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'Secret' Firmware Update Unlocks Support for 8 GB RAM on 'Late 2008' Notebooks

Just wondering how upgrading to 8GB will affect XP (32 bit) running under bootcamp? I presume only up to 4GB can be addressed, but does anyone know of any other issues?
 
akm3 said:
It's 1.5 Million Page Ins and 83,053 page outs (just took a new reading, same as yesterday) IT'S HEARTBREAKING!!!! Don't worry little Mac, OWC has more RAM on the way...
Click to expand...

I'd say it's heartening, not heartbreaking.

It's doing what it's supposed to do. There's a lot of stuff that's sitting there in memory, never to be read OR written again. Then there's a lot of stuff that's read-mostly, write-never, or write almost never. Then you've got stuff that's read and written constantly.

Makes perfect sense to move the stuff that's just sitting there, and MIGHT be read, or is only read - out to disk. Leaves more room in RAM for stuff that has to be read/written constantly.

And if you're going to write stuff once and read it a lot - what better place to put it than in a flash drive?

A good paging algorithm (and one presumes OSX has a good paging algorithm) is going to first page out stuff that is written but never read, then stuff that is written once and read seldom, then stuff that is written once and read often, then.... well, you get the idea, I hope.

I really wish OSX supported tmpfs, which is available on Linux. With tmpfs you can mount a RAM-drive that is backed by swap on your /tmp directory, or any other directory that is OK to empty on reboot and needs to be fast. There's really zero negative to doing this, and everything to gain.

On my Linux system, /tmp is a tmpfs, and I mount a tmpfs for the obj directory when doing big compiles. A tmpfs would make XCode really fly!

I think you're worrying about something there's no reason to worry about.
 
salty10is said:
Nope, not a bit. Unless helping me realize that Crucial RAM is a much better deal than that site you keep pushing counts.
Click to expand...

Since they'll buy-back my original 2 x 1GB Apple chips as well as my 2 X 2GB OWC's, the net cost is $77, not bad for their excellent customer support.
 
Trying this set up tomorrow

I checked my Firmware version and it matches MB51.007D.B03 (I have a late 08 unibody).

Was able to get 8 GB Crucial mem for a good price so I'll try it and post my findings.
 
NikOett said:
Just wondering how upgrading to 8GB will affect XP (32 bit) running under bootcamp? I presume only up to 4GB can be addressed, but does anyone know of any other issues?
Click to expand...

8GB won't help in XP 32-bit, unfortunately. 4GB is the max by defintion, and you might not even get the full 4GB (video card's memory might use up some).
 
After 24 hours...

24 hours later and some heavy load, no kernel panics. Having to run VM all the time, this should make a huge difference.

Photoshop + VMWare Win 7 and Visio
 
Secret Issues ??

MacRumors said:
The MacBook and MacBook Pro EFI firmware updates were issued in December 2009 as part of package to address noise from the optical drive, but were altered at some point after their initial release to also introduce support for a maximum of 8 GB of RAM for users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Consequently, OWC recommends that users of Late 2008 MacBooks and MacBook Pros interested in upgrading to 8 GB of RAM check System Profiler on their machine to determine whether they are running the latest Boot ROM versions of MBP51.007E.B05 (MacBook Pro) or MB51.007D.B03 (MacBook), and if not, re-download the EFI firmware update and apply it to their machines.
Click to expand...

A couple of issues remain unanswered:

* A user has reported on the blog that his MBP5,1 running Leopard has accepted 8GB of memory.

* Updating with the old version of the MBP EFI Updater 1.8 will already result in the aforementioned Boot ROM version numbers, thus preventing the use of the revised EFI Updater.
 
I'm confused..

OK, I read this today. I own an aluminium MacBook (MacBook 5,1). The blog article said their MacBook was already updated with the superdrive/EFI update and hence they had to re-download and install the newer one. The Boot ROM version of my computer is: MB51.007D.B03, which is what they say it should be. I had installed this update on Dec 9, 2009. The current EFI 1.4 updater on Apple's site updates the EFI to MB51.007D.003.



BTW, I downloaded it and ran the installer, but it quit saying "this computer does not need this update". So will 8 GB work for me?

Thank you :)
 
CodeBreaker said:
OK, I read this today. I own an aluminium MacBook (MacBook 5,1). The blog article said their MacBook was already updated with the superdrive/EFI update and hence they had to re-download and install the newer one. The Boot ROM version of my computer is: MB51.007D.B03, which is what they say it should be. I had installed this update on Dec 9, 2009. The current EFI 1.4 updater on Apple's site updates the EFI to MB51.007D.003.



