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however even at 32bit, all 8GB will still register as 8GB...

And you can use all 8 GB as well, just not on any one application. 32-bit applications will individually not be allowed to exceed 4GB, but indeed you can run 64-bit applications with a 32-bit kernel (and those will not have address space limitations in the 4GB range), provided you have a 64-bit processor (which the Core 2 Duo is). Read around on the issue. You can use lots and lots of RAM with the 32-bit kernel because of PAE. No worries!
 
i am at 10.6.7 64bit 8GB ram... i fear the SSD slow down probs with the 10.6.8 upgrade. they must have changed the EFI at 10.6.8. since there is no hardware change. and unless you are using apple's SSD (which i doubt) if you want a working boot.efi from 10.6.7, leave your contact, happy to zip it for you. however even at 32bit, all 8GB will still register as 8GB...

I don't have a SSD, I have the original 250GB HD that came with my Macbook.

Is this boot.efi the reason I can't get into 64-bit on 10.6.8? If I installed it, would it let me boot into 64-bit on 10.6.8? (I'm really sorry, I'm not very technically skilled at this stuff.)

That's great! So my 10.6.8 32-bit will happily use all 8GB? :eek:
 
I don't have a SSD, I have the original 250GB HD that came with my Macbook.

Is this boot.efi the reason I can't get into 64-bit on 10.6.8? If I installed it, would it let me boot into 64-bit on 10.6.8? (I'm really sorry, I'm not very technically skilled at this stuff.)

That's great! So my 10.6.8 32-bit will happily use all 8GB? :eek:

at times i boot into save mode (32bit) to refresh cache icons, all 8GB shows up. no worries.
 
I found this thread a few months back and I noticed that 8GB upgrades work in the Late '08 UMBP, and I just ordered-

Crucial:
2-4GB 204-PIN SODIMM 512Mx64 | DDR3 PC3-8500 CL7
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MX5YWI
attachment.php


(Clearly a pretty good deal ordering 8gb now)

I popped it in my laptop, and now that its in, but since this thread is fairly large now, but which would be the testing to make sure its working properly since I remember posts about Kernel panics and that such.

Thanks in advance who could point me testing my upgrade. :D
 

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boot.efi

This is my modified boot.efi for 64bit SL 10.6.7, tested on MB5,1 and 7,1.
Use it at your discretion, i take no responsibility of the use of this file.

as u see in my screenshot at post 200
attachment.php


i have a backup of this exact same file called boot64.efi
sometimes when i do CMD-Ctrl-P-R boot to reset PRAM, it overwrites the boot.efi to its original. keeping a copy of it as boot64 there to re-do all the below should the system splits out the working one and replace it by whatever it likes.

refer to nektas.org

Unzip the content to the desktop. Open Terminals, and perform the following. Commands starting with sudo will ask you for your password. (password cannot be blank)

cd ~/Desktop

sudo cp boot.efi /System/Library/CoreServices/

sudo cp boot.efi /System/Library/CoreServices/boot64.efi

cd /System/Library/CoreServices/

sudo chown root:wheel boot.efi

sudo chflags uchg boot.efi

sudo bless −−folder /System/Library/CoreServices/ \
−−file /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

Next step – add arch=x86_64 to file /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist to Kernels Flags section

For example:

<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>arch=x86_64</string>

Now reboot, your mac should boot 64-bit kernel, but some models missing 64-bit intel video drivers, for example macbook4,1 with gmax3100, so only internal display will work, without qe/ci/opengl.

if something goes wrong, boot leopard/snowleopard dvd (or another installed osx system) and run this command in terminal

sudo bless –folder /Volumes/YOUVOLUMENAME/System/Library/CoreServices \
–file /Volumes/YOUVOLUMENAME/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi

should work. if not... bad luck.
 

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@hekokimushi Thank you for posting that, but I'm not too confident about trying it out so I'll just leave it. Thank you anyway!



As I posted earlier (#197), I have bought x2 "Hynix DDR3 4GB 4 GB SODIMM-PC 1066 PC3-8500 CL7 RAM" off eBay for £50/$80.

I have installed 8GB, and I'm running SL 10.6.8 (32-bit), with firmware "MB51.007D.B03" and can confirm, after some uncertainty, that 8GB is working perfectly fine on my "Late '08 Aluminium Unibody 2.4GHZ Macbook (5,1)" :)

Here are a few pictures:

OXQpU.png


Xw4yN.png


vFERe.png


If you want to upgrade to your MacBook5,1 to 8GB, I recommend it...

if you have:
  • ~ £50/$80
  • OS: 10.6.6+
  • Firmware: MB51.007D.B03


Has anyone done it yet? What are the results? I have the correct ROM version (xxxxx.B03). Will 8 GB work in Lion?

