10-06-2011, 07:58 PM

Hello all! I just joined this site after determining it holds the most knowledgable membership of any Mac site I have found. That being said, I need help! After becoming enthralled with apple products in the last year, iPod iPhone iPad, I bought a 2006 black MacBook off of craigslist and made my switch to apple complete. All is well except one problem.
The Mac came with 2 gigs of ram installed and a fresh 320 gig hard drive. As soon as I got it I upgraded to lion os and purchased a 4 gig, 2x2, memory kit from other world computing. According to all I have read, this computer can handle 4 gigs and when I installed it, it recognizes it and seems to work. Shortly after the computer will reset itself and return to exactly where I was before, sometimes will happen after 10 minutes of use sometimes after shorter or longer periods if use. I spoke with tech support and did a pram reset and removed battery and drained holding down power button. Thought it was bad memory so returned and got a replacement. Same problem.
As soon as I replace with the 2 gigs, everything works fine. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

10-06-2011, 09:08 PM

It depends on which Black MacBook you have that's from 2006. Two were issued that year. The first series can only utilize 2 GB of memory; anything more than that will cause the machine to either shut down or reboot.

The second issue of 2006 can utilize 3 GB of memory. I suspect your machine is the early version and that's why you're having difficulties.

10-06-2011, 09:18 PM

My blackbook is the late 2006 model that can utilize 3 gigs of ram. Supposedly there is a benefit to using a "matched" set of 2x2 gigs even though apple says it is only capable of utilizing 3. That being said, will I even notice a difference with the added 1 gig? Or should I just give up on the more power idea and just stick with what works?

10-06-2011, 09:48 PM

You're correct about the late 2006 if that's what you have. 2 x 2 GB modules are better than 1 x 1 GB + 1 x 2 GB to keep the memory in matched pairs.

Also, Apple does not say 3 GB, they say 2 GB. The 3 GB comes from third party memory suppliers such as OWC and MacTracker. Having said that, the 2 x 2 GB modules should have worked. However, if your machine runs OK with 2 GB, that's what I would use.