Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
...
- Thread starter rimisrandma
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Cool, so you have a 17 inch. Would you please consider running the diagnostic and post what you get on the extended memory chec?. I just swapped out (on 24FEB12) the 17 inch for a brand new one at the AppleStore, then added the 16GB upgrade...
The brand new one also fails (same memory address too). So ether the Crucial RAM doesn't work (two different pairs of 8GB sticks), or for some reason the two 17" MacBook Pros can't pass the Lion extended diagnostic with 16 GB of RAM.
The boot ROM I have is MBP81.0047.B26, SMC Version is 1.70f5 The model identifier is MacBookPro8,3, Intel Core i7, 2.5 GHz with 4 Cores.
Thanks.
Last edited:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/stats/macbook-pro-core-i7-2.5-17-late-2011-unibody-thunderbolt-specs.html says nothing about Pc3-12800. I have only seen mention of Pc3-10600 being supported.
Honestly, it all comes down to personal preference. You might be able to get a more powerful Alienware (not 100x more powerful...), but at least OSX maximizes the hardware it's on.
I'm not trying to say one is better than the other. They are for completely different demographics.
Shucks!!! Paid almost $250 for the 2x8GB from MacSales.com...
[start whining] My title says it all... Do I feel like an idiot now or what?? It's not even just twice the price than at the link you provided, but almost 150% more expensive... Just got it a few weeks ago too...
Anyone know or have experience with MacSales.com return policy? I just can't believe the price difference is so huge, and even if MacSales use some quality RAM, it sure as 773y (read upside-down) isn't worth 150% more than ANY generic RAM (and I don't even know if this is generic or not... For all I know, MacSales probably use generic RAM as well...).
On another note, even though I pretty much only use Safari (sometimes 20-30 tabs though), Thunderbird, iTunes, Finder, and maybe one or more app, I still quite often run out of RAM! AND I HAVE 16GIG in a quad core i5 2.3 MBP 13" with two additional virtual cores because of hyperthreading... WT*??? I used to run out of RAM when I had 8GB and 4GB too, so I don't really see the point of the $250 "worth" of 2x8GB RAM I got from MacSales.com... Grrrr!!!!
[/end whining]
Do you guys have any tips on which Mac upgrade supply site to use that have decent prices, and are trustworthy?
Many thanks in advance!!
J
[start whining] My title says it all... Do I feel like an idiot now or what?? It's not even just twice the price than at the link you provided, but almost 150% more expensive... Just got it a few weeks ago too...
Anyone know or have experience with MacSales.com return policy? I just can't believe the price difference is so huge, and even if MacSales use some quality RAM, it sure as 773y (read upside-down) isn't worth 150% more than ANY generic RAM (and I don't even know if this is generic or not... For all I know, MacSales probably use generic RAM as well...).
On another note, even though I pretty much only use Safari (sometimes 20-30 tabs though), Thunderbird, iTunes, Finder, and maybe one or more app, I still quite often run out of RAM! AND I HAVE 16GIG in a quad core i5 2.3 MBP 13" with two additional virtual cores because of hyperthreading... WT*??? I used to run out of RAM when I had 8GB and 4GB too, so I don't really see the point of the $250 "worth" of 2x8GB RAM I got from MacSales.com... Grrrr!!!!
[/end whining]
Do you guys have any tips on which Mac upgrade supply site to use that have decent prices, and are trustworthy?
Many thanks in advance!!
J
[start whining] My title says it all... Do I feel like an idiot now or what?? It's not even just twice the price than at the link you provided, but almost 150% more expensive... Just got it a few weeks ago too...
Anyone know or have experience with MacSales.com return policy? I just can't believe the price difference is so huge, and even if MacSales use some quality RAM, it sure as 773y (read upside-down) isn't worth 150% more than ANY generic RAM (and I don't even know if this is generic or not... For all I know, MacSales probably use generic RAM as well...).
On another note, even though I pretty much only use Safari (sometimes 20-30 tabs though), Thunderbird, iTunes, Finder, and maybe one or more app, I still quite often run out of RAM! AND I HAVE 16GIG in a quad core i5 2.3 MBP 13" with two additional virtual cores because of hyperthreading... WT*??? I used to run out of RAM when I had 8GB and 4GB too, so I don't really see the point of the $250 "worth" of 2x8GB RAM I got from MacSales.com... Grrrr!!!!
[/end whining]
Do you guys have any tips on which Mac upgrade supply site to use that have decent prices, and are trustworthy?
Many thanks in advance!!
J
hi J,
I would hold on to the OWC ram until you've tested the cheaper stuff and seen that it doesn't fail. I had some problems (post #16) using other RAM in my MBP.
