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13" MacBook Pro RAM upgrade problem

N

NRZ82

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 27, 2011
2
0
Hello,

I was trying to upgrade from 4GB RAM to 8GB in my wife's computer and am getting an odd problem.

I got 2 x 4GB sticks to put in, but the computer freezes on startup when they are both installed. It also freezes on start up if I install 1 on the new sticks and leave the other port free (tried both sticks). Here is the part that is confusing me, if I use 1 of the old sticks and 1 of the new sticks (for a total of 6GB) everything works fine. I was thinking that the computer was running on just the old 2GB stick, and not picking up on the new 4GB stick but when I looked at the 'about this Mac' screen it says 6GB, and says both are working fine. The computer is also running faster, so it seems like the new stick is working. I also tried the 6GB setup with both the new sticks to see if either was defective, but they both seem to work fine (as long as they are not used together).

I was hoping that someone could help me understand what is going on here.

Thank you

P.S. Please let me know if this is the wrong place for the post and I will re-post in the proper place.
 
S

snaky69

macrumors 603
Mar 14, 2008
5,908
488
NRZ82 said:
Hello,

I was trying to upgrade from 4GB RAM to 8GB in my wife's computer and am getting an odd problem.

I got 2 x 4GB sticks to put in, but the computer freezes on startup when they are both installed. It also freezes on start up if I install 1 on the new sticks and leave the other port free (tried both sticks). Here is the part that is confusing me, if I use 1 of the old sticks and 1 of the new sticks (for a total of 6GB) everything works fine. I was thinking that the computer was running on just the old 2GB stick, and not picking up on the new 4GB stick but when I looked at the 'about this Mac' screen it says 6GB, and says both are working fine. The computer is also running faster, so it seems like the new stick is working. I also tried the 6GB setup with both the new sticks to see if either was defective, but they both seem to work fine (as long as they are not used together).

I was hoping that someone could help me understand what is going on here.

Thank you

P.S. Please let me know if this is the wrong place for the post and I will re-post in the proper place.
Click to expand...

What generation is it?
 
N

NRZ82

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 27, 2011
2
0
Thanks for the quick responses.

I am not sure what the generation the computer is. It was bought new in June 2010 from an Apple store, is a 13" MacBook Pro and has a 2.4 GHz Intel Duo. The OS is 'Mac OS 10 version 10.6.8'.

From what I have read this should be able to run 8GB of RAM (I researched it before the purchase, and just double checked with the link provided). I bought the memory directly from Crucial using the software they have that scans the computer and sends you to the proper product.
 
SandboxGeneral

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
You can go to the :apple: menu in the upper left and click About This Mac. if you have Lion it will look like this:

Screen Shot 2011-08-27 at 12.43.02 PM.png


Then click on System Report and you will see this:

Screen Shot 2011-08-27 at 12.43.11 PM.png


The circled part is your model ID which helps determine what RAM you can get and how much it can hold.
 
thinkinblue613

thinkinblue613

macrumors 6502
Dec 13, 2010
283
4
Planet Earth
It should work right after installing them... I would suggest putting back the old memory and looking up at the details of your CPU.

Up until this years Macbook Pro's, all the memory sticks used were 1066 MHz PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM.

Now, for the 2011's.. They're 1333 MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM. It could be possible that you got the newer one that is incompatible with your MBP.

If so, I would return or exchange it with the correct one.

Let us know how it works out.
 
Naimfan

Naimfan

Suspended
Jan 15, 2003
4,669
2,017
That IS odd.

First, your computer does indeed support 8 GB of RAM.

Second, either one of your RAM sticks is borderline bad or one of your RAM slots is working incorrectly. I'd suggest talking to Crucial and see if they can swap out the RAM modules you have and running on 4 GB until you get them. If that doesn't work, I'd suggest taking it to an Apple store and having them run diagnostics.

From your description, it's almost like one of the RAM sticks isn't working with one of the RAM slots. Hopefully it's just a borderline RAM stick, because I think the RAM slots are part of the main logic board.

Good luck!
 
T

tobystic

macrumors newbie
Jul 29, 2014
2
0
same thing happened to me

I had the same problem after upgrading from 2x 1Gb to 2x 2Gb to make 4Gb. Apparently the RAMs sold to me weren't knew and I was not aware; freezing and restarting for about 5 times in 24 hours


I carefully removed the RAMs, took my body spray (in place of methylated spirit or any ethanol) and soft toothbrush. I gently 'washed' the RAMs with it and placed them back about 10mins later


More than a week and no freeze again!
 
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