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goMac · Nov 1, 2006, 11:41 PM

My girlfriend's Macbook seems to be constantly panicing. She got it about 3 months ago. About 2 weeks in I upgrade the RAM to 1.25 gigs. The machine runs fine until it begins randomly shutting down. It was sent into Apple, repaired, and sent back. A few days ago she takes it to Starbucks to type up some papers. She takes the bus back home, opens it up, and after about 10-20 minutes it locks up. She restarts it and after about another 20 minutes it does it again. The cursor won't move, and any audio that was playing is stuck in that lovely second long loop. I ask her to send me the panic log, and I take a look and these panics aren't being logged. So I assume maybe the RAM I put in her machine has gone bad. We run the extended hardware test about 15 times and it doesn't find anything. The machine will freeze with nothing else active but the screensaver.

I'm hoping it's something software. Honestly, after the random shutdown issue she is somewhat annoyed at her Macbook, and I'm really hoping we don't have to ship the machine off to Apple repair again. But if it is hardware I'll bite the bullet and take it down with her to the Apple Store. I just don't want to have to live through the whole "You told me this would be a good computer and it sucks" thing again while it's sent to Apple repair.

Can anyone think of any software or hardware issues this sounds like? I'm not currently in the same town as her, but next week I'll take a copy of Diskwarrior down and run it. She doesn't have a Firewire cable, otherwise she could do it herself (TDM from her iBook).

kmkkid · Nov 1, 2006, 11:55 PM

It's most likely the RAM. I had bad RAM which was causing similar panics and nothing would show it as being faulty. Apple hardware test, memtest, techtool all showed the RAM as functioning normally. I replaced it with a new stick and everything has been fine since.

Always replace or take out the RAM stick(s) before doing anything as hasty as sending the whole machine in for repair

Also make sure the sticks are seated properly, it takes quite a bit of pressure to seat them.

goMac · Nov 2, 2006, 12:13 AM

Originally Posted by kmkkid

It's most likely the RAM. I had bad RAM which was causing similar panics and nothing would show it as being faulty. Apple hardware test, memtest, techtool all showed the RAM as functioning normally. I replaced it with a new stick and everything has been fine since.

Always replace or take out the RAM stick(s) before doing anything as hasty as sending the whole machine in for repair

Also make sure the sticks are seated properly, it takes quite a bit of pressure to seat them.

Yeah, it's possible the RAM could have popped loose while she was on the bus, but those ram slots are pretty tight in there. I'll reseat it and see what happens. Worst case I guess she'll be at the stock 512 if the RAM is completely gone.

Tuoder · Nov 2, 2006, 12:43 AM

I like to run stability tests for 6 hours at a minimum, and 24 hours ideally. I use to do some overclocking, and this is a good way to see how solid the system is.

msuper69 · Nov 2, 2006, 05:18 AM

What you've described are not kernel panics; your Mac is locking up/freezing.

As others have mentioned, I would suspect the extra RAM as the culprit. Did these problems happen before you added it? Do they continue if you remove it?