8 Maniac

So, I may have screwed up in advising a friend on purchasing some replacement RAM for her macbook pro. She has a late 2009 model so it should be expandable up to 8 GB PC3-8500. I accidentally advised her to get PC3-10600 and it's only detecting 4GB. I'm not sure why I recommended the 10600 in the first place, but I thought it should still work, just not running at the full 1033 MHz. So, either I'm wrong or one of them is no functioning. I haven't taken a look at it myself, so I can't completely rule out that maybe she messed something up, but RAM is fairly simple and I feel confident she didn't screw up. Here's what she ordered: Amazon Amazon   Amazon (Thumbnails) Did I advise her wrong or should this work? Or is there a way to get it working? There's still a couple things I'm hoping to try before she tries to return it, but I'd definitely appreciate any input. Edit: Also, I've never seen a link automatically embed itself like that... is that a new feature or something? lol

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fuztupnz

I believe the Mid and Late 2009 only officially supported 4gb. If so, I know that some people had luck with some RAM and not others reading 8.

Edit: It can be forced into the 64bit kernel (doesn't by default), it may see the extra ram if she's on Snow Leopard (10.6.x) or Lion (10.7.x)

run, or have her run:

sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture x86_64

in terminal. It will ask for her password after you hit enter.

Restart the machine

8 Maniac

She bought her laptop after they made the transition and it is up to date, so it should have the EFI update that allows up to 8 GB anyway. The late 2009 models were the start of officially supporting 8 GB. Since it was after that change, it should have been expandable to 8GB out of the box.

Should the PC3-10600 be causing issues?

Edit: Thanks for the 64 bit idea. Should that be required for it to use the 8 GB?

Also, would something have changed as a result of her installing the different RAM? She switched back to her old RAM and it's only registering half of that now. I'd hope nothing is wrong with the RAM slot on the laptop itself, but now I'm concerned that might be the case. She's paranoid that she was too rough with installing it, but I'm pretty sure she has enough common sense to have been careful enough to avoid that kind of problem.

I'm reasonably literate when it comes to computer hardware and I've built multiple computers and all of that stuff before, but I'm under the impression that the PC3-10600 definitely should not have caused damage, correct? I'm almost certain I'm being paranoid, but I can't help but worry that my advice caused damage to her computer. Like I said, I don't think that should be the case, but now I'm paranoid I might be wrong.

fuztupnz

could be i suppose. When i worked at Apple, some of the late G4 PB's and the early Intel machines had issues reading higher speed RAM. Most of it was because the pin outs kept changing so quickly.

Before you try different RAM, try the 64bit boot.

fuztupnz

We might be over thinking this. Did you have her check System Profiler/Information to see if both sticks are showing up?

If they aren't one might not be seated properly which is a pretty common thing. The lower slot is a pita sometimes and will look seated but not be, and still let the ram seat properly in the top slot.

fuztupnz

Another thing to do is have her reset the PRAM if she hasn't

command+option+P+R at boot. Hold for 2 boot chimes.

8 Maniac

That might be the case. She's going to stop by and I'll be able to look at it myself. That seems MUCH more likely than the slot actually being damage, but I might be wrong.

I now have respect for people that do troubleshooting over the phone... every time she texts me with new information, my immediate thought is that I need to see it myself. Fortunately, she has a little time to stop by.

I know that macs and windows computers aren't THAT different, but I'd feel much more comfortable dealing with a windows computer lol. At least I can check BIOS settings and such with windows. After having her issues popped up, I've learned that apple uses something called EFI and it's not accessible lol. I upgraded the RAM on my old macbook and I think I might have done exactly what you said... left one of them not completely seated. I do remember it taking a lot more force than I expected. Maybe she's just not familiar with how it should feel and didn't realize it wasn't seated completely.

8 Maniac

Thanks for the ideas... this thread has given me a lot more information than I found in 15-20 minutes of google searching.

fuztupnz

I know the feeling. it's what i do for a living. I'm one of two mac guys for an outsourced IT company. I give up and go on site quite often, but usually i can remote in and fix it. I used to know all the specs for everything off of the top of my head, but i deal with too many places using too many different pieces of equipment to care.

The unibody ones at least have plastic retainers instead of the metal ones that the powerbooks had. The last of the powerbooks were notorious for having ram slots go bad. If it didn't go bad, the ******* metal retainers would bend and the ram wouldn't stay in properly.

I'm about to get off the computer for the night, but if you get stuck, send me a pm so i'll get the email notification and can get back to you.

8 Maniac

Thanks again.

She has plans, so I'll probably just try those things for tonight.

Is it common for the the slots to go bad on the newer macbooks? Generally, I'd assume that's more likely than someone damaging them, but I guess you never know.

fuztupnz

No problem dude. It's possible that the slot could fail, but I haven't seen any with that problem with any of my clients. Hopefully it's just not seated properly. Hit me up if you run into any snags though.

8 Maniac

When I got the chance to look at it, she had put the stock RAM back in. Those seemed to be seated properly, but it's definitely a tight space, so it might have just needed a little more. I swapped the new RAM in and I can see why you might think it's in when it's not. I made sure it was in really well and it showed 8 GB once I booted it up.

Definitely glad it was the simplest solution. She felt bad that it was that simple, but it's a lot better than her trying to force it and end up with a broken part.

fuztupnz

woot. Glad it was simple

Now to the important part:

Is she hot?

Did you get a proper thank you?

8 Maniac

lol, she is attractive, but we're safely in the "just friends" category. On top of that, I have a girlfriend so I'll have to categorize her saying thank you as a proper thank you

(Yes, I know that was a terribly boring answer!)

DarkLord7854

You'd be shocked how often that happens with any type of computer part..