RAM question

[macmulisha]

My 2007 iMac died not long after upgrading the RAM with Crucial 4gb. I was wondering if I could put the old RAM back in to see if it will boot up. I have Lion installed. What would happen if I put the old 1gb back in?

 

[TheBSDGuy]

Need more details. You say it died "shortly" after doing the upgrade. What do you mean by "shortly?" Right after turning it on, you turned it on and it ran for 5 minutes, or you turned it on and it ran for 5 days? When you say it "died" what do you mean? Does it not come on at all? Does it come up and show the Apple and just stop there? Does it work for a while and then quit?

If it never booted at all with the new RAM or the system lasted only a few minutes it would tend to favor a problem with the RAM or a problem seating the RAM. If it worked for days or hours, I'd be inclined to think the RAM wouldn't be to blame. Most problems with RAM show up almost instantly. Putting the old RAM back in is pretty easy in an iMac, and putting it back in shouldn't hurt anything although I doubt that Lion would work too well with so little RAM.

I think more information is needed before any help of any value can be provided.

Cheers

 

[macmulisha]

Thanks for the reply! The iMac gets to the apple and then shuts down. I have tried the different boots and nothing works. As for the RAM, the iMac worked for a few weeks with the new set. Any ideas for a next step?

 

[mike693]

If I recall correctly, when you get to the Apple logo on boot, the system has successfully POSTed, and the RAM should be OK. I suspect your Mac is having problems continuing the boot process off the hard disk. Try booting off of an install DVD or an external hard disk, or connect from another Mac using target disk mode, and then continue your diagnosis from there.

Good luck!

 

[macmulisha]

Thanks mike I'll give that a try.