corrected(?).
Update! While doing a repair on my car today, my new Apple Backlight Board arrived in the mail. I had to wait until my wife left so she wouldn't see me working on the iMac that we just bought 3 weeks ago. First things first, I checked the RAM. The 2 2gb sticks were Samsung, which I assume is Apple, but not certain. The 2 8gb sticks were Corsair (?). I pulled the 8gb and attempted to run it on the 2 2gb sticks. No go. Display quit before it even fully booted. Next, the 2 8gb by themselves. It went longer but same deal. So, I decided I'd put the board in. Got it all back together, booted her up using the 2 8gb sticks by themselves, and it's been flawless for 1/2 an hour now- pretty much a new record for me. Crossing my fingers. I'll keep you all updated.
Still going strong! Crossing fingers.
Well, good for you ! Sounds like you've got it licked. That was quite an adventure.
Well, I was good to go for a while but now another, perhaps more sinister problem occurred. The machine turned on by itself the other night while I was sleeping. The chime woke me up. In my haste to get it shut down, I didn't shut it down properly. Now, it won't boot up. It shuts down every time the progress bar reaches about 60%. Can't boot into Safe mode. Can't do hardware diagnostics. DVD doesn't show on places to boot from. When I ran first aid on the SSD, it fails. Here's what the details say:
Repairing file system.
Checking journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Incorrect block count for file temp1993064
(it should be 1 instead of 0)
Incorrect block count for file temp1993065
(it should be 1 instead of 0)
Incorrect block count for file disabled.plist
(it should be 1 instead of 0)
Invalid node structure
The volume House could not be verified completely
File system check exit code is 8.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
File system verify or repair failed.
Operation failed...
That's it. I have an OS-X DVD but the DVD just keeps ejecting and I'm never given the option to boot from that anyway.
I got into one area that offered the option of reinstalling El Capitan but the drive was "locked". Not sure if that's a permission thing or what.
Help!
Addendum: just noticed that the Info tab says that the SSD drive has 0 available space and 0 Free space. Is this the issue?
Wow, that doesn't sound good. Perhaps the hard drive got corrupted by the forced shutdown during boot, but doesn't seem likely. Might the i-Mac have been moved roughly during the forced shutdown? I'm thinking that if so, that might have crashed the write head(?). If that's the case, that could have trashed the HD. To see if the HD is recoverable you probably need to boot from a bootable clone in an external drive, reformat the HD on the i-Mac and reinstall OS X. The problem is, if you haven't made a bootable clone you may need professional help. Perhaps others here more experienced than I can offer other suggestions.
LOL! No, I wasn't that bad. There is something I'm going to try that involves single user boot. I'll report back.
Sorry, didn't mean to accuse, just thought I'd throw it out there in case you tackled the Mac. Glad you have a sense of humor.
How much RAM can I install in a mid 2010 iMac? Black Screen Issue
