Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Macbook 4 GB installing problem

Lachman

Lachman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 22, 2008
27
1
The Netherlands
Hey Guys i just got my 4GB from Kingston.
And i tried to instal it.
Well they both work but there is 1 problem...

If i juse 1 GB and a 2GB that makes 3 GB total ram my macbook works fine.
But if i put both the 2 GB in (4GB total) then it wont even start up:confused:
Il just get a black screen....
Does sombody know's the problem ?

I bought it in july 2008
Macbook Specs:
Model Identifier : Macbook4,1
ProcessorSpeed: 2.4Ghz.
If you need to know more let me know.
Thnx for reading and hope you can help me :D
 
I have the same MB and wanted to upgrade my 2GB RAM to 4GB. I ordered my RAM from Crucial and they had a "kit", a pair of 2GB RAM cards. I went for the "kit" simply because the build and the architecture of the chips on both the cards are identical and this increases the performance.

Anyway, when I installed the RAM chip, I was confident that I had them seated properly in the slots, however, I had to press them in quite hard to ensure proper contact between the pins on the card and the pins in the slot. Once I did this everything was hunky-dory. So your problem might very well be that the RAM cards aren't seated properly.

Try re-seating them again and see if it helps and let us know the result. Hopefully that will fix it.

Just out of curiosity, are your 1GB and 2GB RAM cards from Kingston? Or are they from different manufacturers?
 
Hey man thnx for replying.
My 2GB total 4 GB are from kingston
I did what you recommended with the push hard way to call it like that.
And it still doens't work cause a friend also told i need to push them hard in and you will feel them "slide" in.
So i did that.
Still the same problem :confused:
 
Maybe one of the 2gb chips is not working.

Try booting with one 2gb, and remove it and put in the other 1gb.
 
Hey Consultant,
Done that and they both work fine.
But when i put both of them in so it will make 4 GB in total memory the macbook just doens't want to start up :(
 
So it looks like

- each chip work
- both slots work (1gb + 2gb)

the model supports 4gb of ram

so maybe not seated properly? It's common for first time upgraders of ram not to seat ram properly.
 
Correct.
But i refitted them both still , no luck...
I really pushed them in real hard this time the prints are still in my finger tops :p
But they still both dont work with each other so i changed it back to 1GB and 2 GB = Total 3 GB then no problem at all :confused:
He just starts up and when i press Apple button on the left top side and press -> about this mac it says nicely 3 GB.
 
Consultant said:
Look at the part number of your ram, some kingston ram won't work:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/590735/

More info on the proper ram on top of the buyer's guide page:
https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/54/
Click to expand...

I will have to second Consultant's suggestion about checking the part for your RAM. However, if one 2GB RAM works fine and the other doesn't that seems funny. Especially if both the 2GB cards have the same part number. Can you verify that the part numbers for the 2GB cards are both one and the same?

Good luck!
 
They are the same that's just the weird thing..
I am going to mail the seller of this product with the problem.
Hopefully they can help me cause this sucks.

And both the Mem blocks work good it's just when i put them both in my macbook then they don't work.
If i put in 1 of them it works..

And if the 4 GB is in the mac and i press it on it doesn't make the bleep the wall-e sound Bleeeeuuhhhh the screen just stays black.
 
Lachman said:
They are the same that's just the weird thing..
I am going to mail the seller of this product with the problem.
Hopefully they can help me cause this sucks.

And both the Mem blocks work good it's just when i put them both in my macbook then they don't work.
If i put in 1 of them it works..

And if the 4 GB is in the mac and i press it on it doesn't make the bleep the wall-e sound Bleeeeuuhhhh the screen just stays black.
Click to expand...

That's really weird. Can you borrow two 2GB RAM cards from a friend or someone you know and plug these in and see if your MB will recognize those components?
 
Yeah could give it a try maybe @ school i can ask my teacher next week if i can borrow his for a min.
Cause the friend i mentioned was my old boss from work.
 
Any luck with this Lachman? I've been scouring bulleting boards etc without any luck. The symptoms I have are EXACTLY the same as you except that I'm using RAM bought from the Mac Store online.

I also tried RAM bought from a Mac Reseller which turned out to be OEM. The symptoms I'm getting with the Mac RAM are at least consistent. The OEM ram would somtimes refuse to start up, and other times send the screen all crazy.

