RAM Upgrade for early 2008 MB Pro - 2GB + 1GB?

[bear1973]

Hi,

I just added a 2GB Crucial DIMM to my early 2008 MB Pro. I thought adding one 2GB would bring me to 4GB, but found two 1GB cards in the memory slots. So, I added the new 2GB and kept one 1GB, thinking I'd have 3GB. But according to my Hardware overview, I still only have 2GB.

Can you use a 1GB and a 2GB DIMM card for a total of 3GB, or do I need another 2GB Card?

On another note, at least in terms of browsing, it's like I have a new machine. I don't know if it's the new card, but pages are loading twice as fast - right at start-up.

Thanks.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Normally the early 2008 MBP supports up to 6 GB of 200-pin DDR2 SO-DIMM RAM, thus 3 GB should work.

Go into the Utilities folder, open System Profiler / System Information and check the Hardware > Memory section to see, what is recognised.

 

[bear1973]

Normally the early 2008 MBP supports up to 6 GB of 200-pin DDR2 SO-DIMM RAM, thus 3 GB should work.

Go into the Utilities folder, open System Profiler / System Information and check the Hardware > Memory section to see, what is recognised.

This is what it's showing. I'm guessing the second card just wasn't put in properly. I'll reinstall it.



BANK 0/DIMM0:

Size: 2 GB
Type: DDR2 SDRAM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x7F7F7F7F7F9B0000
Part Number: 0x4354323536363441433636372E4D31364648
Serial Number: 0x00000000

BANK 1/DIMM1:

Size: Empty
Type: Empty
Speed: Empty
Status: Empty
Manufacturer: Empty
Part Number: Empty
Serial Number: Empty

 

[simsaladimbamba]

This is what it's showing. I'm guessing the second card just wasn't put in properly. I'll reinstall it.



BANK 0/DIMM0:

Size: 2 GB
Type: DDR2 SDRAM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x7F7F7F7F7F9B0000
Part Number: 0x4354323536363441433636372E4D31364648
Serial Number: 0x00000000

BANK 1/DIMM1:

Size: Empty
Type: Empty
Speed: Empty
Status: Empty
Manufacturer: Empty
Part Number: Empty
Serial Number: Empty

The new card seems to be alright, the 1 GB module seems to be not being recognised (?).

 

[bear1973]

Got it - wasn't installed properly!

The 1 GB card wasn't installed properly - doh! It's all working now.

But OH MY GOD - I can't believe what one new 2GB card - and now 3GB altogether - does to the performance of this machine. Websites load twice as fast, applications open almost instantly, wish I had done this a long time ago! A couple of weeks ago I dropped this machine and killed the hard drive. I had a new 500 GB HD installed and decided, since I was giving this machine a new lease on life (I was going to upgrade on the next revision), I'd throw some more RAM in it. What a difference. This should get me through 2014 now.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

The 1 GB card wasn't installed properly - doh! It's all working now.

But OH MY GOD - I can't believe what one new 2GB card - and now 3GB altogether - does to the performance of this machine. Websites load twice as fast, applications open almost instantly, wish I had done this a long time ago! A couple of weeks ago I dropped this machine and killed the hard drive. I had a new 500 GB HD installed and decided, since I was giving this machine a new lease on life (I was going to upgrade on the next revision), I'd throw some more RAM in it. What a difference. This should get me through 2014 now.

And once you can spend more money on more RAM (another 4 GB module should cost around 60 USD) and even an SSD (80 USD for 128 GB, 150 USD for 256 GB), that machine might even work longer.