Defective RAM?? Please help!

Hi all,

Here's what's happened so far with my RAM...I'd really appreciate any help. I recently upgraded to 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) OCZ RAM for my MBP. While running Vista 32 bit and playing games, I noticed that it started lagging during the game which would get temporarily better if I alt-tabbed onto the desktop and back in. I posted in the Aftermarkets Upgrades forum about this issue ( check it here) and followed the advice to test my RAM through memtest86+. I got TONS of errors. Oddly enough, I got errors on my original sticks of RAM as well!

Has anyone else experienced this with their Macs? Could it be that memtest86+ isn't compatible with Macs or is it really a hardware issue?

On a related issue, has anyone else noticed that games run SLOWER with 4 GB of RAM installed in Vista 32 bit? It was suggested that perhaps there's an issue where the OS is only able to address ~ 3GB and someone "trips up" over the remaining memory...

Thanks for any advice!

 

I don't think it is directly a hardware issue. However, there is no harm in going back to Apple with the ORIGINAL RAM in there and see what they say. Tell them you ran the test because things were acting awkward and then see what they say. As far as replacing the RAM, I know people who have done it and have had no issues.

As far as the 4GB of RAM with the Vista 32-bit version...well, you really don't NEED 4GB. I have 4GB with my 64-bit version in my desktop and it runs excellently. In one of my laptops I have the 32-bit version with 2GB and it runs fine. If anything, it should be running better with 4GB...you may have to uninstall Vista and then re-install...worse case scenario.

 

Thanks for the reply! I may have to take the original RAM back to Apple, but the problem is also my new RAM that I'm not sure about. And if all 4 sticks (2 new, 2 old) are giving memtest86+ errors, there must be something else going on...

I found out there's an OS X version of memtest... http://www.memtestosx.org/ Has anyone had any experience with it? Maybe it'll give a more accurate diagnosis.

In terms of 4 GB RAM, it makes sense that it works fine on your Vista 64 bit since it can address all of them memory...I'm just wondering what other people's experiences are with Vista 32 bit and 4 GB of RAM (especially if you own a Mac).

Thanks again for any help!

 

haven't 4GB of ram and a 32bit OS shouldn't cause any issues. im running 32bit XP Pro just fine on 4GB. It only recognizes 3GB, but there aren't any skipping memory issues or anything like that.

 

The OS X disc that came with the Mac should include a diagnostic mode. I believe you need to press "d" while booting to boot into the diagnostic program. It includes a memory testing function. You should see what results you get in that, since I doubt Apple's going to be able to draw very many conclusions from a third-party Windows utility.

 

itcommander, u beat me to it. yeah, do the test.

 

Thanks for the replies! I'll try the included RAM diagnostic, though I've read that it isn't very good at catching errors. Has anyone had any experience with memtest for OS X?

Have you noticed any sluggishness in games (assuming you play them)? I never experienced any skipping per se, but games were definitely slower with my new 4 GB of OCZ RAM compared with my stock 2 GB of Samsung RAM...

 

My MBP came with 1GB stock and when I switched to 2x2GB OS X was perfectly fine with it and a lot faster. XP however was temper-mental. The first few times I rebooted into XP, it would BSOD and only boot completely every third time. I did some hard resets, like cmd+option+r+p and taking out my battery and holding the power button for 10 seconds. I'm not sure if those helped, but I've gotten no further problems now. It might have just been XP or some third-party utilities not adapting to the RAM increase, but eventually they figured themselves out. XP is definitely faster too.

It's not really the same problems you've been having. But you could always try a PRAM reset:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

and resetting the SMC:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411

I shouldn't hurt anything anyways.

 

Well, I have to say good call on the Apple Hardware Test. I didn't find any RAM errors, BUT I found an error for my "Video Controller"! I guess I shouldn't be surprised given all the news about NVIDIA graphics lately... I'll have to call Apple tomorrow about this

Edit: I Googled the error code, and this HUGE thread came up on the Apple Support Forum. Apparently I'm not the only one getting this problem! So if anyone else is having sluggish graphics or blank screens on their MBPs, run that Apple Hardware Test!

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1478474&tstart=0