uMBP 2.53 Error Beeps

[peskaa]

My unibody MBP has been acting up a bit strange recently - purchased in October/November 2008 it has been fine, without any issues until now.

If I let the battery drain all the way down in sleep (ie: don't use it for a few days, not plugged in) when I reconnect the MBP to the power and let it charge for a while, on boot up I will get a constant triple-chime coming from the system. Googling has shown me that this is a RAM error.

This has happened twice in a month (I don't usually let it go flat to be fair), but in use there never seems to be any problems with the RAM, nor in waking from sleep. It simply appears that when I let the battery go, the MBP decides it has faulty RAM.

Taking the back off and re-seating the RAM makes it work again. That said, whilst the battery is draining the MBP hasn't moved an inch, so I don't see how the RAM can magically become unseated.


Any ideas, or do I take it to Apple and have a word?

 

[brop52]

Well three beeps means that there are no good banks. That's not good. I'd say you should take it in.

Though you can reset the PRAM and SMC for good measure before that happens and run the Apple Hardware Test from the Leopard DVD by holding down D at startup along with running it in a loop.

Reset the SMC by shutting down, unplugging the magsafe, unplugging all peripherals, taking out the battery, and holding down the power button for five seconds. Next, put everything back and hold down command-option-p-r at startup until it chimes twice and then let it start normally or start up from the Hardware Test by holding D if you'd like to run that.

 

[peskaa]

PRAM and SMC resets don't do anything, should have said that the first time round! I'll try the hardware test tonight and see if that comes up with anything.

Tempted to take it in beeping and let them sort it out rather than trying to diagnose the problem myself.