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NEW Late 2008 Macbook Pro Memory Upgrade Problem

Encanto said:
Hello everyone, I would like to share that fry's has a great deal on Crucial ram. I bought 2x2GB kit for only $54.00 + tax + a $30.00 rebate. If you do the math you will see that this is a great deal. Offer expires tomorrow 10-30-08. You must go to a Fry's store. This is not an online deal. I m happy with my 4 Gig Ram Penrym Mabook Pro. Hope that if you are reading you will take advantage of this great offer. Good Luck.
Click to expand...

Most likely DDR2. Penryn MBPs and the new MBPs use different RAM.
 
Short of all this is it's a known issue. The big question is the uncertainty if something can be done to remedy the situation or if it'll just have to be an accepted "Must buy Apple branded ram or have a high likelihood of unreliability" ... me for one can't stand unreliability. I buy apple products for the stability of knowing it'll work. I originally posted issues, and today I took my MBP 2.4 to apple and had them exchange it for the 2.53... prolly a waste of $500 more bux, but oh well, beats being limited to 2 GB ram or having to pay $300 for APPLE branded RAM...
 
nptski said:
Silly me, I thought that was a bit too good to be true. I went to Fry's anyway and they do not have any Crucial ram at that price. I'm pretty sure that was for Dimms not Sodimms.
Click to expand...

Dude it's for "4 Gig Ram Penrym Mabook Pro" that's really no big deal... goes on sale for that all the time. If you notice this thread is about the LATE 2008 MACBOOK PRO... this memory will not work for it.
 
6G works

I'm running 6GB (2G+4G) in my "late 2008" MacBook Pro 2.8. It's working great. It sees all 6GB in Activity Monitor. I ran a test app that uses over 5GB of RAM and it gobbled up the 5+GB then released it when done.

I did try 8GB. It boots and appears to see it all but if I run any app that uses over 4GB, the machine goes into molasses mode. And when you quit (or if you can quit) the memory hungry app(s), it does not release the memory.

The only problem with 6GB is that the modules don't match so interleaving won't occur. That could potentially produce a performance hit, depending on what app you run. I plan to do some benchmarking on 6G vs 4G. I'll let you know I learn on this thread.
 
Prototype or Production?

bella92108 said:
Short of all this is it's a known issue. The big question is the uncertainty if something can be done to remedy the situation or if it'll just have to be an accepted "Must buy Apple branded ram or have a high likelihood of unreliability" ... me for one can't stand unreliability. I buy apple products for the stability of knowing it'll work. I originally posted issues, and today I took my MBP 2.4 to apple and had them exchange it for the 2.53... prolly a waste of $500 more bux, but oh well, beats being limited to 2 GB ram or having to pay $300 for APPLE branded RAM...
Click to expand...

Actually I don't think it is the RAM. I have a 2.4MBP and have had 2 different branded makes to upgrade to 4GB - Buffalo and Transcend - both cause the same crash/hang.

In the UK there is currently a shortage of MBP's and what with all this 'crashing' IMHO Apple are having a hardware problem.

Both the MB and MBP are showing similar issues and both use the 9400M chipset (NVIDIA) which could be the problem.

One other thing that it would be useful to know is what info you can get on the installed motherboard - I run 'Hardware Monitor' - to show me system status (temperatures etc). This has an option to show 'System Information' which has an option [Management Info], which in turn has a Tab 'System Board' - the 'Version' quoted is "PROTO" - this leads me to believe that my hardware is using prototype rather than production hardware.:eek:

It would be useful if others could investgate and post results URL for software= http://www.bresink.de/osx/HardwareMonitor.html (I have NO affiliation to this individual).
 
Fingers crossed.. I upgraded my late 2008 to 4gb with 2x 2gb crucial modules, and I've yet to have it hang.. granted, I've not used it in anger yet, other than install-reinstall vista and xp a few times, but not had a single lockup yet, and it has been turned on without sleep/reboot for 12 hours in a go.

All the reinstalling was trying to get the expresscard socket working properly under windows, I've given up now deciding it seems to be a firmware problem. works like butter under OS X..

This is running with the 9400 under OS X, I've not actually switched it to 9600m yet, except for under windows where there's no choice.
 
Memory issues

I returned the second pair of Patriot 2g sticks. Patriot responded to an email and said they were not Apple certified. I bought a 4g kit from Ramjet that are certified ($145 or so) and all is well. Running perfectly now.
 
I was looking to update my RAM but it looks like people are having problems with all the different brands, with the exception of the ramjets.
Please keep us posted on stability issues.
I was about to pull the trigger on 4 gigs of Crucial, so I'm glad I came here first.
 
1. I ordered 2x2GB Crucial DDR3 from NewEgg for ~$145.
2. I read this thread.
3. I cancelled my order before it was processed/shipped.
4. I ordered 2x2GB DDR3 from Apple.

I just don't have time for all this troubleshooting, opening up case, closing case, rebooting, calling AppleCare, etc. Very frustrating experience already with other problems, and I'm not willing to add to it with a questionable RAM upgrade. My time & possible lost work due to instability is worth more to me than that. ... Just my take on this unfortunate situation. YMMV.
 
