Screen of doom

[MacBook N Cheese]

So I dropped my MacBook a few weeks ago and the hard drive was damaged. I upgraded my HD from 300 to 750gb and my ram from 4 GB to 16. Turned it on and everything worked fine for the install. It randomly gave me this screen once (see below) so I had to hard reset but after that worked fine. Now when I was moving all my stuff back over from time machine it happened again. A friend told me it could be video board and that its irreplaceable?

 

[keysofanxiety]

Normally that would be graphics as it looks identical to a dead GPU. However you have the 13" model and it's very unlikely for the iGPU to fail.

As you recently upgraded your RAM, I'd say that's causing the issue, especially because VRAM is shared with the RAM. What model/year MacBook do you have? The 2011 can only take 1333MHz and the 2012 takes 1600MHz.

Additionally, please can you also confirm what RAM you installed in it (if you have a link to what you bought?)

 

[MacBook N Cheese]

The model number is a1278 I believe it's a 2013 unibody. Picture enclosed is ram.
[doublepost=1485114635][/doublepost]Before buying the parts I read that my model can carry 16gb although the official Mac store says it can only hold 8gb.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Ah that's why, you have the Core2Duo model. They're very, very picky with 16GB RAM. You frequently can't go beyond 8GB RAM on them, if at all. Only the 2011s or later can reliably go beyond 8GB RAM.

Also the RAM you ordered is 1333MHz; it should be 1066MHz on your model (2x4GB SODIMM).

Anyway, best thing to do is replace the original RAM and reinstall OS X from there. Should work fine. Then return your RAM and order the 1066/2x4.

 

[MacBook N Cheese]

Well thank you very much for your help! This whole thing has been stressing me out as I have a lot of projects I was in the middle of and just don't have the cash for a new machine. Will give it a shot and will return if all fails.

 

[MacBook N Cheese]

Back again. Swapped out the new ram for the old stuff. Haven't got the screen of doom but when I startup my Mac it brings me straight to the disk utility. Repaired disk, says all is fine. Couldn't get to desktop though. Wondering if it's doing this because it was halfway done with restoring from Time Machine. Anyway. Since I can't get to desktop I figured I would try and restore from time machine through disk utility. It gets to about 40% and then gives and error. The only thing I have in mind is to erase everything on hard drive again and redownload Mac OS and try again. Any thoughts?

 

[Sanpete]

Seems like a good plan.

 

[MacBook N Cheese]

Thanks for the reply. Seems like my only option at the moment. Also wondering if something else was damaged from the initial drop that would cause this issue. Will keep tinkering once off work.