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Upgrade RAM out of the box, before turning on?

C

CtotheP

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 15, 2011
143
13
Silicon Valley
Just got my new Mini this morning. I'm assuming I should boot up first to make sure everything is good before upgrading to 16gb? Or can I just unscrew, upgrade, then boot up for the first time?

Thanks in advance!
 
MultiFinder17

MultiFinder17

macrumors 68030
Jan 8, 2008
2,720
2,038
Tampa, Florida
No problem with upgrading it before you turn it on. It doesn't really matter either way - I'd just go ahead and go for it personally. On the off chance that you try and boot it and it has issues, just swap the old RAM back in and see if that helps.
 
P

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
My opinion is to boot it up first. Make sure you didn't get a lemon before you even bother to start upgrading. Otherwise, you won't know if it is the new ram causing problems or something completely different. Just my .02 worth. Granted, if all you are doing is upgrading the RAM it may not make a difference since that swap is fairly simple. I definitely don't recommend upgrading the hard drive (I know that isn't in your current upgrade plans) until after you have had a successful boot.
 
jhfenton

jhfenton

macrumors 65816
Dec 11, 2012
1,176
802
Cincinnati, Ohio
I did it that way when I got my base Mac mini (Late 2012) a few weeks ago. I ordered the RAM about the time that the Mac arrived and ordered an SSD a few days later, so I was pretty confident that the Mac was trouble-free before I swapped out the RAM a few days later. I waited another few days before I installed the SSD because that ran an even higher risk of my causing trouble.

But all has been great, I'm happy to say.
 
S

spartacvs

macrumors member
Jan 1, 2013
38
0
I turned on mine first before installing any ram and ssd, testing the computer to see if it's working properly out of the box.
 
philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,365
251
Howell, New Jersey
Having done a few hundred machines. I can only say; " do you feel lucky" .


If you are putting in ram and nothing else sure why not.

I had 2 bad minis out of 200 plus. The first one was a ssd/ram replacement and was done without a pre test. That was in 2009.

Since then i pre test every mini. All the 2010 and newer I turn upside down rest on soft cloth remove the black cover and boot.



I look to see the fan spinning.

I look to see that hard wire net connection works .

I open the about your mac to see if I have the machine I paid for.

I power off and do mods.


Since I have done this I had 1 disconnected fan on a 2011

I had a cracked ram holder.

I had a few refurbs with better ram and 1 refurb with better hdd.

So if you have one machine the chances are 99 or 98 out of 100 that just dropping in ram without a boot is okay.
 
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