I wanted to know this too as I was running the Lion GM, but I uninstalled it due to bugs (I'm waiting to 10.7.1) before I upgraded to 8GB. I can't think of a reason why 8GB won't work on Lion, unless Apple changes the software to disable that amount of RAM on the Macbook5,1. If they do, I won't be upgrading to Lion.
 
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I wanted to know this too as I was running the Lion GM, but I uninstalled it due to bugs (I'm waiting to 10.7.1) before I upgraded to 8GB. I can't think of a reason why 8GB won't work on Lion, unless Apple changes the software to disable that amount of RAM on the Macbook5,1. If they do, I won't be upgrading to Lion.

If Lion doesn't allow 8 GB, it's gonna be sad sad for me. I am planning to upgrade before Lion comes out. Or I can wait till 10.7.1 comes out and you test it :D
 
If Lion doesn't allow 8 GB, it's gonna be sad sad for me. I am planning to upgrade before Lion comes out. Or I can wait till 10.7.1 comes out and you test it :D

Like I said, there should be no problems using 8GB on Lion unless Apple decides to disable 8GB RAM on Macbook5,1's. They could easily do this through a software update. They disabled 64-bit booting on the MacBook5,1 for example. However, they could do this in 10.6.9 (If it's ever released), they don't have to wait until Lion.

If you're going to upgrade, just go for it :)
 
I found this thread a few months back and I noticed that 8GB upgrades work in the Late '08 UMBP, and I just ordered-

Crucial:
2-4GB 204-PIN SODIMM 512Mx64 | DDR3 PC3-8500 CL7
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MX5YWI
Image

(Clearly a pretty good deal ordering 8gb now)

I popped it in my laptop, and now that its in, but since this thread is fairly large now, but which would be the testing to make sure its working properly since I remember posts about Kernel panics and that such.

Does my free ram pie graph look a bit strange that I don't have much open at the moment?
attachment.php
 

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It just seems strange for me that the piegraph only totals up to 7.75GB, so Its missing .25gb, though. A friend of mine has 8gb in his upgraded MBP, and it shows 8GB, unless I didnt do all the steps installing ram upgrades.

I did the PRAM, but, is there anything else?
 
Your MacBook has integrated graphics which uses 256MB of system memory. Most MBPs have a discrete graphics chip with dedicated memory built in.
 
Does my free ram pie graph look a bit strange that I don't have much open at the moment?
Image

wow, you're using 6.40GB! :eek: are you using Lion GM by any chance? i had a problem like this while running Lion GM. I had 4GB RAM, and I only had about 90MB RAM free! keep in mind that the blue section "inactive" is memory that was used for apps you had opened earlier but have quit now. this memory is reserved so that when you open the app again, it will load faster but if another app requires that memory it will use it so you could consider it "free memory" aswell.

OverSpun said:
It just seems strange for me that the piegraph only totals up to 7.75GB, so Its missing .25gb, though. A friend of mine has 8gb in his upgraded MBP, and it shows 8GB, unless I didnt do all the steps installing ram upgrades.

I did the PRAM, but, is there anything else?

the MacBook5,1's Nvidia GeForce 9400m intergrated GPU uses 256MB of memory. the 256 is taken from the RAM, so that is why there is 7.75GB left. it's normal, don't worry.
 
@hekokimushi Thank you for posting that, but I'm not too confident about trying it out so I'll just leave it. Thank you anyway!



As I posted earlier (#197), I have bought x2 "Hynix DDR3 4GB 4 GB SODIMM-PC 1066 PC3-8500 CL7 RAM" off eBay for £50/$80.

I have installed 8GB, and I'm running SL 10.6.8 (32-bit), with firmware "MB51.007D.B03" and can confirm, after some uncertainty, that 8GB is working perfectly fine on my "Late '08 Aluminium Unibody 2.4GHZ Macbook (5,1)" :)

Here are a few pictures:

Image

Image

Image

If you want to upgrade to your MacBook5,1 to 8GB, I recommend it...

if you have:
  • ~ £50/$80
  • OS: 10.6.6+
  • Firmware: MB51.007D.B03




I wanted to know this too as I was running the Lion GM, but I uninstalled it due to bugs (I'm waiting to 10.7.1) before I upgraded to 8GB. I can't think of a reason why 8GB won't work on Lion, unless Apple changes the software to disable that amount of RAM on the Macbook5,1. If they do, I won't be upgrading to Lion.

