Issues with upgrading RAM in iMac.

Had a question on upgrading (adding more RAM). Is there any particular sequence of events you need to complete after adding more RAM? I upgraded both of my Macs (iMac to 16 GB of RAM and Macbook Pro 13" to 8 GB of RAM). Didn't have one issue with the MacBook Pro, but with my iMac it froze about 5 times. Now it seems to be working fine, but what caused this to happen? Do I need to run a program like Onyx to check the status of the system? Any explaination as to what caused this would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Ed

P.S. I bought the RAM from OWC.

You may just want to check the RAM is seated properly, take it out then put it back in pressing firmly to make sure it is all the way in. Could be that.
However if it is seated properly and you still have problems with it, it could be a case of faulty or incorrect RAM and should ask for a replacement.

- Simon

yep, sounds like a seating issue. if problems still occur, try swapping RAM out, see if theres a dodgy module.

Well folks. I took your advice and took out the RAM placed them all back in and it works fine. However (big However), when I go in the system profiler and click the "Memory" portion it reads as follows:

Memory Slots Size Type Speed Status

BANK 0/DIMMO EMPTY EMPTY EMPTY EMPTY
BANK 1/DIMMO 4 GB DDR3 1067 MHZ OK
BANK 0/DIMMO EMPTY EMPTY EMPTY EMPTY
BANK 1/DIMMO 4 GB DDR3 1067 MHZ OK



Yes, all four slots are filled with 4GB RAM boards, yet now only 8 GB is being recognized. No complaints, because now it is not freezing up at all and running smooth. Yesterday it registered all 16 GB before I took them out and placed them back in (however it froze up all the time). Does this mean the two are defective or did I do something wrong again? Also, can anyone show me in a picture which slots at BANK 1 and which slots are BANK 0? Any help would be deeply appreciated. Also is there anyway to reset the banks and if so, how do you go about doing that. Thanks!

May God Bless!

Ed

replying.... sounds a bit dodgy to me. if its all working properly I wouldn't worry about it too much though.

Have you ever used the extra two ram slots before?

If all 4 slots are filled with 4GB memory sticks, you should be seeing 16GB of memory and not 8..the fact that it shows 2 of those slots as empty means that it's not finding the memory chips. Perhaps the chips are defective or not quite seated properly..also make sure you follow proper anti-static methods when playing with memory sticks..

Regards

Raz0rEdge said:

also make sure you follow proper anti-static methods when playing with memory sticks..

Regards

Click to expand...

good point, did you ground yourself before you installed them?

Well,

I took all the four of the RAM cards out and just put two of them back in (upper two slots/as iMac is face down). Turned same back on and it is showing 8 GB of RAM, with this time the bottom showing empty (which is correct). Is it me or is it hard to push these cards in? The other two cards, I'm going to experiment with. I going to take out the two that are working and put the other two RAM cards to see if they are in fact defective. Just as a precaution, how do you properly ground yourself before installing RAM. Thanks for all the help folks.

May God bless.

Ed

Yes, the RAM stick do take a bit to get seated in properly..and there doesn't seem to be any sort of a "click" feeling or sound to indicate that it's seated properly. I recently did the upgrade and basically pushed the RAM stick until I was certain there was no more play in them.

Make sure you discharge any built up static electricity on a piece of metal or something before touching the memory sticks.

Also try to hold the memory sticks at the outer edges and avoid touching the chips directly..

The newer chips are a LOT more resilient to static discharge than the old ones, but all the precautions still help..

Regards

you can either wear an ESD wristband, or you can touch a piece of metal that is connected to a ground (For instance, in a MBP, Apple recommend discharging static by touching the metal case of the optical drive before doing anything.)