Macbook Freezes after upgrading RAM

[carseat]

So, my problem has just started, and it's happened three times so far.

A few days ago I replaced the 2GB of RAM that came with my White Macbook (Mid 2009), with 6GB of RAM. It was a huge improvement and my Macbook is faster than ever.

The problem is, since I've replaced the RAM, I've had the Macbook freeze on me three times. When I say it freezes, it literally freezes. Everything is unresponsive. The only way to regain control is to force it to restart. It happened the first time while I was just watching videos on PBS, and the second and third times, I was away from my computer for an extended period of time, and I returned to find it completely frozen.

I'm not sure if this is because of the new RAM, but I sure would like to fix it. Any ideas?

-Carson

 

[MonkeyBrainz]

Sounds like bad RAM sticks. Put the 2 GB back in and if it stops freezing, you should get the new RAM replaced. These things happen.

 

[logana]

I would try to reseat the ram first - the slots are "tight" and you have to press pretty hard to seat them. If you don't have white lines on your fingertips afterwards then you have not pushed hard enough....

It may be a faulty stick so try with one of the new sticks with one of the original sticks and see if anything changes.

 

[Macman45]

I would try to reseat the ram first - the slots are "tight" and you have to press pretty hard to seat them. If you don't have white lines on your fingertips afterwards then you have not pushed hard enough....

It may be a faulty stick so try with one of the new sticks with one of the original sticks and see if anything changes.

I agree, the modules take more force to seat properly...Had this when upgrading my iMac to 16GB....Kernel panics and freezes until I used a little more oomph and then all was well.

Reseat as posted, and if that fails to cure the issue I'd say you had bad sticks.

 

[carseat]

I've reseated the RAM, and I'll see what happens next. Thanks for the help. I'll keep you posted!

-Carson

 

[carseat]

UPDATE:

I reseated the RAM, and it still froze. So, I've tried some diagnostics.

I put the 4GB stick in, with one of the old 1GB sticks. It froze.

I put the 2GB stick in, with one of the old 1GB sticks. Hasn't froze yet... but I'm not sure I've waited long enough.

I ran memtest86+ 4.20 and it complete 2 passes without encountering an error. So, I'm not sure if I should let memtest run longer, hoping it will fail.

What do you think? Should I just try to call OWC and see if they'll replace it? Should I keep running with the 2GB and 1GB to see if it fails? Should I run memtest all night?

Thanks!

-Carson

 

[Macman45]

Yes. return them, memtest won't always pick up bad sticks...get them swapped out.