"3 Beeps of Death"

[joehealey]

A friends mac has encountered the 3 beep issue that is supposedly something to do with a RAM fault. It was overdue an upgrade anyway so a set of crucial 16GB DDR3 was bought for it (its a mid-2012 13" model). It appears this hasn't solved it though as a few hours later it crapped out again with the same beeps.

I've read about possibly resetting the NVRAM, does anyone know how likely this is to work and what other things we should try before perhaps admitting defeat and sending back for warranty repair?

 

[chas_m]

I have a mid-2012 13-inch non-Retina with 16GB of RAM, so it can certainly be done. You probably just ordered the wrong RAM -- needs to be 1600MHz or perhaps have not seated it correctly. If you were having the issue before the RAM upgrade, you need to listen for what type of beeps you're getting.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201702

 

[joehealey]

Yeah the issue was present before the upgrade (sorry, I thought I'd made that more clear). We assumed it would be dead RAM, and so bought the new set. I've tried reseating a couple of times (as that was also on the suspicion list for the old set of RAM), so I'm 99% certain it can't be that, and that we're facing a more sinister problem.

I can't see any reason why RAM incompatibility would be an issue as the set was purchased via crucial using their RAM compatibility program. The problem seems to be somewhat intermittent too and the mac CAN boot successfully every so often, but will crash sometime thereafter (which also encourages me that we have the right RAM else I wouldn't expect a boot of any kind).

I'll take a look at your link thanks, and for the sake of the thread, the beep pattern is 3 beeps in fairly quick succession, followed by a pause, then the 3 repeats. It does this on a gray screen.

 

[chas_m]

Have you performed these steps?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3826705?tstart=0

If so, I'd say the problem may not actually be the RAM but rather, the controller for the RAM may have gone bad. This would mean the logic board is shot, and that would be all she wrote for that machine (not worth repairing due to age).

 

[pigoo3]

Yeah the issue was present before the upgrade (sorry, I thought I'd made that more clear). We assumed it would be dead RAM, and so bought the new set.

Something else to consider (since you're getting the 3 beeps). Maybe the old ram was bad and the new ram is the wrong ram. This would account for the 3 beeps in both situations.

Also very carefully check each ram slot. Maybe there's some sort of foreign material trapped in there…or maybe there's a bent pin.

- Nick

 

[joehealey]

Nothing untoward noticed in the RAM slots. Double checked the ram on crucials site and ran Rember and Macs own memory check tool with the new RAM and no faults appeared.

The item is covered under our institutions warranty plan anyway so it's gone back for what I suspect will be a new logic board or a whole new unit. Will update here if Apple tell us what went wrong.

 

[pigoo3]

Will update here if Apple tell us what went wrong.

Please post any updates you get. Always nice to have an ending to a story. Especially if we can learn something from it

- Nick

 

[joehealey]

So the conclusion to this epic saga:

Apple repair team didn't actually say what was wrong, so I suspect the RAM controller, as their 'fix' was a new main logic board.

Long story short, it's messed up and any one else with the problem is gonna have to bite the bullet and take it back I'm afraid!

 

[pigoo3]

Thanks for the update Joe. A replacement logic board is usually a pretty serious & expensive affair. You mentioned the computer was covered by warranty (thus great no money out of pocket).

- Nick

 

[techiesteve]

In the last week I've seen 2 problems similar to Joe's issue. A 2011 17" MBP beeping a RAM fault continuously. The bottom RAM slot wasn't recognising any RAM. To minimise expenditure on an older Mac the 2 x 4GB was removed and a single 8GB fitted. The other failure was on a 2011 13" MBP, again a bottom slot failure, but intermittent, RAM was OK, logic board defective. In both cases visually the slots were OK. Not normally a common problem. Long ago on a 15" PowerBook G4 Apple had an REP for a similar memory slot problem.