MBP 13' (mid-2010) 2.4 Core 2 Duo P8600 supporting 16 GB RAM under Win7?

[RolandoFurioso]

Hi all,

I'm owning a 13' MBP Core 2 Duo 2.4 (md-2010; 7.1). As it is said by diverse sources, it will support 16 GB RAM if run under OS-X Lion 10.7.5 or later.

Meanwhile, however, I'm running the MBP exclusively under Windows 7 64 Bit. Of course, Win7 64Bit definitely supports 16 GB RAM, but does this hold as well on my MBP which was originally running a dual boot configuration OS-X 10.6.? / Win 7 64 Bit? That is, could it be possible that my Win7 system "inherited" an 8GB limitation because it was originally run together with OS-X 10.6.?? Or is this a question of my MBP's firmware?

I'd strongly prefer upgrading to 16 GB RAM, so I want to figure out beforehand what are the relevant factors here: version of OS-X / Bootcamp originally run; firmware of the MBP (as I would have suspected); or will I be just fine runnning Win7 64Bit (just removed OS-X, bud didn't do a fresh instalation of Win7) and benefitting from16GB RAM?

Thanks & all the best,
Roland

 

[JTToft]

Windows shouldn't be a problem, but you need the latest EFI update which you may not have if the machine has never been on 10.7.

See this: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518
And this: http://blog.macsales.com/16302-some-2010-mac-owners-can-get-more-ram-than-they-thought

 

[RolandoFurioso]

Windows shouldn't be a problem, but you need the latest EFI update which you may not have if the machine has never been on 10.7.

See this: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518
And this: http://blog.macsales.com/16302-some-2010-mac-owners-can-get-more-ram-than-they-thought

Thanks for your quick response. This is just the sort of dependency that I suspected.

As it looks like, an option might thus be that I boot my legacy OS-X 10.6.? system that I still have available on external HDD and try doing the EFI update from within there. But the big question seems to be whether my current Win7 system (residing on the new, built-in SSD) will yet boot properly, or whether changes to this "old" and possibly outdated Bootcamp data of this system might be required as well. I. e., I don't know whether an EFI update possibly implies that changes to the Win7 bootcamp installation are required as well.

Roland

 

[JTToft]

Thanks for your quick response. This is just the sort of dependency that I suspected.

As it looks like, an option might thus be that I boot my legacy OS-X 10.6.? system that I still have available on external HDD and try doing the EFI update from within there. But the big question seems to be whether my current Win7 system (residing on the new, built-in SSD) will yet boot properly, or whether changes to this "old" and possibly outdated Bootcamp data of this system might be required as well. I. e., I don't know whether an EFI update possibly implies that changes to the Win7 bootcamp installation are required as well.

Roland

- You should be able to downloade the required EFI update from the link I provided. But you do of course need a functioning OS X installation to perform the update.

I wouldn't expect your Boot Camp Windows 7 installation to interfere with the process in any way.
But I am unsure if the update can be performed from an OS X installation booted from an external (non-Thunderbolt) drive.

 

[RolandoFurioso]

- You should be able to downloade the required EFI update from the link I provided. But you do of course need a functioning OS X installation to perform the update.

I wouldn't expect your Boot Camp Windows I installation to interfere with the process in any way.
But I am unsure if the update can be performed from an OS X installation booted from an external (non-Thunderbolt) drive.

Once again, thanks!

I yet have to decide whether I'll dare and give it a try. If so, I will follow up on this here.