Hello everyone and thank you in advance for any support.
I have a MacBook Pro Laptop and I recently received new RAM chips (Specs below) to increase my computers performance. I installed these myself (So possible user error involved) and my computer booted up perfectly. System Profiler shows the proper 8GB Memory and other info; however I quickly started experiencing many problems that I will detail below. My question is if these new RAM chips are actually compatible with my computer or not.
Computer:
-Mid-2009 MacBook Pro 13" Aluminum Unibody
-2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
-Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.6
-(Previous RAM) 4GB (two 2GB SO-DIMMs) 1066MHz DDR3
-Windows 7 Bootcamp Partition as well
New RAM:
-Product Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-226-015&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=4#scrollFullInfo
-Mushkin Enhanced 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Memory for Apple Model 976644A
-Purchased through Newegg
Problem Description:
-Boot-up now takes anywhere from 2-20 minutes including accounts that are not my own
-Frequent Kernel Panics (1 every other day or so)
-Many different programs are quitting unexpectedly (Sometimes pretty much instantly or hours later. Some program crashes include Firefox, Photoshop, Python, Safari, etc)
-I've noticed these problems compound once they start. I may reopen a program that quit unexpectedly than more and more bad things happened fairly quickly after the first error.
So far I have:
- Restarted computer and tried with different user accounts
- Reinstalled problem programs
- Took out and reinserted new RAM (I have not reverted back to old RAM quite yet)
- Verified/Repaired Disk and Permissions multiple times (There are permission errors that were there before the new RAM that still persist)
- Erased Mac HD through Disk Utility and completely reformatted with original install disk then restored from a Time Machine Backup. (All while retaining windows partition, might be worth trying while also ditching this partition)
- Booted into Safe Mode but still experienced problems
- Booted into Single User Mode to clear system caches
- Ran TechTool Deluxe from AppleCare which reported no problems
CURRENTLY:
I'm running a triple sweep with logs of memtest OSX through Single User Mode from this link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/788590/.
So far it has reported a couple data mismatch errors.
Overall:
Ok that was probably more info than you wanted to read but thank you if you did. At this point I should stop being stubborn and just reinstall my old RAM chips but these new ones are a gift and the refund timeframe has already expired, so I REALLY want these to work. I can provide Error and System Diagnostic Logs once the affected computer is done with the memtest sweeps.
Again, I read through reviews of the new RAM chips and there are definitely compatibility issues despite Mushkin's promise. However, I have read reviews and found some people with the same MacBook Pro model that report sweet compatibility success or tragic hardware sob stories. So I'm thinking that there IS a way to make it work, it just isn't immediately apparent. I found a motherboard compatibility list on the Mushkin website but I'm having a tough time figuring out exactly what model of logic board the affected Mac has...so i can't compare.
SO...any thoughts?
How can I find my exact motherboard model?
Are these new RAM chips compatible or should I just cut my losses?
Thanks again for reading!
I have a MacBook Pro Laptop and I recently received new RAM chips (Specs below) to increase my computers performance. I installed these myself (So possible user error involved) and my computer booted up perfectly. System Profiler shows the proper 8GB Memory and other info; however I quickly started experiencing many problems that I will detail below. My question is if these new RAM chips are actually compatible with my computer or not.
Computer:
-Mid-2009 MacBook Pro 13" Aluminum Unibody
-2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
-Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.6
-(Previous RAM) 4GB (two 2GB SO-DIMMs) 1066MHz DDR3
-Windows 7 Bootcamp Partition as well
New RAM:
-Product Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=20-226-015&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=4#scrollFullInfo
-Mushkin Enhanced 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Memory for Apple Model 976644A
-Purchased through Newegg
Problem Description:
-Boot-up now takes anywhere from 2-20 minutes including accounts that are not my own
-Frequent Kernel Panics (1 every other day or so)
-Many different programs are quitting unexpectedly (Sometimes pretty much instantly or hours later. Some program crashes include Firefox, Photoshop, Python, Safari, etc)
-I've noticed these problems compound once they start. I may reopen a program that quit unexpectedly than more and more bad things happened fairly quickly after the first error.
So far I have:
- Restarted computer and tried with different user accounts
- Reinstalled problem programs
- Took out and reinserted new RAM (I have not reverted back to old RAM quite yet)
- Verified/Repaired Disk and Permissions multiple times (There are permission errors that were there before the new RAM that still persist)
- Erased Mac HD through Disk Utility and completely reformatted with original install disk then restored from a Time Machine Backup. (All while retaining windows partition, might be worth trying while also ditching this partition)
- Booted into Safe Mode but still experienced problems
- Booted into Single User Mode to clear system caches
- Ran TechTool Deluxe from AppleCare which reported no problems
CURRENTLY:
I'm running a triple sweep with logs of memtest OSX through Single User Mode from this link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/788590/.
So far it has reported a couple data mismatch errors.
Overall:
Ok that was probably more info than you wanted to read but thank you if you did. At this point I should stop being stubborn and just reinstall my old RAM chips but these new ones are a gift and the refund timeframe has already expired, so I REALLY want these to work. I can provide Error and System Diagnostic Logs once the affected computer is done with the memtest sweeps.
Again, I read through reviews of the new RAM chips and there are definitely compatibility issues despite Mushkin's promise. However, I have read reviews and found some people with the same MacBook Pro model that report sweet compatibility success or tragic hardware sob stories. So I'm thinking that there IS a way to make it work, it just isn't immediately apparent. I found a motherboard compatibility list on the Mushkin website but I'm having a tough time figuring out exactly what model of logic board the affected Mac has...so i can't compare.
SO...any thoughts?
How can I find my exact motherboard model?
Are these new RAM chips compatible or should I just cut my losses?
Thanks again for reading!
