MBP Scrolling Issue RAM related?

[canada2010]

I had been experiencing the much discussed jumbling of text while 2-finger scrolling in safari and the flickering when watching flash videos (youtube, etc.). I had reinstalled Adobe Flash Player 10 but that did not solve my problem.

I have an Early 2008 Penryn MBP 2.5ghz with 4gb of RAM.

When I took the 4gb ram out and swapped it for the stock 2gb, the issues have gone away.
Does this mean that it is a problem with the RAM (I haven't had any other issues, I used the Applecare TechTools to check the ram and it was fine) or could it be a problem with my computer when using the ram.

I need to know if I have faulty RAM that I need to replace or if it is an OSX issue with 4gb of RAM.

If anybody else has had this problem, can you please post if you are using 2 or 4gb or ram, I have been looking around on other forums about this issue and most of the people talking about it are using 4gb of RAM.

Thank you.

 

[iLog.Genius]

Does that happen only in Safari or does it occur in other applications. Also, does the problem completely go away w/ the stock 2GB? Reason I ask is because it might be a heat related issue.

Also, the flickering could be the result of your video card acting abnormally. As discussed in one thread here, some users of the Late-2008 MacBook Pro's have experience this flickering while scrolling and could be potentially fixed with a firmware update in the future.

As with this problem, it might need some extensive troubleshooting to isolate the problem, possibly as far as an Archive and Install without preserving user settings just to eliminate that a file is not causing the problems and then we can start looking at a potential hardware defect.

 

[canada2010]

It has happened in Safari mostly (because that is what I use). But the text jumbling also occurred in System Profiler. So it is not a Safari only issue.

It does happen more often when on battery power though.

 

[iLog.Genius]

Kind of a toughie this one is!

I guess to get the ball rolling...

- start in a neutral state, remove the extra RAM and use what came with the MBP.

- create a new user and see if anything happens in there, this will basically start giving us ideas whether it is something within the OS or if it could be hardware related.

- perform the basics: PRAM and SMC resets; wouldn't hurt to perform AHT test as well, both standard and extended tests just to make sure.

After that, we'll proceed based on what your findings are.