Keep your original RAM. Don't use the rebate with OWC. If you have problems with the 2X2 your computer isn't very usable.
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Macbook Screen Feeze with 4gb ram
- Thread starter Huked on Fonick
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Keep your original RAM. Don't use the rebate with OWC. If you have problems with the 2X2 your computer isn't very usable.
elphia
Both my where elphia hmmmm......maybe it is the owc, but weird apple memory did it to.
OWC will give you a full refund in the first 30 days no questions asked and will provide a replacement for the lifetime of the unit. I have had chips replaced by them 5 years later. They have been very helpful will all this.
I am not exactly sure. I think i will return my ram to OWC and ride it out with 2gb that i lucky realized i forgot to mail back until apple figures it out, he said expect 6+ days turn around because of the diagnostics.
Both my where elphia hmmmm......maybe it is the owc, but weird apple memory did it to.
OWC will give you a full refund in the first 30 days no questions asked and will provide a replacement for the lifetime of the unit. I have had chips replaced by them 5 years later. They have been very helpful will all this.
I am not exactly sure. I think i will return my ram to OWC and ride it out with 2gb that i lucky realized i forgot to mail back until apple figures it out, he said expect 6+ days turn around because of the diagnostics.
Well I was running Techtool Deluxe on it this afternoon and it froze. I wasn't even running anything else. It froze while doing a surface scan on the HDD (Not that I think that is important). It had the same black screen with a top that was multicolored lines. Earlier in the day I reset the PMU and PRAM. (Obviously didn't help).
I just ran techtool again and it froze in the surface scan again. Only difference is that there were no grpahics artifacts this time. It just plain froze.
If I'm going to take the computer back to Apple for repair I assume I should be putting the original HDD and RAM in?
I just ran techtool again and it froze in the surface scan again. Only difference is that there were no grpahics artifacts this time. It just plain froze.
If I'm going to take the computer back to Apple for repair I assume I should be putting the original HDD and RAM in?
Wow, now I'm especially glad I just had Apple do the 4GB update. No freezes or any problems whatsoever for me and this thing is blazing fast at 4GB.
O RLY?
Please post a thread to someone having this problem with Apple branded RAM on the new Alu Macbooks? I've been looking at threads since I got it and I haven't heard of that problem before.
You obviously didn't read the thread, the one person who said it froze with Apple RAM it turned out to be a TimeMachine freeze and nothing to do with RAM. The people with non-Apple RAM are experiencing real freezes due to RAM that is fixed by replacing it with original Apple RAM.
I did read the thread. Besides the post you are talking about certain people have seen reports of original Apple RAM causing problems above 3GB. The people that have trouble with even Apple RAM have a problem with the logic board itself. This post is what Apple Singapore must use, though I know for sure that most Apple Stores use Samsung or Hynix.
"Re: Unstable after RAM upgrade
Posted: Nov 1, 2008 9:42 PM in response to: boxhead
i went down to apple store last 2 day and ask for the original 2gb ram back. they allow me to refund the memory back. now im very happy no freeze at all within 2 days.i think mac got a problem...cuz even i upgrade verified memory but its still unstable.(apple singapore use Transcend for 4gb ram.the original is samsung)."
If you want it to work (at least to try to get a refund and get RAM from Apple) do this:
I have the original 1GB chip in the bottom slot and the replacement OWC 2GB chip in the top slot. I haven't had a single freeze in 7+ hours.
As someone said in the Apple forums, they were told by Apple Support that OWC doesn't have memory management/non-polarity or something along those lines. I don't know if this is true, but this is evidence for that.
I have the original 1GB chip in the bottom slot and the replacement OWC 2GB chip in the top slot. I haven't had a single freeze in 7+ hours.
As someone said in the Apple forums, they were told by Apple Support that OWC doesn't have memory management/non-polarity or something along those lines. I don't know if this is true, but this is evidence for that.
