Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Bad RAM from OWC

Velin

Velin

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 23, 2008
2,141
2,270
Hearst Castle
Just had a second stick of OWC RAM fail on my 2008 Mac Pro. First stick failed just after a year of purchase. This next stick failed within two years, just happened right now.

I bought all the RAM at once, this latest failure is a 2 gig stick -- and when one goes, you can't then use the other one due to the matched pair requirement. Wonderful.

Yes, I know it's the RAM. On a cold boot or restart, I got the rapid blinking light near the power button and the fan blows at high speed. That rapid blinking light is classic bad RAM indicator. As further proof, I removed the OWC RAM. Then I rearranged the stock RAM, one stick up one stick down as per Apple's pairing instructions. Mac Pro then boots right up, no problems with the OWC RAM removed.

Not buying any more OWC RAM, multiple failures now within two years yet the stock RAM, no problems. Waste of hundreds of dollars.

So any suggestions? I assume its out of warranty, yes? I may try Crucial next.

Edited to add: here's the diagnostic report:

diag.png
 
Last edited:
Darn I threw out the one bad 4 gig stick. Almost not worth it for the 2 gig sticks. But thank you for the reference, this is good information for anyone else who has this happen.
 
Yep. OWC and crucial are pretty fantastic at replacement. Just keep replacing till you get a good kit. Or realize after 4 kits that your saddles are bad:)
 
had a OWC fail sometime after I bought it ? was for the Mac 1,1 when it first came out the glue they used on the heat sync let go ?
they replaced it no problem
 
I would not worry ? they are usually very good and returns wont be a issue

its them or transintl or crucial so pick one and you take the same chances very very rare it happens but like anything it can happen this is why I tend to buy from good legit companies even if its a few bucks more :)
 
MattDSLR said:
I just ordered 8 x 4 gig 1333 sticks from there
hope to not have any problems with it
Click to expand...

If your signature is correct and you have an 8-core MP, why did you get 1333 MHz RAM? I thought the MPs with hexacore CPUs were the only ones that could take advantage of 1333 MHz.
 
I Just put in 24Gigs ram from OWC in MacPro. I just used it for one day so far. They do have an excellent replacement policy. I think its rare problem that happens to a small percentage of people.
 
OWC are not the only ones that have RAM failures.

Bought 2 sets of 8 GB from Memory America: http://www.memoryamerica.com/apple-mac-memory-desktop-mac-pro--2006-2008--memory.html
1 stick went bad in the first set after about 16 months and they replaced the whole set for free. Another stick went bad in the 2nd set about 3 months later and they replaced the whole set again but this time I paid delivery and UK import tax. Lifetime warranties are great, peace of mind is worth the small cost of RMA replacement.
 
I have 4x4GB sticks from OWC, running great every day since December 2009. When I first installed, one of the sticks was bad. I called and got four more sticks sent to me (very fast delivery!) and used the 3x4GB in the meantime. Got new sticks, installed, and they were great, so I returned the other set. Been great since!

I think OWC has remarkable service, personally.
 
Mac Pro is a great machine to use with bad memory

The Mac Pro is the only Apple box that uses ECC memory. So that means there's about a 99% chance that the hardware will correct a memory error (or tell you about it if it can't).

Any other Apple computer will simply crash with flaky memory.

So, to me that makes it worthwhile to "risk" buying third party memory, at least from a highly regarded supplier. You have memory checking by the hardware, and you have a guarantee from the vendor.
 
I had issues in the past with their memory but they have always being good at replace them without trouble.
I keep buying from OWC just because of that. They are a quality vendor and I think they have a reputation behind their products.
 
Bought a total of 12 GB of RAM from OWC back in 2006 for my MacPro 1,1 (4 x 1 GB and 4 x 2 GB, 8 sticks total) and it ran great for the 5 years I owned the machine.

I recently upgraded to the 3.33 Hex and I went with OWC again for 3 x 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM. On the initial boot, my Mac only saw 8 GB so I shut the machine down, swapped RAM in slots 2 and 3 and rebooted. This time (and ever since then), my Mac sees the full 12 GB of RAM. I guess I didn't seat the RAM in the slot properly. This is something I'll keep in the back of my mind incase I get a RAM failure.. *crosses fingers* :)
 
Replaced

Velin, did they replace it? Thank you. I just had the same problem.
Velin said:
Just had a second stick of OWC RAM fail on my 2008 Mac Pro. First stick failed just after a year of purchase. This next stick failed within two years, just happened right now.

I bought all the RAM at once, this latest failure is a 2 gig stick -- and when one goes, you can't then use the other one due to the matched pair requirement. Wonderful.

Yes, I know it's the RAM. On a cold boot or restart, I got the rapid blinking light near the power button and the fan blows at high speed. That rapid blinking light is classic bad RAM indicator. As further proof, I removed the OWC RAM. Then I rearranged the stock RAM, one stick up one stick down as per Apple's pairing instructions. Mac Pro then boots right up, no problems with the OWC RAM removed.

Not buying any more OWC RAM, multiple failures now within two years yet the stock RAM, no problems. Waste of hundreds of dollars.

So any suggestions? I assume its out of warranty, yes? I may try Crucial next.

Edited to add: here's the diagnostic report:

Image
Click to expand...
 
Great service from OWC who have a lifetime warranty on their memory. Had one stick of a matched pair fail after fourteen months. Emailed them at OWC and received information on getting the memory back to them with a job number on the parcel.

Received two new modules by air mail within seven days at no charge.
 
This is a somewhat old thread, but I just found it, because I just had the 8GB of RAM (2x4GB) modules in my Mac Pro fail *again*. I've already had them replaced once before under OWC's lifetime warranty.

Let's face it, a lifetime warranty is of little or no value really if your system is constantly having memory failures. OWC's policy is that you have to wait for them to send you an RMA number, then you have to mail the memory back to them, and then finally, they will mail you replacement RAM. In the meantime, you're down, or running on less memory than usual.

This is a mac pro, used for serious work, and losing 8GB of RAM makes it almost into a boat anchor. The original Apple system RAM is still working flawlessly however, but it's only 2GB, which is very painful for large applications, especially when you're doing more than one thing at a time (typical on an 8 core system).

I decided to throw in the towel, and just go buy some from Crucial instead. I don't think there are very many suppliers for ECC RAM, and whoever OWC uses, is less than stellar at it.
 
Fb-dimms

Thanks for the update. There is a chip on these that runs at 4 GHz. Might explain the heat and the failure rate?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back