MP 6,1 System slowdown due to failing ECC memory?

[th0masp]

Hi all,

Yesterday out of the blue my Trashcan started to act weird: laggy in applications, downright unbearable in the browser and even disc access on the internal NVMe was choppy. No errors in the console as far as I could make out and activity monitor didn't show any processes that were running wild either. A restart didn't fix it.

By accident I stumbled over the memory diagnostics in 'About this Mac' and it showed three out of four RAM sticks with errors, one had reported like 90000 errors.
I've now replaced the 16GB DIMM's in there with a set of 4GB 🙄 modules the machine originally shipped with and lo and behold the computer seems back to normal.

Just wondering if its plausible that failing ECC memory can be the sole culprit here. No application crashes, no error pop-ups, no ruined files (so far anyway) - just everything behaving like somebody had just pulled the handbrake.

 

[Sciuriware]

Hi all,

Yesterday out of the blue my Trashcan started to act weird: laggy in applications, downright unbearable in the browser and even disc access on the internal NVMe was choppy. No errors in the console as far as I could make out and activity monitor didn't show any processes that were running wild either. A restart didn't fix it.

By accident I stumbled over the memory diagnostics in 'About this Mac' and it showed three out of four RAM sticks with errors, one had reported like 90000 errors.
I've now replaced the 16GB DIMM's in there with a set of 4GB 🙄 modules the machine originally shipped with and lo and behold the computer seems back to normal.

Just wondering if its plausible that failing ECC memory can be the sole culprit here. No application crashes, no error pop-ups, no ruined files (so far anyway) - just everything behaving like somebody had just pulled the handbrake.

So, you ever replaced the original memory with a higher capacity set? Sure those were compatible?
The last time I did something like that, I left some of the original memory in place,
with the idea that any repair people could not blame the additional memory for any problem.
Fortunately newer machines have been soldered ...
;JOOP!

 

[th0masp]

So, you ever replaced the original memory with a higher capacity set? Sure those were compatible?
The last time I did something like that, I left some of the original memory in place,
with the idea that any repair people could not blame the additional memory for any problem.
Fortunately newer machines have been soldered ...
;JOOP!

Pretty sure - the were sold as specifically compatible with this machine and also they've been working in the machine for like six years now. Until very recently, it appears. Never seen such a stutter before.

 

[reader50]

By accident I stumbled over the memory diagnostics in 'About this Mac' and it showed three out of four RAM sticks with errors, one had reported like 90000 errors.

How do you reach a memory diagnostic from 'About this Mac'? On my 4,1 -> 5,1 I can go through to the System Report, where the Memory section gives info and a Status of OK for each stick. But I've never seen an obvious diagnostic interface to run tests, or error counts.

 

[DeltaMac]

You can look at the Memory tab in your System Information app (it's in your /Applications/Utilities folder), which may show you that your memory (the larger ones that you have been using 'til now) status likely show something different from "OK"
Or, you can boot into the built-in hardware diagnostics on most Macs - https://support.apple.com/en-us/102550.
As part of the test, it will scan your memory, and will end with a reference code, which the Diagnostics link can help with understanding, or (if you do run that diagnostics), you can post the results here, and someone can help you with that.

 

[reader50]

It sounds like the stick status of 'OK' changes to an error count, if errors occur. So no hidden extra info after all - too bad.

Unfortunately, my hardware diagnostics are long gone. It's 16 years after manufacture and every drive has been upgraded multiple times. I might have the original optical drive somewhere, but that's all.

Fortunately, I don't have any errors to track down. My system is stable. I got interested at the hint of a hidden memory panel I wasn't aware of.

 

[richmlow]

Hi all,

Yesterday out of the blue my Trashcan started to act weird: laggy in applications, downright unbearable in the browser and even disc access on the internal NVMe was choppy. No errors in the console as far as I could make out and activity monitor didn't show any processes that were running wild either. A restart didn't fix it.

By accident I stumbled over the memory diagnostics in 'About this Mac' and it showed three out of four RAM sticks with errors, one had reported like 90000 errors.
I've now replaced the 16GB DIMM's in there with a set of 4GB 🙄 modules the machine originally shipped with and lo and behold the computer seems back to normal.

Just wondering if its plausible that failing ECC memory can be the sole culprit here. No application crashes, no error pop-ups, no ruined files (so far anyway) - just everything behaving like somebody had just pulled the handbrake.

Yes, it sounds like the failing ECC memory was the cause of your problems.

richmlow

 

[th0masp]

So, after a couple days of running with only 16 GB of memory - which I found is really not workable for my use case - I discovered ECC errors even with the original Apple memory sticks. And the slowdown returned. Experienced a kernel panic too - first in many years.

Tracked it down to one DIMM slot and am running with only three sticks for now - 16 GB ones, screw it!. I didn't even know that you could run uneven numbers of memory sticks.

Anyway, fingers crossed that this is workable. Else it may be time to retire this machine if something on the board has failed there. DIMM slot looks good to the naked eye, nothing bent, clean too.