I ordered 4GB from Other World Computing for my unibody MBP. These were the ones they said were for the new MBP. My machine started to freeze within minutes after installation. I tried reinsertion and swapping locations and a System Controller reset (at their tech supports suggestion), the problem continued. They cross shipped replacements and I had the same problem with the replacements. I returned that second pair for refund.

Went to the Apple store where I had bought it on Oct 15th and asked them to upgrade it. At first they were going to charge $300, but when I explained that I had asked about the 4GB upgrade when I bought my MBP but they hadn't received any of the new memory in their initial shipment (true story), the manager authorized the upgrade for the $150. It's been working flawlessly since.
 
I upgrade the standard 2Gb memory in my 1 week old 15 inch 2.4 Ghz MBP today using 2x2Gb from Crucial. My machine has frozen 4 times since then. Infuriating. I thought I must have got 'bad' memory until I read the other posts here. I think if it happens once more I will have to return the memory and go with Apple (or Ramjet maybe).
 
Glad I held out. So far it looks like ramjet and apple ram is not causing any problems. I dont know about paying apple $300 for some ram. I will wait and see if we get more positive results from people buying the ramjets.

Thanks everybody.
 
I have a late 2008 mbp with 2 x 1 Gig of ram. Is it possible to make it 1 gig + 4 gig? 1 gig + 2 gig? And the problem of disposing the old 1 gig.
 
I had a similar problem with screen randomly freezing after upgrade to 4GB memory by Lenovo.

I exchanged the modules for Lenovo, but different chip manufacturer, and testing it, but it seems fine now. Computer is running constantly for 3 days now, and no freezes. I guess that new Macbooks are very sensitive to the quality of the memory chips used.
 
Chose to spend an additional $150 at the apple store for the apple ram buyback program. Yeah, I may have save $13 by waiting online and waiting for a week, etc., but my time was worth more than that.

Sorry to hear about the defective ram stick.
 
How did the buyback program work with the old RAM? I bought my MBP (late 2008) in mid October and when I recently went in, I was told that I would have to pay full price for the memory ($300.00!). Were you able to upgrade/buyback later or did you do it at the time of purchase?

I need to upgrade, but would like to get the apple warranty on the RAM.

Thanks.
 
Ordered 4GB for my Late 08 MBP here on Saturday for about $75 after 10% coupon (CHOLIDAYNOV2008, YMMV) and live.com cashback (good deal IMO). Received shipping info in about two hours (on a Saturday o.o).
It's made by omni technologies, which I've read some good things about. Their feedback on ebay is also very good. I'll report back after I install them and see if they have any issues.

Update (Monday):
Ram was delivered in the morning [fast (free) shipping...], but I only got to install it after school/work. Been running for a few hours now with no problems.
For $75 you can't go wrong.
 
Keep that machine running and tell us if you have any lockups later down the road.
 
Just1BadApple said:
I ordered 4GB from Other World Computing for my unibody MBP. These were the ones they said were for the new MBP. My machine started to freeze within minutes after installation. I tried reinsertion and swapping locations and a System Controller reset (at their tech supports suggestion), the problem continued. They cross shipped replacements and I had the same problem with the replacements. I returned that second pair for refund.

Went to the Apple store where I had bought it on Oct 15th and asked them to upgrade it. At first they were going to charge $300, but when I explained that I had asked about the 4GB upgrade when I bought my MBP but they hadn't received any of the new memory in their initial shipment (true story), the manager authorized the upgrade for the $150. It's been working flawlessly since.
Click to expand...

I ordered the 2x2 ram from OWC and it's been running flawlessly for over a week now (uni 2.4 mbp). No hangs, freezes or odd errors in the console. I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
plinx0r said:
I ordered the 2x2 ram from OWC and it's been running flawlessly for over a week now (uni 2.4 mbp). No hangs, freezes or odd errors in the console. I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Click to expand...

Wow, I guess I spoke too soon. Tonight I've already had two kernel panics resulting in me having to power down the laptop. The errors look identical to those on the first page of this thread. I've already requested an RMA from OWC and plan on stopping by the Apple Store tomorrow (Chicago) to hopefully upgrade for the $150 instead of $300. I'll report back and let everyone know how it goes.
 
I'm also having issues with my new MacBook Pro late 2008.

I've had two OCW 2x2gig sets that both caused hard crashes repeatedly. I also had some video issues so I had my MacBook Pro swapped with a new one. OCW ram still causing issues. Returned that for a refund and bought Crucial 2x2gig set, froze within an hour of installation.

Looking for a clear winner of RAM that will work in this late 2008 MacBook Pro. Seriously, there has to be something other than buying $300 RAM from Apple.

Recommendations? Has more than one person on this form tried RamJet?
 
Back from the Apple Store and pretty frustrated. I explained the issue hoping they would cut me some slack and offer the RAM upgrade for $150. The manager said they don't do "buy-backs" and the price would be $300. To top off the visit the "genius" twirled the top of my laptop face down 180 degrees and put several noticeable scratches in the aluminum. Unfortunately I didn't notice them until I got home.

:mad:
 
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