MacBook Pro mid 2012 13" Ram 16gb upgrade problems

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Level 1

7 points

MacBook Pro mid 2012 13" Ram 16gb upgrade problems

HI,

i have just upgraded my mid 2012 MacBook Pro to 16gb using 2x 8gb ATech DDR3 12800 1600MHz and to start with everything was fine, booted up quickly etc.. But then all of a sudden about 5 mins into surfing the web the screen went blank and it started to restart itself. It has only done this since I put the new RAM in. Now it sometimes restarts its elf even when im not using it, very annoying!

i Have checked the system report and the new memory is being registered in the correct RAM slots, but it seems something somewhere else is going wrong.

my MacBook is fully updated to OS X El Capitan....I've read on similar threads that downgrading to OS X Yosemite might help????

another thought I had is that I've read that some people only swap one of the RAM chips, so I would have 1 of my original 2gb Ram chips and one 8gb upgraded chip, so having a total of 10gb which would be much better than my original 2x 2gb Ram.

has anyone had this same problem? I'm rather amateur with this sort of tech so any help would be great!

thanks

Edit

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Dec 8, 2015 2:26 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Atko7 Author

Level 1

7 points

Dec 14, 2015 3:56 AM in response to Johnb-one

Hi,

I read on some apple community threads that the macbook mid 2012 can handle 16gb even though on the website only advertises 8gb as being the maximum.

I spoke to the retailer i bought the RAM off and he suggests 8gb being the maximum as well.

Has anyone successfully upgraded the macbook mid 2012 to 16gb?

Thanks

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Answer 2

dwb

Level 7

33,082 points

Dec 14, 2015 4:42 AM in response to Atko7

Apple issues specs for a computer that are accurate for when they are released and doesn’t edit them later to reflect changes in RAM manufacturing. When your computer was released 8GB was the max specced because 8GB chips weren’t yet being sold or weren’t deemed stable enough by Apple. That is no longer the case. Both Crucial Tech and OWC state your computer maxes out at 16GB. Those two vendors are my goto online vendors for RAM. As has already been stated, Macs are picky about RAM.

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Answer 3

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,317 points

Dec 14, 2015 6:53 AM in response to Atko7

It could be that the RAM specifications of the modules you purchased are not what the MBP requires. They should be: 204-pin PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM.

Let me echo what dwb indicated, OWC and Crucial the the most reliable sources of Mac compatible RAM. Those are the only ones I use with no problems to date.

Ciao.

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Answer 4

Johnb-one

Level 6

9,180 points

Dec 8, 2015 4:26 PM in response to Atko7

Macs are kinda fussy about the Ram they like. You are sure that your Mac can handle 16 gigs of ram fine, correct? You seem to have the correct type of ram for your machine, so no problem there. You might have got a bad stick of ram, by all means swap it with a known good stick of ram and see if that fixes your problem for right now. Apparently most MacBook Pro's can handle 16 gigs, so that's possible. You could try resetting the SMC and zapping the pram, how to do that can be found on Apple's support website or you could google it.

good luck

JB

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Answer 5

dwb

Level 7

33,082 points

Dec 14, 2015 5:56 AM in response to Atko7

I know nothing about the company. What I know do know is that you can take a dozen different brands of RAM all with the same specifications and some will be reliable while others aren’t. There’s a reason why the company I work for purchases RAM from 2 vendors only - because they sell RAM that can be depended on.

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Answer 6

alex7375

Level 3

695 points

Sep 21, 2016 11:28 PM in response to Atko7

I have the same Macbook pro Mid-2012 13-inch , Non-retina.

I did an upgrade of 16gb. ram and 500gb. SSD and now my Macbook performs great.

better than new.

Apps open instantly.

Here are the parts i used.

Memory

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3L-12800-SODIMM-204-Pin-Memory/dp/B007B5S52C/re f=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1474525593&sr=8-16&keywords=16gb+mac+memory

SSD

https://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-OCZ-Trion-Internal-TRN150-25SAT3-240G/dp/B01B4NUK MY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474525687&sr=…

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Answer 7

Dec 14, 2015 8:15 AM in response to Atko7

Atko7 wrote:

ATech DDR3 12800 1600MHz

Verify with Crucial memory scan of your system. 16 GB is not the issue.

You are better off with quality RAM from Crucial or OWC

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Answer 8

Atko7 Author

Level 1

7 points

Dec 14, 2015 5:26 AM in response to dwb

Ok, so my 16gb chips should be good to go with my machine! When I installed the 8gb ram chips and turn it on and go to the 'about this mac' and then 'system report' the RAM registers correct as 8Gb in each slot. But then as i'm using it and without warning my macbook shuts down and when it restarts a message comes up saying the system unexpectedly shut down.

my ram chips are Atech. how does Atech compare?

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Answer 9

kaz-k

Level 9

50,136 points

Dec 14, 2015 5:56 AM in response to Atko7

Did you try resetting NVRAM?

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Answer 10

TobiasKl

Level 1

4 points

Sep 21, 2016 3:02 AM in response to Atko7

Hi everyone,

I just signed up for the Community forum, so if I mess something up, please let me know.

So I just recieved my new 2x8GB Crucial Ram Bars to upgrade my mid-2012 MacBook Pro 13". I had a similar problem. After installing the new RAM I wasn't able to reboot the system. As suggested by kaz-k resetting the NVRAM enabled me to boot the system.

It started up the HDD and started beeping 3 times repeatedly. It seemed as if the Ram Bank 0 was damaged because the system would work with just the BANK 1 being used, BANK 0 empty. So I figured it was a system related issue, not the RAM bars' failure.

So my problem isn't 100% the same but similar. And since I wasn't able to boot my system and couldn't find anyone experiencing similar problems I fiugred I should try to spread the word. Maybe this is the wrong place, let me know. I just though it's good if the info is out there.

Regards

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