Weird problem on 2010 MacBook Pro

[klagoosh]

Hi folks,

I have a really strange problem with a mid 2010 13-inch Macbook Pro. I saw someone else had a similar problem in 2017, but it was never really solved. In his case, it just kind of went away.

I was having trouble loading a new HDD on this unit, a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo. It would almost load, then stop and sit indefinitely, never fully loading. I tried a new ribbon, and that did not help. So I pulled the RAM and set it aside.

Today, I decided to try booting it up with a stick I have loaded with OS X 10.11.6. I put 2GB of RAM in it, a pair of 1GB 1067s. It took longer than it usually takes most machines to boot, but it finally booted and worked fine, albeit pretty slow. 2GB isn't much. But when I when to About in the Apple menu, it is reporting the memory as 2 GB ???

Has anyone else seen this or figured it out since 2017? These are sticks that work fine in other machines I'm working on, just not this one. But I've also tried other sticks and still had a problem with it hanging and never fully loading from a hard drive.

Any ideas?

Many thanks

 

[wilberforce]

I put 2GB of RAM in it...

...it is reporting the memory as 2 GB ???

Not understanding the issue: you say you put in 2GB RAM, and then it reported 2GB RAM. What is unexpected about that?

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Seems to be working as intended.

 

[FNH15]

Are you saying that the RAM speed is blank?
As in the About this Mac reads “2GB ????” as opposed to “2GB 1067 MHz”?

What does System Profiler show under Memory? Have you tried an SMC reset?

 

[klagoosh]

Are you saying that the RAM speed is blank?
As in the About this Mac reads “2GB ????” as opposed to “2GB 1067 MHz”?

What does System Profiler show under Memory? Have you tried an SMC reset?

Yes, that is correct. The profiler, itself, gives the correct information. I have tried an SMC reset, too. Didn't work. I have also tried different RAM. Same issue. Now I have discovered it will load up and run on a USB stick, but not on a known good hard drive. I even changed the ribbon just in case.

 

[FNH15]

Yes, that is correct. The profiler, itself, gives the correct information. I have tried an SMC reset, too. Didn't work. I have also tried different RAM. Same issue. Now I have discovered it will load up and run on a USB stick, but not on a known good hard drive. I even changed the ribbon just in case.

Hmmm.

Do you know the history of this machine? Could be it’s missing a firmware update for 10.11. Perhaps try installing 10.6 on another partition to see if it recognizes the RAM there?

 

[klagoosh]

Hmmm.

Do you know the history of this machine? Could be it’s missing a firmware update for 10.11. Perhaps try installing 10.6 on another partition to see if it recognizes the RAM there?

Unfortunately, I do not know its history. It has not been possible to load anything on it. It will run off a USB if I disconnect the hard drive, but will not run or even fully load a hard drive. It will not finish booting off a preloaded hard drive. When I try to use Option at boot to load anything on a hard drive from a bootable USB I use successfully on many other machines, it hangs about halfway (according to the status bar). It's not the bootable USB that's the problem. It and several others I have work fine on identical machines. This one is a hair puller. The hardware test shows everything is fine when I run it solely from a USB drive. I have even tried several different new ribbons and hard drives, "known good" used ribbons and hard drives, as well as fully loaded hard drives pulled from other machines. is there a known logic board issue that would let you run it on a USB drive, but not the hard drive?