I am so thankful for finding this thread.. because i just got my 16GB RAM for my MacBook Pro (Late 2011, using Crucial System Scanner) and installed it yesterday, so far i haven't had any problems, whats so ever, and i see a HUGE increase of performance with loading up tons of apps, but only thing is.. it fails the MEMTEST terminal command.. i don't know if thats a bad thing or not, but at first when i installed the RAM, i felt a little lag in just general usage of my MacBook Pro, and a little decrease with my internet speed (i have a 100/100 fios connection with Verizon, which usually downloads about 5-7MB/s) now it only does about 500-800KB/s.. which i got really curious and very worried.. because i download tons of files everyday, Has anyone else found a solution to this?
Failing a memory test is never a good thing and most manufacturers will replace the sticks immediately if you let them know. Its a drag bc it takes so much time and shipping costs are annoying, but if having a system failure will cost you then having your memory pass diagnostics is a must.
Having said that, my MBP worked fine with memory that was consistently failing the diagnostic, so its possible for a system to work well for very long periods of time and have no problems. Especially if its equipped with 16GB because a system is unlikely to forced to page out to swap space much if at all. Its likely though, when it does fail it will be at the worst possible time.
Are there errors on your console when your network slows down? If you open a terminal window you can use commands like netstat -i <interfaceName> to see if your dropping lots of packets. On a macbook pro the interfaceName for the wifi is called "en1".
You can also tern on additional debugging on the interface in osx by using the command ifconfig debug <interfaceName>. This may help a bit if there are errors written to the system console. You should remember to turn off the debug flag when your done looking around using the ifconfig -debug <interfaceName> flag.
The ping command is also helpful to see if you might be dropping packets.
Regardless its unlikely to be RAM causing a slow down in your network, RAM problems usually manifest themselves as kernel panics or at a minimum sporadic software crashes. For this reason, if your having networking issues I would suggest starting another thread.
I installed 16GB Corsair RAM from Frys ($109). I ran extended diagnostics with no problems reported> This is not the Apple-specific RAM. It is part number: CMSO16GX3M2A1333C9 (2 x 8GB). So far so good.
hi folks, i just got the 16gb corsair ram from frys today. i tried to enter the system diagnostics to check on the ram sticks but i can't enter the diagnostic mode. i think i need to hold down the "d" button before the grey screen appear, but it doesn't work. how do you enter the diagnostic mode to check your ram?
i have the 13" early 2011 that came with the lion 10.7 if that help. i also have the ssd in the main bay and hdd in the optibay mod.
anything else i can do to check my ram sticks.
thanks folks
i have the 13" early 2011 that came with the lion 10.7 if that help. i also have the ssd in the main bay and hdd in the optibay mod.
anything else i can do to check my ram sticks.
thanks folks
Apple puts a magic partition on the MacBook Pro disks at the factory (at least in the late 2011 models). If you upgrade the disk or repartition then you don't have access by pressing "d" any longer because there is no recovery partition on the new or repartitioned disk. You can still run the test by using a "Lion Recovery Disk". Its pretty easy to do, just follow the instructions here Lion Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0.
Though you can make a bootable thumb drive, I think a good strategy for MacBook Pro owners who use an USB drive for their timeMachine backups to partition the USB timeMachine drive with two partitions using diskUtility. The first partition is 8GB and is used to hold the Lion Recovery mojo, then devote the remainder of the disk to a second partition that is used as a timeMachine backup disk. That way if your disk fails and you want to restore from timeMachine or you want to run diagnostics to test your RAM, you can use your shiny recovery/diagnostic disk by pressing the option key during bootstrapping. Though I have made such a disk I haven't gotten around to testing it yet though.
One other thing to note (or lament) is that if you make such a disk using Lion, the recovery disk you end up with will ONLY work on the hardware you made it on. I have no idea if there's a good reason why or if Apple has just determined that it's better for us to live with less so we can appreciate what we do have more. If you make such a disk using SnowLeopard however, it can be used to boot or diagnose any of the newer model MBPs.
Last edited:
Apple puts a magic partition on the MacBook Pro disks at the factory (at least in the late 2011 models). If you upgrade the disk or repartition then you don't have access by pressing "D" any longer because there is no recovery partition on the new or repartitioned disk. You can still run the test by using a "Lion Recovery Disk". Its pretty easy to do, just follow the instructions here Lion Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0.
Though you can make a bootable thumb drive, I think a good strategy for MacBook Pro owners who use an USB drive for their timeMachine backups to partition the USB timeMachine drive with two partitions using diskUtility. The first partition is an 8GB or so and the rest devoted to a partition used as a backup disk. That way if your disk fails or want to run diagnostics to test your RAM), you can boot from your recovery disk and do that kind of stuff easy-peazy. Though I have made such a disk I haven't gotten around to testing it yet
You can do the same thing on you main drive (I have created it there as you did on your external), then you always have the recovery with you no matter where you are, as we all know that things only seem to fail at the most inopportune moments.