I'm having problems with the OWC RAM as well. When I put back the original RAM, I have no problems. In fact, I haven't had a freeze in over 2 days whereas with the OWC RAM I had it every hour. At first I requested a replacement, but I just sent an email requesting a refund. I figure I'll wait it out until I know I can get a set that works. I just hope OWC doesn't give me a hassle.
I would tend to think that the Nvidia chipset just is more sensitive to ram brands. OWC sends different brands of ram to their customers, so this is probably the reason why there is differences in people's experiences with OWC ram. I have had 4GB DDR3 ram from OWC for several weeks and it's been fine (so far) and I leave my computer on for several days.
UPDATE:
So I was called by Apple tech support yesterday because they saw my posts in the Apple Discussion boards. I called back this morning and he said he wanted to do research on my computer. He set up an Apple genius appointment for me today and exchanged the computer for me. What I'm left with is a beautifully working machine, a free upgrade to 4GB of Apple branded RAM, and a smile on my face. Great job with this Apple. I just hope they can figure out the issues with third party RAM and the MBs.
I suggest all of you pay a visit to your Apple store and describe your issue.
So I was called by Apple tech support yesterday because they saw my posts in the Apple Discussion boards. I called back this morning and he said he wanted to do research on my computer. He set up an Apple genius appointment for me today and exchanged the computer for me. What I'm left with is a beautifully working machine, a free upgrade to 4GB of Apple branded RAM, and a smile on my face. Great job with this Apple. I just hope they can figure out the issues with third party RAM and the MBs.
I suggest all of you pay a visit to your Apple store and describe your issue.
I would suggest anyone experiencing the same problems to return their ram for an exchange. I don't have any of such problems after exchange! 
I would suggest anyone experiencing the same problems to return their ram for an exchange. I don't have any of such problems after exchange!
I definitely did. Same issues with the OWC replacement.
mine was sent in for repair on friday for this problem. they received it today, marked it as "no trouble found" and its on its way back to me.
i called owc because i was going to return the ram (2nd set from them), they seem to think that the problem was addressed by apple in the trackpad firmware update that was just releasd, even though nothing was stated in the update description about it. can anyone confirm or deny? i of course cannot test it until i get my macbook back.
i called owc because i was going to return the ram (2nd set from them), they seem to think that the problem was addressed by apple in the trackpad firmware update that was just releasd, even though nothing was stated in the update description about it. can anyone confirm or deny? i of course cannot test it until i get my macbook back.
Definitely NOT fixed in this, I installed it last night and had 3 crashes during the evening.
Same here. I installed TP FW update this morning, had a "no wake from screensaver" when I got back from lunch. Think they're unrelated issues. I also have OWC 4-gb upgrade RAM. Since PMU reset, have had an average "incident" rate of once every two days, sometimes a bit more often. Like others, wavy horizontal lines about 1.5 cm wide, about 2 cm apart.
Guess I'll need to start the replacement procedure with OWC--pain in the neck!
Though the idea of keeping 1 1-gb stock RAM in one slot and upgrade RAM in the other slot sounds like an interesting solution, but don't like the idea of using half the RAM I paid for and 3/4 of what I should be usingupdate: after sending my macbook back to apple for this problem it was marked "no trouble found" on monday morning and since then has been in "product return pending" status.
i called apple today to inquire, the rep talked to the repair center who said they were holding it because they were having trouble re-creating the problem, but the good news is that they did in fact get it to freeze up and the repair is in progress. i couldn't get many more details but the repair sumnmary should tell me what they did when i get it back. too bad i already returned the owc memory, now i'll have to order another set to test it.
another thought, the ram that apple was selling on the website was one 4 gig module (not available now), is that what they are installing in the store and factory also? most if not all of the third party ram is 2x 2 gig modules, maybe it is an issue with that 2x2 configuration.
i called apple today to inquire, the rep talked to the repair center who said they were holding it because they were having trouble re-creating the problem, but the good news is that they did in fact get it to freeze up and the repair is in progress. i couldn't get many more details but the repair sumnmary should tell me what they did when i get it back. too bad i already returned the owc memory, now i'll have to order another set to test it.
another thought, the ram that apple was selling on the website was one 4 gig module (not available now), is that what they are installing in the store and factory also? most if not all of the third party ram is 2x 2 gig modules, maybe it is an issue with that 2x2 configuration.