Where did you get the Rams buddy? :)
 
Like I said, there should be no problems using 8GB on Lion unless Apple decides to disable 8GB RAM on Macbook5,1's. They could easily do this through a software update. They disabled 64-bit booting on the MacBook5,1 for example. However, they could do this in 10.6.9 (If it's ever released), they don't have to wait until Lion.

If you're going to upgrade, just go for it :)

Thanks, now ordering... :)
 
wow, you're using 6.40GB! :eek: are you using Lion GM by any chance? i had a problem like this while running Lion GM. I had 4GB RAM, and I only had about 90MB RAM free! keep in mind that the blue section "inactive" is memory that was used for apps you had opened earlier but have quit now. this memory is reserved so that when you open the app again, it will load faster but if another app requires that memory it will use it so you could consider it "free memory" aswell.



the MacBook5,1's Nvidia GeForce 9400m intergrated GPU uses 256MB of memory. the 256 is taken from the RAM, so that is why there is 7.75GB left. it's normal, don't worry.

I wish I was running Lion GM, but I'm not a developer, but I wasn't interested hurrying up since it'll come out soon. :)

But, my Activity is about the same as my last picture.
attachment.php



Thanks about the 256mb from my Nvidia like the previous post but I wonder why someone thought both threads were "Negative" marks. :rolleyes:
 

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Trying to upgrade to 8GB.

Running an early 2008 2.4GHz MacBook 4,1 with the Penryn chipset with 2GB of ram.

I have read that this model will run up to 6GB, but that is an old thread. Are there new solutions?

Many of the people in this thread have the late 2008 MacBook 5,1 and 8GB seems to be working well. Anyone have any insight into running 8GB on the early 2008 MacBook? Or can direct me to a thread that deals with the 4,1 MacBook?

Any insight is much appreciated.
 
The chipset between the two machines is completely different. The 4,1 uses the Intel 965 chipset, the 5,1 is the first of the machines using an nvidia chipset.

Have you tried searching the MacBook Pro forums? It's the same chipset as used in the Santa Rosa MacBook Pro.
 
The chipset between the two machines is completely different. The 4,1 uses the Intel 965 chipset, the 5,1 is the first of the machines using an nvidia chipset.

Have you tried searching the MacBook Pro forums? It's the same chipset as used in the Santa Rosa MacBook Pro.

I have not but will do that now. Thanks for the tip!
 
MacBook5,1 with Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and 8GB (2x 4GB) -- WORKING!

I also upgraded my MacBook5,1 (C2D 2.4) to 8GB (2x 4GB DDR3 1067MHz) without any trouble. Replaced the 2x 2GB memory modules with the new 2x 4GB modules and booted up immediately. :)

My MacBook5,1 is running Boot ROM MB51.007D.B03 and OSX 10.6.8 with a 32-bit kernel.

I've used the laptop on both A/C and battery for several hours without any issues. I'll be sure to report back if I do have any problems though.

Here's a part number for the 8GB (2x 4GB) memory kit I purchased from Crucial.com.
(CT2KIT51264BC1067)
2-4GB 204-PIN SODIMM 512Mx64 DDR3 PC3-8500 CL7

I'm also writing to Crucial to confirm the compatibility along with Boot ROM and OS version requirements in case they want to mention compatibility on the appropriate MacBook page.

I've also attached pictures showing my various system information. As someone else already pointed out, I'm only showing 7.75GB total since 0.25GB is used by my graphics card.


I was surprised to learn that Snow Leopard (10.6.8) was not using a 64-bit kernel. I didn't even notice this until after the upgrade and was quite surprised that 8GB was even working with a non-64-bit kernel.

I assume that I would realize a performance gain by switching to the 64-bit kernel? My workload usually consists of multiple VirtualBox VM's (memory, CPU and I/O heavy) and various browsers (memory heavy).

Here's a well written guide to enabling 64-bit kernel in Snow Leopard (10.6)
http://macperformanceguide.com/SnowLeopard-64bit.html

I already checked "Extensions" in "System Profiler" and the only non-64-bit extension that I've installed is no longer needed, so extension compatibility shouldn't be an issue.

I have confirmed that I have 64-bit EFI firmware (aka "EFI64")

I'm planning to try the "6"+"4" two-finger salute during boot to confirm that the 64-bit kernel works properly before I make any permanent configuration changes.

Is there a disadvantage to enabling the 64-bit kernel on this machine?? Just curious since it is disabled by default.

TIA, Jason
 

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