RAM Recognition Issues

Hi,

Last week I visited the Genius Bar in regards to my Mid 2009 MBP 13' often only recognising 2/4GB of RAM (when it has 2 x 2GB inserted) and not resuming from sleep under snow leopard 10.6.8 or windows 7 64 bit via bootcamp. After being stuffed around by several incompetent staff members, I was finally told it was likely a logic board issue causing this.

The BANK1 ram slot is the one not registering that there is ram inserted and as a solution (as opposed to replacing the Logic Board straight away), it was suggested that I insert a single 4GB ram card in the working slot. The Genius seemed to think this would solve the resume from sleep issue as well.

My questions are:

1. When you open the computer, is BANK1 the first card you see? Or is it the one beneath that, only accessible after removing the visble card?

2. Given my MBP is capable is running 8GB of RAM, could I achieve this by inserting a single 8GB card into the working slot and leaving the other one empty? Or can it only run 8GB RAM in the form of 2 x 4GB?

Thanks very much!

 

Just an update for those who may have viewed this thread, I determined that BANK 0 is the first card seen when you open the laptop. After replacing this 2GB card with a 4GB card, my sleep issues have been fixed. I left the other 2GB card in, but it rarely registers. So I now have 4GB of RAM being recognised from a single BANK and this seems to have solved the problems