The info I could find from Apple about this, helps nothing and Apple Brazil doesn't sell memory (despite being at least 3x more expensive than regular Apple) so I don't know how to buy official modules.
Couple days ago I bought 2x2GB (Kingston DDR3 1333 CL9) for my MacBook Pro, and I think it may be bad quality.
I ran Rember (memtest) with 5 loops for almost 3 hours and it brought no errors! But I keep getting random system crashes (which never happened before) and I can't run Steam's Trine without something breaking (app crash, computer freeze, etc). I even made a guide (initially to myself) on how to recover from crash from what I've learned, since I knew nothing about it before.
Actually, after running Rember, my computer haven't freezed yet and for the first time Steam's Trine began to crash rather than freeze the system. Regardless of this, I think the questions are relevant.
Edit: Yep, I put back old memory, and no crashes anymore plus Trine runs just fine. I've actually tried fixing Trine before changing memory, but it didn't help. Anyway, I still don't know if the problem is the brand, ECC, timing, clock or any combination of them!
Four questions:
- How can I assure my problem is from the memory (other than trial and error)?
- Is there a way to activate its ECC? System Profile says it's disabled.
- Maybe there's some procedure on OSX after installing new memory… is there any?
- If I go to buy a new memory (after returning this one), I want it to work. What should I look for and how could I perform some stress test on it before acquiring? I don't plan on running Rember and waiting at least 30 minutes on the balcony.
Last Edit: Crucial website rocks for identifying best modules for your Mac, after all. But they don't provide all options. 1GB 1067 + 4GB 1333 is a very good option, depending on your future upgrading plans. I ended up buying 2x 2GB 1067 PC8500, for really cheap, and that just worked. More details on apple forums.
Meanwhile, answering my own stupid questions:
- I believe there's no simple way to assure where the crash originated (memory, software fault, whatever).
- I also guess there's no way to "activate" ECC, plus ECC memory still is always much more expensive. What I now know for sure is that my mac pro doesn't support ECC.
- There's no special procedure after installing new memory on the mac.
- Just running Trine worked as a perfect way for trying out the new memory.
Best Answer
You could try another memory type. I've always bought crucial memory for upgrading our Macbook Pro's and Minis and we've never had any problems.
You can't really test the memory before hand, you just have to get it and try it out.
The other thing to double check is that you have the right memory speed. See if you can figure out what speed your computer currently has and buy the same.