Symtoms of unstable RAM

[iMetalG5]

My bro is having one heck of a time with RAM upgrades. First he popped in two Kingston 2 GB sticks and thought all was well. His MBP 2.26 was fine for a few hrs until when he tried to restart and he got the 'gray screen of death' where nothing happened. just clocking, no apple logo. So we removed the RAM and put in the stock 2 GB. Started up fine. Put the Kingston back in. Would not start. Ok prob solved.

Then he just got OWC RAM and put in 2 sticks. Ran fine for the night but he called me over late last night and he is getting the SBBOD when trying to open Photoshop, iMovie, and iTunes. I had to hold the power button down to get out. Definitly not normal. Restarted and it was fine. It shows 4 GB RAM...but again the machine locks up and we have to do a force shut off. So I just said pull that stuff out and let's look at this more closely. Maybe the sticks were not seated right or whatever. Inspected and everything looked fine. His friend was so fed up he ran and got his MBP 13 and opened it up (he has stock 4 GB) and put it in his machine. His MBP booted up fine and we played with it for about 1.5hrs and did not crash. He had photoshop and iMovie up at the same time running and the thing was working very good. With the 2 GB he said it lagged a lot.

So we're not sure. I told him to return the OWC and buy Crucial but now he's all up and arms saying "I'm just gonna waste my money and buy Apple RAM at the Apple Store and be done with this crap!!!!" he was pretty frustrated as he needs to get going on some work projects I guess and he now doesn't care if its gonna cost him $200. He says its peace of mind. Well not peace of mind for your wallet!!!! haha.

thoughts? just a fluke? OWC I've heard a lot of good things but I've never used the stuff. I normally used Crucial. Isn't Apple RAM the same thing anyway?! his $... just think its weird that his machine didn't like 2 brands of RAM, kinda made me think its the machine...

 

[akadmon]

Staggers on its feet like a drunken sailor. Oh wait, you said RAM. Nevermind

Have you guys ruled out problems with the HD?

 

[Sneakz]

To test the RAM, burn a bootable MemTest 86 disk and run it. Maybe more than once.

 

[iMetalG5]

at the Apple Store now. my bro bought the ultra expensive $200 RAM. But first we got to go in the back (we got there at opening so there was no one in there) and the mac genius said he'd test out the OWC RAM for the hell of it. I noticed they had a bunch of G-Drives & G-RAIDs back there hooked up to a ton of machines, kinda neat. I guess they use it to stress test Macs. All they use are G-Technology stuff. Anyway after 1/2hr the kid said its the OWC RAM. I did not bother to ask him how he came to that conclusion because quite frankly its not my machine and i am dead beat tired from staying up till 3am trying to figure it out and then going to the Apple Store first thing... not with it yet. I was sorta nervous they were gonna say his MBP is shot and he voided the warranty somehow.

anyway it was funny at first they charged my bro $100+tax for the 4 GB RAM and no one said anything until another employee was like, "Wait is that MBP fresh out of the box???? Did you take the 2 GB back?" And the kid was all flustered and said "uh what?"

damn he almost got the infamous rip off Apple RAM for $100!!!! hahaha. Well they put the RAM in and so far so good. I need lunch and i'm gonna take a nap. I guess he is going to return the OWC stuff.

 

[Habitus]

My bro is having one heck of a time with RAM upgrades. First he popped in two Kingston 2 GB sticks and thought all was well. His MBP 2.26 was fine for a few hrs until when he tried to restart and he got the 'gray screen of death' where nothing happened. just clocking, no apple logo. So we removed the RAM and put in the stock 2 GB. Started up fine. Put the Kingston back in. Would not start. Ok prob solved.

Then he just got OWC RAM and put in 2 sticks. Ran fine for the night but he called me over late last night and he is getting the SBBOD when trying to open Photoshop, iMovie, and iTunes. I had to hold the power button down to get out. Definitly not normal. Restarted and it was fine. It shows 4 GB RAM...but again the machine locks up and we have to do a force shut off. So I just said pull that stuff out and let's look at this more closely. Maybe the sticks were not seated right or whatever. Inspected and everything looked fine. His friend was so fed up he ran and got his MBP 13 and opened it up (he has stock 4 GB) and put it in his machine. His MBP booted up fine and we played with it for about 1.5hrs and did not crash. He had photoshop and iMovie up at the same time running and the thing was working very good. With the 2 GB he said it lagged a lot.

So we're not sure. I told him to return the OWC and buy Crucial but now he's all up and arms saying "I'm just gonna waste my money and buy Apple RAM at the Apple Store and be done with this crap!!!!" he was pretty frustrated as he needs to get going on some work projects I guess and he now doesn't care if its gonna cost him $200. He says its peace of mind. Well not peace of mind for your wallet!!!! haha.

thoughts? just a fluke? OWC I've heard a lot of good things but I've never used the stuff. I normally used Crucial. Isn't Apple RAM the same thing anyway?! his $... just think its weird that his machine didn't like 2 brands of RAM, kinda made me think its the machine...

I feel your bro's pain. However, this is a fluke. OWC sells quality products. Tell him to give them one more chance.

Habitus

 

[iMetalG5]

i think u are correct because there is so much positive out there for OWC

update: bro's MBP 2.26 with rip off Apple RAM is working flawless. He is very happy with being taken for $200 for 4 GB of RAM We did put in the OWC 4 GB RAM into another friend's MBP 2.26 and it did not work. So the RAM is faulty. Again I have no experience with OWC but I see A+ reviews everywhere so this is a fluke. Maybe someone mishandled the RAM and broke it, who knows. I've used Crucial since 2001 with no probs. I used Kingston once and had probs and used PNY once and had probs. Never with Crucial or Apple RAM (when it came stock).