Help! Searched! Macbook Beeps 3 Times! Does Not Turn On!!!!

[ebutka]

So I was on my MacBook and all of a sudden the screen gets some weird lines on it and then freezes. I turn it off and turn it back on and I get a black screen and 3 short beeps and it keeps going. Well I called apple and they said it is a hardware issue. I goggled it and found it is a memory issue (maybe). Any help?!!? By the way, I'm studying abroad in Prague and I won't be home for another 3 weeks. I'm going to London tomorrow to take a train to Leeds. There is an Apple store in London so I am going stop by. I hope they can do something for me but I doubt it. I have a warranty back at home from Best Buy, and they do deal with out of the states. So once I get to Leeds or Endinborrow(sp?) in Scotland, I hope that they can help me out.... Help feedback you guys can help me out with?:mad:

[NovemberMike]

If this were a PC then I would say 100% that it is a memory issue, although I am not sure on a Mac. The good news if it is memory is that you shouldn't have any other problems and it should take about five minutes to fix.

[bart rijksen]

Open the ram sloths, and reposition the two ram modules. If that doesn't do it, switch them. If that still leads to problems, take one or the other out. If that doesn't fix it, you have a much bigger problem.

how to take out the ram.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1651

[twjj91]

I realise this is an old thread but i had a similar problem and read this advice.

I have managed to get the macbook to start up again by taking out one of the RAM sticks. Currently i am running the laptop with only one stick in, as far as i can see i still have all of my files, this confuses me slightly as i only have half of the RAM i had before but that's not the issue. What i wanted to know was what i shoud do with the macbook now. I live in London so i could take it to the apple store if neccesary or is it just a case of buying 1GB of RAM to replace this and if so what happens to my data on the one i've taken out?

I'm no expert as i'm sure you can see so any help would be great,
cheers

[MacTech68]

I realise this is an old thread but i had a similar problem and read this advice.

I have managed to get the macbook to start up again by taking out one of the RAM sticks. Currently i am running the laptop with only one stick in, as far as i can see i still have all of my files, this confuses me slightly as i only have half of the RAM i had before but that's not the issue. What i wanted to know was what i shoud do with the macbook now. I live in London so i could take it to the apple store if neccesary or is it just a case of buying 1GB of RAM to replace this and if so what happens to my data on the one i've taken out?

I'm no expert as i'm sure you can see so any help would be great,
cheers

Sometimes reseating the RAM module is all that is required. However, if the module you removed is intermittent then it might work for a while and the problem will return. It might even be that the module that is still in the laptop is intermittently defective.

If you re-install the "suspect" RAM module and the problem immediately returns then all you will need is a replacement module.

Data (ie your files) are not permanently stored on the RAM modules. That's what your Hard Drive does. :)

[twjj91]

Sometimes reseating the RAM module is all that is required. However, if the module you removed is intermittent then it might work for a while and the problem will return. It might even be that the module that is still in the laptop is intermittently defective.

If you re-install the "suspect" RAM module and the problem immediately returns then all you will need is a replacement module.

Data (ie your files) are not permanently stored on the RAM modules. That's what your Hard Drive does. :)

Ok brilliant, thanks for your help, much appreciated.

[apexdubb]

I recently bought one of the brand new 2010 MBP "15 2.4 i5...
directly out of the box it began to beep at me....
sometimes I turned on my MBP it didnt do this...
I was pretty confused about the whole beeping thing first thinking
my battery was too low....
and then searching google I found alot of people were having beeping troubles...
I contacted apple support right away and they taught me to reset the PRam...
thinking this might be the cause, I did what was asked of me....
I also did a hardware test from the apps disk (os x disk 2)
and all the hardware passed..........
the next day after feeling so proud of myself for finally tracking down the problem.....
I went to turn on my MBP and all it would do is beep at me....
OK... so back on the phone with apple support I went....
a really nice guy on the other side of the phone instructed me to physically test the ram by taking them out and putting them back in one at a time....
both ram sticks passed the test and hardware testing afterwards as well...
However I noticed when the MBP was open that there were small little pieces of metal shavings....(the kind found in a machinists shop)
I used compressed air to remove these small electrical hazards from my MBP
and you know what I found?
one discoloured (electrically burnt) piece of metal that didnt belong anywhere in my MBP..... know what happens when electricity arcs across circuits?
Errors can happen......
that being said my MBP is working very well after discovering and cleaning that little problem....hope this helps any of you out....
check to see if those little Asians forgot some important steps in the building process of the MBP......
no I'm not prejudice..... I'm small like an Asian too.....
thats how I could search it out so fast^^ JK

[sprale]

I just realized I was misdiagnosing this issue. Mine was doing the same thing. It would lock up occasionally and on reboot it would just beep three times as well. I used to be a Mac tech, but never ran into this exact issue. It usually went away after a reboot or two, but not this time. I found this thread and it's suggestions. I took the two RAM sticks out and swapped them; problem solved.