Macbook Pro Beeping on startup & restart warning

Hey all!
New here! found your all after doing some googling trying to get some help for my macbook
Hope someone can help me!

Currently have a Macbook Pro 17" OS X version 10.5.8

2.16 GHz intel Core Duo

memory 2x 1gb which i bought 4 years ago this oct..

the main 2 problems i have been getting is, the mac crashes with a error message saying have to hold down power button and restart,

also when i try and power up again. mac beeps at me and does nothing

after doing some google research, see it may be a ram issue
first i tried removing and replacing my 2 x 1gb memory blocks
which resulted in the same issue, still wouldn't start

then i removed just one of the 1gb memory blocks,
which allows me to start again and seems to run better than before. although after a short time it will crash again "mainly after opening apps working in programs etc,, this will then give me the error message of needing to restart again. but will restart no probs,,
or will freeze with the spinning color wheel thing? and i have to restart by holding power button down

is this likely to be a ram issue still?
my 2x 1gb ram blocks were bought 2nd hand a few yrs back

should i replace both with new ones? also can i upgrade these while i'm forced into this situation, if so, is there a limit to what size i can upgrade to?

any help and advice would be most greatly appreciated
thanx for your time
Ben

Sounds like you've done a nice bit of troubleshooting! Everything you did with the ram is what I would have suggested.

The only thing I can say is...if the ram wasn't guaranteed to work in a Macintosh...maybe replacing it with ram guaranteed to work in a Mac may solve the problem. You could try these guys:

OWC

I understand that you've had this ram for like 2 years...but...incompatible ram is incompatible ram. Maybe it never works, works for 5 minutes, or maybe works for 2 years!

As far as max ram for your computer. 2 gig is the max.

HTH,

- Nick

Hi Nick,
thanx so much for getting back to us, No idea if the ram i added was guaranteed to work or not.. I did get it from a major mac user / programmer, Not that means anything really

cheers for sharing the shop link, although i'm UK based and need to get my mac sorted asap so need a quick delivery

another quick question, how will i know if new ram is guaranteed to work when looking to buy new ram..

thanx again for your help
Ben

InsaneBen said:

cheers for sharing the shop link, although i'm UK based and need to get my mac sorted asap so need a quick delivery

another quick question, how will i know if new ram is guaranteed to work when looking to buy new ram..

Click to expand...

Believe it or not...even though "OWC" is located in the United States...folks all over the world use them! This includes the UK, Europe, Australia, etc.

If you buy from these guys (OWC)...guaranteed to work in your Mac. You could also try these guys:

Crucial.com

Good luck,

- Nick

Cool nice one again Nick,,
will def check it out and the other link, hopefully this will solve it all.
Feel lost without my mac,
thanx again for your help and advice
all the best
Ben

You're Welcome!

Nice! Thanx for the Crucial.com link
Just downloaded and used the Crucial System Scanner tool to see just what i needed!
Ordered and paid for two new 1gb's rams
paid with paypal which was just what i needed,, no cards!
next day delivery,, so maybe a saturday delivery, failing that Monday!
And then i should be good to go again!


So glad i found this forum, and thanx for the great info Nick.. will def be keeping this site on my top favs

A happy mac user once again!

Wohoooo!!! New memory arrived this morning! Nice and quick! Back up and fully running on my macbook pro again! yes!!
;D

InsaneBen said:

Wohoooo!!! New memory arrived this morning! Nice and quick! Back up and fully running on my macbook pro again! yes!!
;D

Click to expand...

AWESOME!!! Like I mentioned earlier...maybe that ram that was originally in the computer wasn't "fully Mac compatible" for some reason...and even though it ran fine for two years...eventually it "crapped out"!

Great to hear the new ram worked!

Thanks for the update.

- Nick