Cool! I can't see the recovery partition on my factory installed drive. If you make one as part of a new disk install, can you see it? I was a bit curious check out whats on it. Maybe poke around to see what makes it unique to one piece of hardware.
----------------
Just a quick update and I'm sorry to flog this topic, but it seems relevant. If your curious about how it all works you can check it out here...
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110831105634716
Last edited:
I can see it within disk utility, but don't have it to mount automatically. When I was reformatting the wife's mbp I made it mount automatically and it now appears on the desktop (probably should hide it from her and the kids her sometime), but I have never poked around within it though so could answer that (hadn't ever had the need, time, nor desire to inspect it).
I posted this in another thread, but this seems like a good place to re-post. I just installed the 16GB Corsair RAM from Fry's in my Early 2011 MBP. So far so good. I ran the extended diagnostics and no problems found. This is part number CMSO16GX3M2A1333C9 (2 x 8GB). It is the one that is not "officially" tested for Apple, but I'd read other who have tried it with god results. For $109 it was worth a try. Like I said, so far so good. Will report if I run into any issues.
thanks for the respond folks. after the last post i search around for other means of checking rams on macs and found memtest86. i download their free software and made a bootable cd out of it and ran the test to check the ram sticks with it and my new ram sticks are fine. the test finished in about forty to forty five minutes using cpu all cores, and continues to run after it finishes. no errors. my mac get quite warm so i just let it rest after that. i might do a two hours test this weekend if time allows.
i used an external usb optical drive for the boot cd by the way.
i used an external usb optical drive for the boot cd by the way.
I have an early 2011 MBP and I have a disk that I had to insert (the Disk 2) and then hold down D while I booted with that disk in.
I just picked up a 2x8 Corsair set from Fry's. The $109 price tag was hard to ignore. I have a late 2011 MBP with a 2.2 GHz and 8 GB factory installed.
Here are my 64-bit Geekbench results:
New (Corsair)
Memory Score: 5530
Read Sequential: 5883 - 7.20 GB/sec
Write Sequential: 8571 - 5.86 GB/sec
Stdlib Allocate: 4016 - 15.0 Mallocs/sec
Stdlib Write: 3952 - 8.18 GB/sec
Stdlib Copy: 5229 - 5.39 GB/sec
Old (Samsung)
Memory Score: 5444
Read Sequential: 6068 - 7.43 GB/sec
Write Sequential: 7960 - 5.44 GB/sec
Stdlib Allocate: 3974 - 14.8 Mallocs/sec
Stdlib Write: 3958 - 8.19 GB/sec
Stdlib Copy: 5261 - 5.42 GB/sec
I have run the short tests successfully but will be running the extended later. I am very happy with the results as I was fighting a lack of memory because of the applications I use including VMware (even with a single 1GB vm). I'm now able to run 2x2GB VM's without worry or issue. If your device is capable you won't be disappointed, especially for the price.
Here are my 64-bit Geekbench results:
New (Corsair)
Memory Score: 5530
Read Sequential: 5883 - 7.20 GB/sec
Write Sequential: 8571 - 5.86 GB/sec
Stdlib Allocate: 4016 - 15.0 Mallocs/sec
Stdlib Write: 3952 - 8.18 GB/sec
Stdlib Copy: 5229 - 5.39 GB/sec
Old (Samsung)
Memory Score: 5444
Read Sequential: 6068 - 7.43 GB/sec
Write Sequential: 7960 - 5.44 GB/sec
Stdlib Allocate: 3974 - 14.8 Mallocs/sec
Stdlib Write: 3958 - 8.19 GB/sec
Stdlib Copy: 5261 - 5.42 GB/sec
I have run the short tests successfully but will be running the extended later. I am very happy with the results as I was fighting a lack of memory because of the applications I use including VMware (even with a single 1GB vm). I'm now able to run 2x2GB VM's without worry or issue. If your device is capable you won't be disappointed, especially for the price.
I just bought the Corsair "Apple" kit for my Early 2011 15" 2.0. We'll see how it goes. The comparative non-"Apple" kit is going for $135 minus 20% right now on newegg.
.
I just bought the Corsair "Apple" kit for my Early 2011 15" 2.0. We'll see how it goes. The comparative non-"Apple" kit is going for $135 minus 20% right now on newegg
It's installed and everything is running smooth. 8GBs is definitely enough for most but I use my MBP as a video/media server (constantly transcoding for devices inside and out the home network), torrents, iTunes is on for the AppleTV, and it's still the daily user. Free RAM would drop down to a few hundred MB is I was doing some heavy web browsing. Now the next step is adding an SSD.