MacBookPro Memory Uprade

L

lepremier

Junior Member
I just added an extra 1gb memory to my MacBookPro, total 2gb now. I started Parallels and accepted the memory allocation of 604mb, after trying a few other figures, and started up Windows........crash!!! Each time I start Parallels now it crashes my MacBookPro.
Is it necessary after a memory upgrade to re-install Paralles or should it continue to run normally. I haven't tried this yet as I wanted to avoid a reinstallation if possible as one of the Windows programs that I would have to reinstall is a bit tricky! Thanks......
 
I also upgraded to 2GB but experienced no problems. Parallels still proposed a maximum of 412 MB RAM. /Göran
 
Go to
Parallels Desktop -> Preferences -> Memory
and specify the amount of the total memory that you want to be reserved for Parallels. I have 2GB available and gave Parallels 1GB (1024MB). I then allocated 384mb to XP, 256mb to Win2K, and 256mb to Linux. All three OSs run at the same time with no problem.
 
lepremier,

We had similar problem with bad non-Apple memory. Parallels use memory very extensive and in case of broken memory it could result in more frequent crashes.

Please verify your new memory!
 
A great way to test ALL memory is with the free memtest, available here:

http://www.memtestosx.org

It's universal, fast and obviously cheap!

Also -- make 100% sure that you placed the modules in the machine correctly. I just upgraded my Macbook to 2GB and I had to remove it twice before it seated properly.
 
Thanks Andrew and others for your replies....I have reverted to the original 1 GB piece of memory and everything seems to be okay now, although the system profiler indicated that the new piece was okay!! I will take it back to the shop and get them to check it out...thanks again all.
 
lepremier

The system profiler will tell you nothing --- for detailed analysis, run memtest. Why not, it's free!

I got memory from Newegg that was listed as "for the Macbook" so far so good. Cost was around $160 for 2GB.
 
When I bought my MacBook Pro last weekend, I went ahead and bought the extra GB of RAM from the Apple Store and I let them install it. The performance of Windows XP inside a Parallels VM on my MacBook Pro is GREAT! It feels faster than XP running on my old 1.6 GHz Centrino notebook which has 1 GB of RAM.
 
extensivegroup said:
A great way to test ALL memory is with the free memtest, available here:

http://www.memtestosx.org

It's universal, fast and obviously cheap!

Also -- make 100% sure that you placed the modules in the machine correctly. I just upgraded my Macbook to 2GB and I had to remove it twice before it seated properly.
Click to expand...
Just for completeness and truth in advertising, it doesn't test ALL memory. It tests FREE memory -- memory not currently allocated to the OS or loaded applications. If you boot the machine in single user mode, it will test MOST memory because fewer things are loaded.

It may be a better test than the hardware test provided by Apple (don't really know since I'm way too lazy to reverse engineer the Apple test) but it's possible the Apple test checks more of memory since its limited OS could be smaller. TANSTAAFL
 
Re: free memory, true -- and this is why it's recommended you run it in single user mode.

In my experience, AHT identified bad memory about 50% of the time when used comparably with Memtest. This could also be due to the fact that Apple updates it's AHT disks for almost every minor rev. of a machine, and I'm never certain which one to use with which machine.

One thing that AHT does well is identify what particular slot of RAM is bad, saving you time on doing trial and error. Apparently, a future version of memtest will have this feature.
 
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