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Add New RAM Now Macbook Doesn't Wake :(

M

manhorse

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2008
11
0
So over this weekend I upped the ram in my Macbook from the stock 2gbs-4gbs. Everything seems to be fine but now what's happening is when I close my Macbook lid and put it to sleep it won't wake up when I open it later. It seems like it wakes up as the light at the bottom goes out but there is no response from the keyboard or display. If I hold down the power button for 5 seconds then the Mac shuts off and I can boot it up as normal. I checked over the reporting screen when it reboots and it seem to be indicating a kernel panic occurred. The memory seems to be recognized and working but it wouldn't explain why my mac suddenly is freaking out. I've tried the SMC reset and now I'm going to try the PRAM reset. I figured I'd check here if anyone has any ideas.
The type of Macbook I have is a 2.4ghz Alum.
The memory is from MacSales.com OWC 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 1066MHz DIMM Upgrade Kit
This appears to be a house memory but i've had great luck from them before with this same brand. Any ideas?
 
Several users have reported good results with the OWC brand and few have complained of sleep issues. I wonder if the introduction of the problem is a coincidence of the RAM change. To test this, try re-installing your old RAM and see if it goes back to normal.

Another thought is that when a Mac goes into the sleep process, the RAM is written to the hard drive and then goes to sleep. When it's wakened, the process reverses and it wakes up where you left off. It sounds like a conflict occurs in this sequence of events in which case it may be defective RAM.

Hopefully there's good news after your PRAM re-set.
 
I second reinstalling the old RAM to test
That will be the quickest way to isolate the problem to the RAM installation
Then you can work from there

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
Thats exactly what I ended up doing yesterday. After I reinstalled the old RAM I booted up and tested putting the computer to sleep a few times and sure enough no kernel panic and it woke perfectly. Seems like this might be bad RAM. I'm gonna send it back for an exchange for hopefully good RAM. :)
 
manhorse, I did exactly what you did on two identical 2.4 alu McBks last week, with identical frustrating wake-freeze issues. I plowed the forums on many sites, did all the SMC, software resets, .plist trashes and other suggestions, but the only post I found indicated that 4GB and the McBk will not fly. Reports suggest 3GB is fine, but 4GB violates some technicality. Note that some users have used 4GB Samsung (Apple OEM spec) RAM with success.
Over the years, I've been very pleased with OWC RAM in my G4's, 2008 MacPro, black McBk, *and* the very same units in a 2009 Mini, which works perfectly with 4GB. I think there's a significant firmware difference between the Mini and the McBk in spite of their similar architecture. Your OWC RAM is not likely the culprit.
My solution: revert to 2GB, return the RAM for cheerful credit, and wait until others report on a quiet firmware update which *really* fixes this.
 
If you want to go elsewhere, this is a great deal. Received mine yesterday and no problems.
 
manhorse said:
So over this weekend I upped the ram in my Macbook from the stock 2gbs-4gbs. Everything seems to be fine but now what's happening is when I close my Macbook lid and put it to sleep it won't wake up when I open it later. It seems like it wakes up as the light at the bottom goes out but there is no response from the keyboard or display. If I hold down the power button for 5 seconds then the Mac shuts off and I can boot it up as normal. I checked over the reporting screen when it reboots and it seem to be indicating a kernel panic occurred. The memory seems to be recognized and working but it wouldn't explain why my mac suddenly is freaking out. I've tried the SMC reset and now I'm going to try the PRAM reset. I figured I'd check here if anyone has any ideas.
The type of Macbook I have is a 2.4ghz Alum.
The memory is from MacSales.com OWC 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 1066MHz DIMM Upgrade Kit
This appears to be a house memory but i've had great luck from them before with this same brand. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

This is exactly what has happened to me in the past few weeks. I contacted macsales and they told me to do an SMC reset, which didn't help and I also tried a PRAM but it didn't help either. I hope to get a replacement pair in the next few weeks. I did find that sometimes if you get the non-responsive glitch, hold the SMC reset key combination and it wakes up but it only worked once for me and I don't think your supposed to do an SMC reset while the power is on. I think I'll send a link to the macsales technical assistant of this thread and one I started about this issue aswell.
 
have you guys checked the size of the sleepimage with 4gb installed?

/var/vm/sleepimage is the memory image file, should match your memory size if it sleeps correctly.

It can't hurt to delete it and then close the lid to create a new one.

As an aside, I use the excellent smart sleep to speed up putting it to sleep ie no sleepimage by default
http://www.jinx.de/SmartSleep.html
 
I too had the same issue with a pair of mushkins I bought through newegg. I tried using 3gb and still had the same wake-sleep issue. I then switched the chips around to different slots and it worked fine with the same 3gb. Needless to say I returned the chips because I want to be able to use the full 4gb. I ordered the Patriots and hopefully those will work.
 
psxguru said:
In smartsleep? I have it set to smart sleep (so it will only write the sleep image to disk if the battery level is below the threshold)
Click to expand...

Thanks, it seems to wake up much more often now but the problem is still there.... I really think I have done everything i.e. reset PRAM,VRAM,SMC and EFI and swapped the RAM to the opposite bays and I did an Apple hardware test and it says everything is OK. RAGE:mad:
 
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