MacBook Pro Mid-2012 Faultly Unexplained RAM Problem?

Question

Level 1

4 points

MacBook Pro Mid-2012 Faultly Unexplained RAM Problem?

So I have had this MacBook Pro mid-2012 since 2014. I have been through the thick and thin with it because its been such a pain in the (you know what) for me.

My problem is whenever I turn my MacBook Pro on it will after 5 minutes freeze/show lines on the screen which are usually blueish. It will then proceed to beep 3 times simultaniously with a 5 second break. And I have to force turn it off with the power button. How do I fix this?

I have had AppleCare say to me its a problem with the RAM in the Graphics Card (is there really RAM in the graphics card?). But, on top of that theres this thread and other threads on the Apple Support website saying its just the usual RAM and something to do with a faulty Logic Board.

I don’t really want to have to pay for Apple to service this for me when theres so many people with the same model MacBook as me experiencing the same problem. Its got 18 pages of comments!

The thread I’ve been surfing through: - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6481657?start=50&tstart=0

Please help me fix this! I am a BA (Hons) Uni student trying to study a degree amd I need my computer ASAP!

Posted on Dec 10, 2017 4:42 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

126,979 points

Dec 11, 2017 9:11 AM in response to S4MMZ

If you buy from a Mac-centric Vendor, they will tell you you could use more than what Apple originally recommended (up to two 8GB modules). Use a Vendor who says:

"It works in YOUR Mac,

or your money BACK."

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Answer 2

Dec 10, 2017 4:55 PM in response to S4MMZ

Unless you are majoring in counseling, it does not make sense to look through 18 pages of a thread that does not have a clear solution already posted. You may not have the same problem as all the others.

Please tell us absolutely everything about your computer. Or simply post an etrecheck report, which does that quickly and easily:

Using etrecheck

.

Reply

Answer 3

S4MMZ Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2017 8:25 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

EtreCheck version: 3.4.6 (460)

Report generated 2017-12-11 16:17:07

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 12:52

Performance: Poor

Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Remove/Report] links to remove adware or update the whitelist of legitimate software.

Problem: Computer is restarting

Description:

Whenever I startup my MacBook Pro 13” it runs fine but then after 5 minutes freezes & shows blue lines on the screen. Then proceeds to crash and randomly shutdown & beep 3 times with a 5 second interval in-between the beeps.

Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-3210M) CPU: 2-core

2 GB RAM - Insufficient RAM! Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

Empty

Handoff/Airdrop2: supported

Wireless:
en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Battery: Health = Check Battery - Cycle count = 610

iCloud Quota: 14.18 GB available

Video Information: ⓘ

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800

Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE HDD HTS545050A7E362 disk0: (500.11 GB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted>
[EFI]: 210 MB

(disk0s2) <not mounted>
[CoreStorage Container]: 498.60 GB

(disk0s3) <not mounted>
[Recovery]: 650 MB

HL-DT-ST DVDRW
GS41N
()

USB Information: ⓘ

USB20Bus

hub_device

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

USB20Bus

hub_device

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

USB30Bus

Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Virtual disks: ⓘ

Macintosh HD (disk1 - Journaled HFS+) /
[Startup]: 498.23 GB (395.38 GB free)

Physical disk: disk0s2 498.60 GB Online

System Software: ⓘ

macOS High Sierra
10.13.1 (17B1003) - Time since boot: less than an hour

Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

Possible adware: ⓘ

Adware: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.updater.mcy.plist

Adware: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.updater.watch.mcy.plist

2 possible adware files found. [Remove/Report]

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 8 Apple tasks

[loaded] 171 Apple tasks

[running] 74 Apple tasks

[killed] 35 Apple tasks

35 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] 37 Apple tasks

[loaded] 184 Apple tasks

[running] 77 Apple tasks

[killed] 31 Apple tasks

31 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (? 2afb3af7 a56d5fc2 - installed 2017-10-26) [Lookup]

[running] com.avid.hub.service.plist (Avid Technology Inc - installed 2017-09-01) [Lookup]

[running] com.avid.transport.client.plist (Avid Technology Inc - installed 2017-09-01) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.native-instruments.NativeAccess.Helper2.plist (Native Instruments GmbH - installed 2017-11-24) [Lookup]

[running] com.paceap.eden.licensed.plist (PACE Anti-Piracy, Inc. - installed 2017-11-30) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.tunnelbear.mac.tbeard.plist (TunnelBear, Inc. - installed 2017-12-07) [Lookup]

User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-11-23) [Lookup]

[running] com.tunnelbear.mac.tbeara.plist (TunnelBear, Inc. - installed 2017-12-07) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.updater.mcy.plist (? 5decb9ea 12a8862d - installed 2017-11-23) Adware!
[Remove/Report]

