# Memory?



## Bruins04 (Sep 20, 2008)

I have a memory question.
I have 4 gig in my mackbook 4.1 core 2 (2008)
I stick is 2 gig sdram
The other is sodimm, the ram that should be inside.

When I stick another sodimm 2 gig so now I have 2 matching sticks inside my mac,
the screen will just stay on black?
When I but the sdram back in it works?

The odd thing is my system profiler has both banks as sdram?


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## MacGYVER (Apr 15, 2005)

Hi Bruins:

In System Profiler what type of RAM is listed? Your MacBook should be using PC2-5300 (667Mhz) DDR2 SO-DIMM at 2GB each for a total of 4GB. I'm confused as to why you're changing your RAM when you have 4GB of RAM that works? 

If you're getting a black screen, it could mean that the RAM chip was not put in properly, or could be dead, or is not the right kind for that MacBook. If you're not experiencing any problems with the 4GB of RAM that is already inside, then just leave it and enjoy your Mac .


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## Bruins04 (Sep 20, 2008)

I'm told that the 2 different sticks are my issue of not being able to install Lion.
Both sodimm ram work when installed with the sdram, but not together.


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## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

Bruins04 said:


> I'm told that the 2 different sticks are my issue of not being able to install Lion.
> Both sodimm ram work when installed with the sdram, but not together.


You mean two different ram brands? or like a 1 gig stick and a 2 gig stick? Either way, both should work unless its bad ram, which I have had before right out of the package.


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## CanadianDSM (Jan 25, 2006)

The only issue I ever had with the 2008 style iMac's and MacBooks was going above and beyond 4-6GB of RAM due to chipset limitations.


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

Coming in really late here and no doubt the OP got things sorted out and working but I came across a similar problem years ago with a 2008 MacBook and the solution came from CanadaRAM who stated that the Penryn Macs were really fussy about RAM, and that was with Snow Leopard, so I'm guessing Lion would no doubt be even fussier.

Bottom line, the RAM modules had to be *exactly* correct, if not matched with the Penryn models for them to work.


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## Bruins04 (Sep 20, 2008)

I sold the macbook.
No longer need help with this issue.
Thank you for your input.


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