Aluminum MacBooks don’t like memory upgrades
Macs are notorious for being intolerant when it comes to memory upgrades. They have been known for years to start exhibiting problems when RAM goes bad and especially when third party RAM upgrades are installed. Savvy Mac owners know there are a few vendors that produce RAM modules that work fine in Macs and know that to use RAM modules from other sources is asking for trouble.
I was aware of this reputation so when I decided to upgrade my new aluminum MacBook to 4 GB I played it safe and bought the memory from Crucial. Crucial memory has long been acceptable to use in Macs and I expected no problems from the upgrade. That was overly optimistic as it turned out. Continue on for the upgrade experience details.
I installed the 4 GB of RAM with no problems yesterday afternoon and used the MacBook fine all evening. Today I started using it and everything went fine until the system froze. Nothing was really running other than background processes but the MB froze. I had to manually power down and back up again which worked OK. The system eventually froze again and I started getting a bad feeling. A reboot fixed the problem again after which the MB ran for another half hour. That’s when the screen got all garbled with noise and hung up a third time.
I was beginning to suspect the memory upgrade to be the root of this problem as the Mac had run fine until upgrading the RAM. I went online and searched and entered a world of surpise. I found an Apple support forum where a large discussion is ongoing about the difficulty many are having upgrading the MacBook RAM. Many folks have tried upgrading the RAM in their new MacBooks using modules from acceptable vendors like Crucial and OWC only to have their Macs start exhibiting the same symptoms as mine. A number of people have tried exchanging the memory for other brands only to have the problem return.
The reports indicate that as soon as the original RAM, which happens to be Samsung branded modules in my case, is reinstalled the Macs run just fine again. Some folks have found luck using OWC branded RAM, others find Crucial RAM works fine, and others can’t get any third party RAM to work. The folks who end up returning the third party RAM and visiting Apple to purchase an "official" upgrade see their problems go away. It seems that the Samsung RAM that Apple has commissioned Samsung to produce must be manufactured to more stringent tolerance than the RAM other folks produce.
This is a bit surprising as I have not seen any reports of RAM problems appearing anywhere. It was only when I specifically suspected the cause of this problem and went searching for it that I found out it’s a bigger problem than I thought. I have not checked to see if the new MacBook Pros have the same difficulty so it may be more widespread than this. Interestingly Apple shows no memory upgrades are available online for the new MacBook or MacBook Pros so I wonder if they know something?
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I upgraded my Late 2008 (Aluminum) MacBook to 4GB of RAM using Crucial memory and have had no problems for about 7 weeks now.
I purchased the RAM from NewEgg. Here is a link to the type of RAM that I installed:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148191
upgraded to 4GB OWC on my 2.4 macbook. I hope I don’t see the problems you wrote about.
Rick, that’s the same Crucial memory I got. Some folks are not having problems with 3rd party RAM, but many are.
Why is it everytime you do something its the vendors (Apple) fault? First of all you are BREAKING your warranty. Secondly if you do order your RAM order the correct one!!!
actually, you are not voiding your warrenty by installing new ram, even if it is third party. if you read the macbook instruction guide it tells you how to do it
I also upgraded my 2.4GHz Alu Macbook with 4GB memory from MacSales(OWC) without any problem. I think the problem is just with Crucial’s chipset.
FWIW, I have always had great results with OWC memory modules, all the way back to my G3 PowerBook days…
Is upgrading Ram breaking warranty in the US? It’s not in Australia. Not unless the RAM you install causes another problem or breaks something else.
Gordon
So far so good for me. Does anyone know if this really is widespread, i.e. hundreds of thousands (5% or more) of owners or it it more likely hundreds?
On the forums, some are having problems with OWC RAM too. This is not restricted to just one party’s modules.
Jeff, this article said nothing about it being Apple’s fault. Plus, upgrading the RAM does not void the warranty. And third, the RAM I ordered is in fact the correct one. It’s working for some folks but not for others. Which is what the article indicated.