Memory Crasher - MBP 15 i7

Hey Guys,

I decided to upgrade my MBP to a nice 6gb of ram, and purchased : Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9S-4GBSQ

The memory came fine, but after few days of use I noticed that system would randomly crash on me usually amidst of doing something important. I removed the original 2gb of ram and kept only the new 4gb chip I got. Still constant crashes, probably twice a day. When put back to original config (2+2) system works like a charm. Do you think:

1) My memory chip is faulty?
2) This chip needs to have a pair of 4+4 to operate?
3) It's not compatible with my MBP ?

Aside from that, could somebody please make a recommendation about upgrading to 8gb for MBP 15 i7 ? I'd really apprecaite it. I'm ready to order now...

 

for DDR memory speed, you need to 2 equivalent modules. however, it should be perfectly operable without equivalent modules. the memory chip is faulty. it is compatible with the macbook pro in general. get it replaced. also, order the second module to match the one you are replacing if you want DDR memory speeds. it will give you nearly double the memory performance. maybe 1.5x. for memory intensive situations, this can be helpful. again, it's not the end of the world if you don't do it that way, and it will work regardless.

 

could be a bad chip.

I'd recommend getting this one:

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model F3-8500CL7S-4GBSQ

I have one of these in my MBP and have for several months. no problems.

fun fact: when I bought it in May...it was $180.00USD. *sigh* buying products during shortages sucks.

 

uhhg... thats he same ones I have... 2 of them.. one went bad and I got it replaced, then the other started going bad and I get kernel panics all the time... I got the replacement from the first one but haven't been tempted to put it back in. I'll probably never buy g.skill again.

 

oh man. no problems for me yet. knock on wood.

 

Did you end up getting something else? I don't know if I trust G.Skill...

 

I need to put in the stick I got back and run a test on it, and use it a few days... hopefully its good... and I need to get the other stick that worked new for like 1 week fine replaced... I'm going to stick the new one in one of my machines today and loop it through some memtests

I usually get all Crucial, directly from them, and for the machine I want to use it in so the guarantee it will work. I've never had an issue going that way. I have seen some bad Crucial sticks from time to time, but they warranty replace them quickly... I think from this point on I'm only buying Crucial anymore and stop looking for cheap ram... I got what I paid for.

 

I did that last time I upgraded my 'older' C2D MBPro- Paid $80 for a 2gig stick that was $35 about 3 weeks later. So I feel your pain, especially when I got your same memory, but the 8GB - 2x4GB - set for $87 from Newegg around the end of November.

BTW, this brand and set-up has been working great. I'd recommend it to anyone looking to upgrade. Sounds like the OP got a bad stick or maybe the new MBPros don't like unmatched ram or unmatched brands. I know it's only supposed to matter if you want DDR speed, but you never know....my last home built win7 rig didn't like ram from different manufacturers even in matched pairs- I even tested the sticks in another system to make sure they were good.../shrug

 

I had 2 bad of these with manufacturing date of October 2010... I got them replaced with December 2010 dated ram and its been working fine for a few weeks now.