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MacBook Pro late 2010 RAM upgrade

S

southwind

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 17, 2016
22
1
Hello, I have late 2010 macbook pro, 2.4ghz 13' aluminum unibody. I want to upgrade my ram to 8Gb, but one slot is not working. Will single 8GB ram will work on one slot only? also, I hae cheked 4GB ram 1600mhz and didnot work, so should I use exactly 1066mhz pc3 8500 ? which is oficially recomended?
so my main question is, will single 8gb ram work on on it? thanks
 
southwind said:
so my main question is, will single 8gb ram work on on it? thanks
Click to expand...

The 2010 13" MBP can work with a total of 16GB of RAM(Apple only officially supports 8GB), but they can be extremely picky about the RAM. 1 x 8GB 1066MHz should work if you're on the correct firmware.
 
yes one stick will work but like T5 said your MBP will support 16gigs and MB's can be picky, buy the PNY 16gig set sold at BB for 55$, this is what I'm using and its dual channel as well, make sure you set it well.
 
T5BRICK said:
The 2010 13" MBP can work with a total of 16GB of RAM(Apple only officially supports 8GB), but they can be extremely picky about the RAM. 1 x 8GB 1066MHz should work if you're on the correct firmware.
Click to expand...
What do you mean on firmware? Currently I have no os on my hdd, becouse I dont have enough ram to install el capitan. After upgrade ram, can I clean install el capitan from flash drive?
[doublepost=1468297733][/doublepost]
Revo Runner said:
yes one stick will work but like T5 said your MBP will support 16gigs and MB's can be picky, buy the PNY 16gig set sold at BB for 55$, this is what I'm using and its dual channel as well, make sure you set it well.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply, reason why I want just one 8gb ram, is that one slot on my macbook pro is not working, so I can just use single slot
 
doublepost said:
Thanks for your reply, reason why I want just one 8gb ram, is that one slot on my macbook pro is not working, so I can just use single slot
Click to expand...

it may have just not been seated good enough, it is rare for a ram slot to go bad, it's usually the ram stick that goes bad, it isn't something on a motherboard that goes bad, I believe you need to shove it in better with a little authority.
 
T5BRICK said:
This should explain everything.
Click to expand...
Can I add 8GB rqm and then clean install el capitan?
[doublepost=1468309980][/doublepost]
Revo Runner said:
it may have just not been seated good enough, it is rare for a ram slot to go bad, it's usually the ram stick that goes bad, it isn't something on a motherboard that goes bad, I believe you need to shove it in better with a little authority.
Click to expand...

I have tried four different ram, which works on one slot, does not work on second slot, so I think ram slot is bad
 
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southwind said:
Can I add 8GB rqm and then clean install el capitan?
Click to expand...

As long as that Mac has had 10.7.5 or later installed on it previously, then yes. If it hasn't, you'll need to find a way to install 4GB of RAM, install 10.7.5 or later and then upgrade to 8GB.
 
T5BRICK said:
As long as that Mac has had 10.7.5 or later installed on it previously, then yes. If it hasn't, you'll need to find a way to install 4GB of RAM, install 10.7.5 or later and then upgrade to 8GB.
Click to expand...


ok, thanks a lot
 
My suggestion:

If you know that one slot is bad, put RAM into the GOOD slot.

Then, put ANY OS YOU CAN ONTO IT, just to get it working.

Then, move forward from there...
 
Fishrrman said:
My suggestion:

If you know that one slot is bad, put RAM into the GOOD slot.

Then, put ANY OS YOU CAN ONTO IT, just to get it working.

Then, move forward from there...
Click to expand...
Currently I have ubuntu live usb runing on my mac, will it help?
 
OP wrote:
"Currently I have ubuntu live usb runing on my mac, will it help?"

The problem with that is that it really doesn't help you "move towards a Mac solution"...
 
Fishrrman said:
OP wrote:
"Currently I have ubuntu live usb runing on my mac, will it help?"

The problem with that is that it really doesn't help you "move towards a Mac solution"...
Click to expand...
I have another hdd from macbook pro on wich is already installed el capitan and is running well on another macbook pro, will it help if I will install it on my macbook?
 
you can't swap hhd's from computer to computer, it won't even boot.
[doublepost=1468376378][/doublepost]but you can use it as an external hhd but if you have encryption on you probably won't be able to read anything on it.
 
southwind said:
I have another hdd from macbook pro on wich is already installed el capitan and is running well on another macbook pro, will it help if I will install it on my macbook?
Click to expand...

The firmware that these 2010 13" MBPs shipped with only supported 2 x 4GB of RAM total. In order for your computer to function with 1 or 2 x 8GB modules, the EFI(firmware) needs to be updated. Installing OS X 10.7.5 or newer will update the firmware while installing.

In order to use that Mac with an 8GB RAM module, it has to have had OS X 10.7.5 or newer installed at some point. Booting from Linux distribution or from the HDD out of another Mac will not update the EFI.
[doublepost=1468384423][/doublepost]
Revo Runner said:
you can't swap hhd's from computer to computer, it won't even boot.
Click to expand...

Actually, in many cases you can. Just so long as the OS on the drive you're installing is newer than the OS that was originally installed.
 
T5BRICK said:
The firmware that these 2010 13" MBPs shipped with only supported 2 x 4GB of RAM total. In order for your computer to function with 1 or 2 x 8GB modules, the EFI(firmware) needs to be updated. Installing OS X 10.7.5 or newer will update the firmware while installing.

In order to use that Mac with an 8GB RAM module, it has to have had OS X 10.7.5 or newer installed at some point. Booting from Linux distribution or from the HDD out of another Mac will not update the EFI.
[doublepost=1468384423][/doublepost]

Actually, in many cases you can. Just so long as the OS on the drive you're installing is newer than the OS that was originally installed.
Click to expand...
But if os x lion or newer was already installed on this laptop later but currently was swaped hdd with no os on it, in thus case, can i clean install el capitan?
[doublepost=1468385657][/doublepost]And also, ho can I chek efi version from ubuntu?
 
southwind said:
But if os x lion or newer was already installed on this laptop later but currently was swaped hdd with no os on it, in thus case, can i clean install el capitan?
Click to expand...

As long as the computer has had OS X 10.7.5 or newer installed on it at some point, then you're fine.

And also, ho can I chek efi version from ubuntu?
Click to expand...

If you can I'm not sure how.
 
I have jus one 1GB ram that is working on my macbook, os x lion or later can not run on 1gb ram, I can just boot ubuntu or another linux distro. Anything can I do?
 
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