BTW, I downloaded it and ran the installer, but it quit saying "this computer does not need this update". So will 8 GB work for me?

Thank you :)
Click to expand...

I have a MacBook Unibody with MB51.007D.B03 and I put 8GB in it the other week. It works fine.
 
Macbook Late 2008 Snow Leopard 10.6.7 BROM B51.007D.B03 upgrade 8GB kernel panic

I have the following Macbook unibody:

MacBook5,1
Intel Core 2 Duo 2 Ghz
MacOS 10.6.7
Memory 8GB
Boot ROM MB51.007D.B03
SMC Version 1.32f8

I tried manually updating using EFI 1.4 but it just say “Computer does not need this update”.

I tried plugging 2x 4GB rams had a few kernel panics everynow and then.. so I reverted back my orig ram on the other slot.. Now i have 1GB + 4GB (total 5GB) is now running without problems.. I still haven't solve why im having problems with 2x4GBs (8GB) ?????
 
ericnoel said:
I have the following Macbook unibody:

MacBook5,1
Intel Core 2 Duo 2 Ghz
MacOS 10.6.7
Memory 8GB
Boot ROM MB51.007D.B03
SMC Version 1.32f8

I tried manually updating using EFI 1.4 but it just say “Computer does not need this update”.

I tried plugging 2x 4GB rams had a few kernel panics everynow and then.. so I reverted back my orig ram on the other slot.. Now i have 1GB + 4GB (total 5GB) is now running without problems.. I still haven't solve why im having problems with 2x4GBs (8GB) ?????
Click to expand...

You're already running the correct BootROM version, so 8GB should work.

Perhaps bad RAM?
 
ericnoel said:
I have the following Macbook unibody:

MacBook5,1
Intel Core 2 Duo 2 Ghz
MacOS 10.6.7
Memory 8GB
Boot ROM MB51.007D.B03
SMC Version 1.32f8

I tried manually updating using EFI 1.4 but it just say “Computer does not need this update”.

I tried plugging 2x 4GB rams had a few kernel panics everynow and then.. so I reverted back my orig ram on the other slot.. Now i have 1GB + 4GB (total 5GB) is now running without problems.. I still haven't solve why im having problems with 2x4GBs (8GB) ?????
Click to expand...

biohead said:
You're already running the correct BootROM version, so 8GB should work.

Perhaps bad RAM?
Click to expand...


I tried them (4GBs) alternately just to test by using a (1GB x 4GB) combinations both are working? Been searching for other issues, saw one at macsales they have only verified using snow leopard 10.6.6 not sure if.
What if I updated my EFI last dec 2009 before the secret update?
 
Huh i dont think even if you upgrade ram to 8GB on those machines it will give you that much performance boost that you expected from that :eek::eek:
 
FloatingBones said:
Have you checked to see if OmniGraffle Pro will do what you do with Visio? The Omni Group has a 14-day trial.
Click to expand...

Sorry I didn't see this until now. I know it is a bit off-topic but Visio is the corporate standard. I have a company image that I used for my VM. I have OG Pro at home, but I haven't tested how well the files go from one software to another.
 
toromac said:
who needs 8gb, sheesh. i barely use 2gb of my 4gb of ram as it is. even using photoshop, I have never seen it max out.
Click to expand...

I don't even know where to begin with this. I barely make by with 8GB and if 16GB was closer to $800 I would buy it in a second.

You must not being using Photoshop for anything large and intense. I can have 4 or 5 TIFF images in Photoshop (around a few GB a piece) and memory quickly disappears.

I am also a users of VMWare and having 3 or 4 VMs open can quickly run you out of memory as well.

Just because you don't use 8GB of memory doesn't mean everyone else isn't...

-P
 
I have a 2.66, 15inch, Late 2008 Macbook Pro 5.1 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4G.
Boot ROM Version: MBP51.007E.B05
SMC Version(system): 1.41f2
I checked firmware update from apple and my macbook pro doesn't need it.I can get 8G right?

I don't quite trust Crucial, mainly because they were not able to identify my macbook model: They identified it as a (17-inch DDR3) MB604LL/A, although macttracker showed that it is a MC026LL/A. Plus it's definitely a 15inch! :p

Current type of RAM Slots: 2 - 204-pin PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM

I don't want to choose a wrong one, therefore, could you recommend a RAM for me please?
I checked this one: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/8566DDR3S8GP/
The only difference in the specs with the one I have, is that my current is DDR3 SO-DIMM, while this one is DDR3 SDRAM. Is this ok? Cheers :)
 
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