~/Library/Application Support/updater_mcy/updater_mcy

[loaded] com.updater.watch.mcy.plist (? 42497e9f 12a8862d - installed 2017-11-23) Adware!
[Remove/Report]

~/Library/Application Support/updater_mcy/updater_mcy

[failed] com.wondershare.TunesGoHelper.plist (Wondershare Software Co., Ltd - installed 2017-11-24) [Lookup]

User Login Items: ⓘ

iTunesHelper Application (? 0 - installed 2017-12-06)

(/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

PepperFlashPlayer: 27.0.0.187 (installed 2017-11-30) [Lookup]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-10-25)

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Flash Player (installed 2017-10-26) [Lookup]

Time Machine: ⓘ

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

6%
WindowServer

5%
suggestd

3%
kernel_task

1%
launchd

1%
routined

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

375 MB kernel_task

61 MB Google Chrome

35 MB soagent

28 MB cloudd

25 MB assistant_service

Top Processes by Network Use: ⓘ

Input Output Process name

110 KB 21 KB mDNSResponder

11 KB 4 KB AddressBookSourceSync

6 KB 7 KB apsd

6 KB 4 KB netbiosd

3 KB 5 KB usbmuxd

Top Processes by Energy Use: ⓘ

8.76 WindowServer

6.40 AddressBookSourc

3.60 suggestd

1.06 locationd

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

425 MB Available RAM

16 MB Free RAM

1.59 GB
Used RAM

409 MB Cached files

2 MB Swap Used

Software installs (last 30 days): ⓘ

Sylenth1:
(installed 2017-11-24)

Supercharger:
(installed 2017-11-24)

Massive:
(installed 2017-11-24)

Skanner XT:
(installed 2017-11-24)

Guitar Rig 5:
(installed 2017-11-24)

Carbon Electra:
(installed 2017-11-24)

ANA 2:
(installed 2017-11-27)

Keka: 1.0.12 (installed 2017-11-30)

Double Shot: 1.0.2 (installed 2017-11-30)

Adobe Pepper Flash Player:
(installed 2017-11-30)

Avid Cloud Client Services: 2.3.0 (installed 2017-11-30)

License Support:
(installed 2017-11-30)

Serum: 1.215 (installed 2017-12-03)

OTT: 1.2 (installed 2017-12-03)

Serum: 1.215 (installed 2017-12-03)

Serum: 1.209 (installed 2017-12-03)

SerumFX: 1.085 (installed 2017-12-03)

SOCKS Proxy: 1.1 (installed 2017-12-09)

Install information may not be complete.

Diagnostics Events (last 3 days for minor events): ⓘ

2017-12-11 15:25:43 Last shutdown cause: -128 - Unknown

2017-12-08 19:13:10 CalendarAgent Crash [Open]

2017-12-07 18:53:00 Kernel Panic [Open] [Details]

3rd Party Kernel Extensions: None

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Answer 4

S4MMZ Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2017 7:10 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I never said I looked through 18 pages of comments, and also I find that very disrespectful towards people with mental health problems.

If you read the most of the thread correctly. You would find most of the pages don’t have official solutions. But ones that they have found through their own research & testing.

Reply

Answer 5

Dec 11, 2017 7:34 AM in response to S4MMZ

The important part of what I posted was this:

You may not have the same problem as all the others.

If you can provide a bit more information about your computer, its hardware, and your software environment, other Readers here (who are ALL volunteers, and not Apple employees) would really like to provide suggestions about how to improve your specific situation.

Reply

Answer 6

S4MMZ Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2017 7:49 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi Grant sorry I said that to you I just didn’t read your comment correctly :’). Just disregard that comment please :)

And moving on to the actual point. My computers a MacBook Pro (mid-2012), 2.5 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 500GB HDD, intel core i5.

I wiped the Macintosh HD drive and after about 1 week of using it after that It started having this problem.

Reply

Answer 7

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Dec 11, 2017 8:01 AM in response to S4MMZ

The three beeps normally means a fault in the Ram.

There is the general Ram, there is Ram (512MB) in the Graphics controller on your main board shared with the general Ram, and there is a separate Graphics controller, not on the main board, with Ram (in your mac 1GB).

Changing the main board is very costly. Changing the separate GPU (NVidia in your case) is less but still considerable costly. Changing the main Ram is easy, and cheap, you can do that yourself:

For the main Ram go to macsales.co or crucial.com and use their offers, when giving the specs of your mac; the Ram specs should be exactly what is prescribed for your mac (204-pin PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM). Buy two chips of 4 or 8GB and replace them. You can see how on the two websites I gave .

