Advice on Upgrading RAM in 2009 MacBook Pro

[engenious]

Hi guys. First post on here

Right so a few weeks ago i decided to upgrade my 10 year old MacBookPro 5,5 (2.53GHZ 4GB 13") Now all I could do really is put in an SSD, upgrade from 10.6 to 10.11 (thats as high as it can take) and give it some new RAM. The RAM is the sticking point, I have bought 2 X4GB DDR3 1066 Mhz Ram as the spec sheet said but when I try to run both of them together I get 3 beeps with a 5 seconds brake in-between. I know that those beeps mean a RAM integrity failure but...... when I run them on their own or with one 4GB and one 2GB stick they work fine. I have tried them in each slot in every combination you can think of and along as they aren't fitted together the MAC is happy... but as I want to use Adobe photoshop and Lightroom I think the 8GB RAM is needed.

Does anyone have any ideas? Any help is very much apreciated

Matt

 

[organicCPU]

Congrats to your first post

Are the two 4 GB RAM specs as follows? -> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201165
- 30 mm (1.18 inch)
- 204-pin
- PC3-8500 DDR3 1066 MHz type RAM

If yes, I'd try resetting NVRAM, then maybe also SMC -> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
If that doesn't help, I'd make a memtest -> http://www.kelleycomputing.net/rember/
and an Apple Hardware Test -> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257
After that, I'd send back the two memory modules and ask for exchange

 

[engenious]

Congrats to your first post

Are the two 4 GB RAM specs as follows? -> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201165
- 30 mm (1.18 inch)
- 204-pin
- PC3-8500 DDR3 1066 MHz type RAM

If yes, I'd try resetting NVRAM, then maybe also SMC -> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
If that doesn't help, I'd make a memtest -> http://www.kelleycomputing.net/rember/
and an Apple Hardware Test -> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257
After that, I'd send back the two memory modules and ask for exchange

Think its going to have to be the last option which is annoying anndddd a little confusing as everything works.... just not when its got 8GB installed. oh well , thanks for the help.

 

[organicCPU]

You're welcome
Some time ago a friend's HP laptop refused to start. Carefully cleaning just the memory pins with a cloth imbued by contact spray solved the issue.
At times the contacts in a memory slot can also get oxidized or soiled. A memory module treated by electrical contact spray and gently plugged and unplugged several times, could manage to clean such a dirty slot.
However, your problem seems different as 6 GB are working fine. If the memory is still under warranty, better send it back and get exchange, as you could loose warranty by putting chemicals on it.
If you regardless try to clean it, please be careful not to damage your Mac or the memory.

EDIT: For the exact failure, maybe recheck the startup sound: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202768 and https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201702