I asked Crucial about this freeze problem with 3rd party ram. They said they are supplying 80% of Apple
DRAM and theirs are Tier 1 grade.It'd be much safer than others. So everyone, get Crucial. (and please report to this forum if you got a problem.)
Bad match the prob?
I've been in e-mail contact with OWC about my erratic MB behavior, about one "incident" a day. They initially suggested it might be my MB's problem, although Apple Hardware Test, TechTool Pro, and Disk Warrior all say every thing's fine. They had two specific suggestions:
1) Clean off the HD and do a clean install. I already did a clean install after putting in their 4-gb RAM, install went just fine, and problems only occurred a few days later. I suppose I could put back the 2-gb stock memory, do the clean install, and then change back to the 4-gb upgrade. But what good would that really do? Plus, it's really TIME-consuming.
2) Bring the MB into AppleStore, ask them to put in 4 mb of their RAM (if they have it available), and see if they can replicate the problems. But since these problems are once a day or even less frequent, that would mean either camping at the AppleStore or leaving the MB with them and expecting them (yeah, right...) to put it thru the same paces I do everyday.
They say that 99% of the RAM people have sent back check out to be fine, and I'm sure they're right--fine as RAM itself, but not fine in acting nicely with MBs. Not really pissed off at the OWC people--can sympathize that they're between the proverbial rock and hard place.
Now thinking my next move. Write it off as experience and place an order with Crucial? Maybe wait a month or so to make the exchange and see if OWC's memory is up to snuff then? Otherwise, am very happy with my new MB!
I've been in e-mail contact with OWC about my erratic MB behavior, about one "incident" a day. They initially suggested it might be my MB's problem, although Apple Hardware Test, TechTool Pro, and Disk Warrior all say every thing's fine. They had two specific suggestions:
1) Clean off the HD and do a clean install. I already did a clean install after putting in their 4-gb RAM, install went just fine, and problems only occurred a few days later. I suppose I could put back the 2-gb stock memory, do the clean install, and then change back to the 4-gb upgrade. But what good would that really do? Plus, it's really TIME-consuming.
2) Bring the MB into AppleStore, ask them to put in 4 mb of their RAM (if they have it available), and see if they can replicate the problems. But since these problems are once a day or even less frequent, that would mean either camping at the AppleStore or leaving the MB with them and expecting them (yeah, right...) to put it thru the same paces I do everyday.
They say that 99% of the RAM people have sent back check out to be fine, and I'm sure they're right--fine as RAM itself, but not fine in acting nicely with MBs. Not really pissed off at the OWC people--can sympathize that they're between the proverbial rock and hard place.
Now thinking my next move. Write it off as experience and place an order with Crucial? Maybe wait a month or so to make the exchange and see if OWC's memory is up to snuff then?
Otherwise, am very happy with my new MB!OWC honestly has no clue what is going on right now. They say the RAM is fine but it doesn't work well with the MBs or some select MBs. That is the real question here.
I asked Crucial about this freeze problem with 3rd party ram. They said they are supplying 80% of Apple
It'd be much safer than others. So everyone, get Crucial. (and please report to this forum if you got a problem.)
I'm on my third set of Crucial RAM....
So Crucial is not out of the water either....
But it does seem like this third set is going to do it for me, with the previous 2 sets, after 40 hours of uptime, i would start getting the freeze about every ten minutes afterwords, and i am at 60 hours right now with no problems....