There is an app that can check your main ram: Rember (http://www.kelleycomputing.net/rember/). It is very slow. Try that.

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Answer 8

Dec 11, 2017 8:26 AM in response to S4MMZ

The graphics subsystem on that Mac is described as:

"integrated" Intel HD Graphics 4000 graphics processor that shares system memory

from:

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-i5-2.5-13- mid-2012-unibody-usb3-specs.html

So the only graphics chip is built into the CPU chip, and it uses main RAM memory for the display buffer. With this sort of architecture, problems in main RAM memory can show themselves as wonky patterns on the screen (which is just what you are showing).

Debugging could involve running the Hardware diagnostics, and/or substituting known good RAM memory modules.

Because MacOS ElCapitan and above run much better with MORE than 4GB of RAM you have now, you should consider adding more RAM memory. The "three beeps" symptom may be an indication that one or both of your current memory DIMM modules (the little cards with multiple chips on them) may be faulty.

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Answer 9

Dec 11, 2017 8:14 AM in response to Lexiepex

Lexiepex-

There is the general Ram, there is Ram (512MB) in the Graphics controller on your main board shared with the general Ram, and there is a separate Graphics controller, not on the main board, with Ram (in your mac 1GB).

You have posted the specs for the 15-in model with dual graphics. I think S4MMZ has a 13-in model, which is very different inside.

Reply

Answer 10

S4MMZ Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2017 8:23 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi Grant, thanks for the information! I am currently running my macbook now using just 2 GB of RAM because I took the other 2 GB out as of 20 minutes ago. This is because on that thread I was talking about I posted a link on in the main question I asked. One of the people said taking out the closest RAM chip to the keybord will help it not crash. Though I’m still not certain at all that it will not crash again.

I have just done an EtreCheck and I’ll send it to this thread now.

How do I do an Hardware Debug (or whatever you called it)? Will that possibly fix my RAM?

Thanks for your help :) my MacBook Pro says it’s upgradeable to 8 GB (max) does that mean I can still upgrade more into the RAM module itself? Like to 16 GB?

Reply

Answer 11

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Dec 11, 2017 8:26 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Yes, correct, the 13" does not have the discrete graphics. How did you find out that it is the 13" model?

We both agree that new (and more) Ram may solve the issue, without much cost. Imho replacing the main board is too expensive to do.

Reply

Answer 12

Dec 11, 2017 8:41 AM in response to Lexiepex

the only Intel i5 and 2.5GHz processors are in the 13-in model, according to everymac.com

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.5 17" Late 20112.5 GHz Core i7 (I7-2860QM)

MacBook Pro "Core i5" 2.5 13" Mid-20122.5 GHz Core i5 (I5-3210M)

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.9 13" Mid-20122.9 GHz Core i7 (I7-3520M)

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.3 15" Mid-20122.3 GHz Core i7 (I7-3615QM)

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.6 15" Mid-20122.6 GHz Core i7 (I7-3720QM)

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.7 15" Mid-20122.7 GHz Core i7 (I7-3820QM)

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.3 15" Retina 20122.3 GHz Core i7 (I7-3615QM)

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.6 15" Retina 20122.6 GHz Core i7 (I7-3720QM)

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.7 15" Retina 20122.7 GHz Core i7 (I7-3820QM)

MacBook Pro "Core i5" 2.5 13" Retina 20122.5 GHz Core i5 (I5-3210M)

MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.9 13" Retina 20122.9 GHz Core i7 (I7-3520M)

Reply

Answer 13

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Dec 11, 2017 8:45 AM in response to S4MMZ

use the remove buttons in the list !!

2GB of Ram is by far not enough, follow our advice and upgrade the Ram to 8GB at least, replace both 2GB chips with 2 4GB chips, of the exact specification.

Tunnelbear is superfluous, if you must have more privacy, use another VPN.

Wondershare is not "wonder", sloppy programmed and often causing issues, uninstall it completely, as it is doing nothing for you.

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Answer 14

Dec 11, 2017 8:55 AM in response to Lexiepex

You have already demonstrated you do not need a "matched pair" by running with one module. My experience with most MacBook Pro of that era is that they will accept two modules of different sizes. If money is tight, you could add one module of a larger size (I am running an 8GB and a 2GB in a similar MacBook Pro).

There is a very slight increase in speed with two matched modules, but the speedup in imperceptible in real-world use.

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Answer 15

S4MMZ Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2017 9:02 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Ok, for now I'll just use my MacBook with one slot of 2 GB RAM. But for the future (just a few days) I will upgrade to two 4 GB chips which is what my MacBook can only take 8GB (max RAM). Thank you for all your help guys and if anything else goes wrong with my RAM when I upgrade I'll keep you posted on here.

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