Recently purchased a 24" iMac that came with 1 gig of memory. Last Friday I went to the MacMall outlet and bought two 2 gig chips to upgrade to 4 gigs of RAM. Installed them and when I turned the computer on it would not start up all the way and made a beeping sound. The manual said if that happens to turn it off because either the memory is not compatible or it is not installed properly.

So opened it up and discovered that it had not been shoved in far enough to make the proper connection, so fixed that and it has been fine until last night.

Saw that Nikon had an upgrade for Capture NX and proceeded to download. For those who don't know, Nikon software, especially Capture NX can be very slow and buggy and prone to problems. Even more so with the Leopard OSX.

Well it started loading real fast and was almost finished when the computer locked up and I could not get it to quit the program so had to hold the power button down for the iMac to shut down.

So here is the weird thing, when it was turned back on it would not load up but made the distinctive beeping sound of memory not compatible or installed incorrectly. So I took the memory out and placed it back in again to no avail, tried all the different ways to restart the computer that Apple suggests, and finally switched the memory cards back to what originally came with it. Then it worked just fine again.

Downloaded the TechTool cd that comes with the Apple Care Protection Plan and did a diagnostic and everything came up roses.

If I call Apple they will probably say something to the effect that I did not buy the memory they provide and I am on my own. Don't know how MacMall is with returns for memory so figure I'd ask here first.

Could the bad download somehow have fried the memory, or was that a coincidence that the memory happened to go bad in the middle of a download? Anyone ever have memory go bad like that? Is it a problem in the iMac, or have you got any other ideas?

Thanks

what a nightmare! I just recently put 2 new gigs of 3rd party memory in my iMac but I had no problems. I'm sure they will replace the memory.

Craig B. wrote:

Could the bad download somehow have fried the memory, or was that a coincidence that the memory happened to go bad in the middle of a download?

It probably was just coincidence. The RAM could have had a problem from the beginning and completely failed at an inopportune moment. Some time ago I had a bad chip although it tested well with all the usual means. But at the first sign of warmer conditions, it would crash.

I would test it with other RAM to see id that is the problem for sure. Do you still have the original memory to test with?

Yes. it came with one 1 gig memory card, when I take the other two 2 gig cards out and reinsert the original memory everything works fine.

Sounds like Bad RAM ... I would return it for replacement. Keep in mind, this is probably not the fault of the reseller or the manufacturer, this could happen to any RAM. Damned inconvenient, but not a conspiracy either.

RAM you bought is probably faulty -- can't speak for Mac support but most companies will not honor a request for new factory RAM if the warranty is violated (for instance by installing third-party RAM not authorized by Mac).


If you take it to Apple Store and play dumb they'll probably just hand you a new one. The Genius Squad or whatever they are called at Apple Stores is trained to keep customer happy at all costs. They are also not hardware experts over there because they don't do anything in-house, so they probably won't know the difference if you pretend you don't either.

That said, I am not officially condoning advice as recited above. Proceed at your own risk.

Craig,

If you bought the RAM from Mac Mall, don't take it to the Apple Store. I have dealt with Mac Mall for years and they will treat you right. I'm sure the RAM is still under warranty and it should not be a problem to get a replacement. Apple doesn't have a problem with third party RAM as a rule as long as it meets their min. requirements.

Bad Ram Happens ( actually that would make a decent T-shirt

Take the chips back to where you got them and tell them to give you new ones, this has happened to me and the supplier replaced the chips and the 'puter was fine for 3 years after that.

Cheap ram means lower production standards and even when you buy Apple's pay through the nose prices on ram it can still happen, after 16 Mac's I still buy my RAM cheap, so far only once have I had problems but friends have gotten bad ram from Apple so it's pretty much par for the course

Best memory tester around for x86 based hardware (macs and pc's)

Based on and an improved version of Memtest86

OSx memory tester


I have never used the last link, but memtest86 boots up independent of the OS and will thoroughly test ram for any errors.

Edited by dan727 on Apr 18, 2008 at 07:10 AM GMT

My 2 cents.
If it's inconvienient or the folks just don't replace the 2 sticks of ram you can:
Put 1 stick in at a time of the new ram (open download etc..) and stress out the system. If all OK then put in replace it with the second one you bought and repeat.

In theory this should tell you which is bad. (Which yes does happen).

As long as the problem is with the RAM and not the motherboard slot for the ram your good.

Thanks for all the advice. I ended up calling Apple Care and they offered to have me bring in the iMac to one of their retail stores and they would check it out even though I bought the memory from MacMall. But they thought it was more of a memory problem since I could get it up and running with the original 1 gig chip that it came with.

Called MacMall and they said I could either bring in the memory and they would exchange it or if I wanted, bring in the computer and they would check it out. So I went over with the iMac and they checked the machine out with some diagnostic equipment and installed two new chips for me. Was very happy that they went out of their way to keep me happy. So far, so good and the machine is purring along perfectly again.