Upgrading RAM on the new blackbook.

[GoGoPoCoSo]

Hi. Okay, so I've read all the guides, seen a lot of the videos so I can pretty much do the operation without referral and such. I've also checked the Buyer's Guide here and noticed that OWC is in the "good list", so hopefully the quality of the RAM will not be a concern here (I bought 2gb of ram x2 (so 4gb) for $99).

My main concern are some of the threads I've read around about people upgrading RAM in their new laptop and having it brick the thing. That is absolutely frightening for me (I've only had my laptop for <1 week). So my questions here really are:

-What exactly could be the reason(s) for their macbooks getting bricked and how much risk am I in when I perform the RAM upgrade?

-OWC/4gb in new book are A-OK?

-Am I being too paranoid? How could I be re-assured that I won't end up with a new brick? (I should note that I've had a laptop a few years ago brick on me, though not due to RAM upgrade, but rather trying to remove dust from the inside).

I'm sorry if this seems like a somewhat recycled question but as you can see I really want to make sure that it's 100% alright to go through with this. Anyways, I thank you for your time in reading this and will be checking this thread often.

 

[netnothing]

Not sure what you mean by bricked. Worst case is that the machine won't boot or will have kernel panics due to the new RAM. However, just remove it and put the original Apple RAM back in and you're good to go.

OWC is a good company to deal with. I just recently upgraded 2 MacBooks with the 4GB RAM sets from OWC. I did have 1 bad DIMM that I needed to return, but that was quickly taken care of.

I don't think you have anything to worry about.

I would keep the Apple RAM however. If you ever need Apple to service the laptop, there is a good chance they'll want the Apple RAM in there. If you machine should ever have problems, Apple will suspect any 3rd party hardware first. So just keep the original RAM in a safe place.

-Kevin

 

[GoGoPoCoSo]

Not sure what you mean by bricked. Worst case is that the machine won't boot or will have kernel panics due to the new RAM. However, just remove it and put the original Apple RAM back in and you're good to go.

OWC is a good company to deal with. I just recently upgraded 2 MacBooks with the 4GB RAM sets from OWC. I did have 1 bad DIMM that I needed to return, but that was quickly taken care of.

I don't think you have anything to worry about.

I would keep the Apple RAM however. If you ever need Apple to service the laptop, there is a good chance they'll want the Apple RAM in there. If you machine should ever have problems, Apple will suspect any 3rd party hardware first. So just keep the original RAM in a safe place.

-Kevin

Well when I read the threads, they would talk about how, even after trying to put back in the original RAM, the macbook wouldn't work anymore. In one case, the person determined that it was due to the faulty switch that pops out the RAM chips that caused his macbook to cause problems. However, for others, it seems that they couldn't quite figure out why it caused their macbook to not work anymore - and so by bricked I mean that, even after trying to put in the old RAM, the laptop will not work anymore and thus render is useless.

 

[JNB]

Well when I read the threads, they would talk about how, even after trying to put back in the original RAM, the macbook wouldn't work anymore. In one case, the person determined that it was due to the faulty switch that pops out the RAM chips that caused his macbook to cause problems. However, for others, it seems that they couldn't quite figure out why it caused their macbook to not work anymore - and so by bricked I mean that, even after trying to put in the old RAM, the laptop will not work anymore and thus render is useless.

I've never seen a thread like that, but in the cases you mention, sounds like the user broke the retainers. I've swapped thousands of stick of RAM over the decades, and never shorted one due to static no broken a stick, bus, or retainer. You have to try to screw things up, really.

 

[mreg376]

Hi. Okay, so I've read all the guides, seen a lot of the videos so I can pretty much do the operation without referral and such. I've also checked the Buyer's Guide here and noticed that OWC is in the "good list", so hopefully the quality of the RAM will not be a concern here (I bought 2gb of ram x2 (so 4gb) for $99).

My main concern are some of the threads I've read around about people upgrading RAM in their new laptop and having it brick the thing. That is absolutely frightening for me (I've only had my laptop for <1 week). So my questions here really are:

-What exactly could be the reason(s) for their macbooks getting bricked and how much risk am I in when I perform the RAM upgrade?

-OWC/4gb in new book are A-OK?

-Am I being too paranoid? How could I be re-assured that I won't end up with a new brick? (I should note that I've had a laptop a few years ago brick on me, though not due to RAM upgrade, but rather trying to remove dust from the inside).

I'm sorry if this seems like a somewhat recycled question but as you can see I really want to make sure that it's 100% alright to go through with this. Anyways, I thank you for your time in reading this and will be checking this thread often.

There's always an issue possible when you're dealing with inexpensive RAM. I've always used Crucial, which is competitively priced but not the cheapest on the planet. I've been buying RAM from them for PC upgrades for years, have NEVER had a defective module, and recently upgraded a new Macbook and new iMac to 4GB without any problems. But their two 2-GB modules are $115, not $99. I guess you have to decide what that $16 is worth to you.

 

[GoGoPoCoSo]

Seems I was just being paranoid...I installed it, shows up, and currently testing it. However, it seems that the last screw on the L-metal didn't go in all the way (which drove me mad), hopefully it's safe to assume that it'll still be alright and won't interfere with battery...right? :s