Cheers
 
I apologize for being slightly off topic, but I feel this needs to be cleared up.
I ordered my RAM from Crucial and they had a "kit", a pair of 2GB RAM cards. I went for the "kit" simply because the build and the architecture of the chips on both the cards are identical and this increases the performance.
Click to expand...
The architecture and build of any stick of the same model/series is the same. The only advantage of a kit is the fact that the two sticks you buy were made close together (time-wise), which should mean they have nearly identical potential performance.

However, this doesn't mean you'll get extra performance. From the end-user point of view, the only benefit of this is the fact you will probably be able to overclock both modules evenly, if you choose to do so. Other than that every stick of RAM with same specs (e.g. DDR2 667, 2GB) will perform identically and there is no performance advantage gained by simply buying a kit.

To sum up: kits are only valuable if you're buying ram for your desktop machine you plan to overclock. Sometimes they are also simply practical, because most modern machines support dual channel which needs 2 sticks and it's easy to just get a kit. But as soon as they try to charge you more just because the sticks are packed together - it's marketing BS, don't think for a second and get two separate ones.
 
Hey Timmwardion,
Yeah still no luck with it.
I really find this weird though but i am running @ 3GB memory and it works fine to bad i cant juse the 4 GB :(
 
Same problem installing 4Gb in MacBook

Same problem for me.

Tried to install two Kingston KTA (Apple specific) RAM (2x2Gb) in my Black MacBook (Bought march 2008, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 Ghz, Model identifier 3.1)

When installing 4GB I have the same black screen when I start my MB. When installing either one Kingston 2GB RAM alongside a genuine Apple 512K, Mac OSX recognizes 2,5 GB. So both KTA's are working, and both slots are working fine.

Does someone has an answer to this problem.

(PS : I used KTA MB800 instead of KTA MB 667, but the apple store guy said the 800 Mhz works just fine @ 667 Mhz; seems to be true but when installed with one 512k DIMM)

thanks
 
whuybr0 said:
Same problem for me.

Tried to install two Kingston KTA (Apple specific) RAM (2x2Gb) in my Black MacBook (Bought march 2008, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 Ghz, Model identifier 3.1)

When installing 4GB I have the same black screen when I start my MB. When installing either one Kingston 2GB RAM alongside a genuine Apple 512K, Mac OSX recognizes 2,5 GB. So both KTA's are working, and both slots are working fine.

Does someone has an answer to this problem.

(PS : I used KTA MB800 instead of KTA MB 667, but the apple store guy said the 800 Mhz works just fine @ 667 Mhz; seems to be true but when installed with one 512k DIMM)

thanks
Click to expand...

MacBook's using the Santa Rosa/Penryn architecture (MacBook identifiers 3,1 and 4,1) don't work with 2 x 800 chips (PC6400 DDR2) in them - they work fine as long as there is at least one 667 chip (PC5300) in the memory slots.

The earlier Core 2 Duo MacBooks (2,1 identifier - pre late 2007) work fine with 2 x 800 chips (PC6400).

I don't know why but it is............
 
logana said:
MacBook's using the Santa Rosa/Penryn architecture (MacBook identifiers 3,1 and 4,1) don't work with 2 x 800 chips (PC6400 DDR2) in them - they work fine as long as there is at least one 667 chip (PC5300) in the memory slots.

The earlier Core 2 Duo MacBooks (2,1 identifier - pre late 2007) work fine with 2 x 800 chips (PC6400).

I don't know why but it is............
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response.

I'm taking the PC6400 SODIMMs back to the store and will order PC5300 from OWC/macsales.

Let you know when/if it works.
 
Lachman said:
Please also let me know :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Wednesday late evening (GMT + 1) I ordered 4Gb on the website of MacSales.com. 49,99 USD + 23,00 USD shipping to Belgium. Arrived today in Antwerp. The SODIMMS are the same brand and have the same looks as the original memory in my MB ... and indeed without any problem my MB accepted the 4GB. (http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/53C4DDR2P4GB/)

@Lachman : Only paid 57 EUROs for the memory (shipping included) at MacSales.Com (aanrader !!)

Btw, got a full cash refund on my 800Mhz chips in the (Saturn) Apple Store without a problem.

@ logana : thanks again for your help
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back