Upgraded Ram now OSX won't Boot Windows...?

[haze295]

Hey guys,

I have a p-171fx gateway laptop that is running 10.6.3 Vanilla, everything is 100% working. The problem is that I had 1.5gb of stock ram (yea lol seriously). Inside I had a 512 and 1gb of samsung 5300 667mhz and I upgraded to 2x2gb crucial ram that is also 5300 667.

I installed the new ram and OSX now just hangs on the white apple loading screen with no progress circle. I tried -s / -v and it got stuck on the same spot. usually mac checks my cd drive and HDD next but instead it just sits on the white screen doing nothing.

I then tried following:

1. only using 1 of the new sticks - no go
2. using both sticks - no go
3. mix matching new and old sticks - no go
4. old sticks - Works Fine

I have tried the same with Windows (different hdd same system) with the same four setups and all work


Guys, any help is greatly appreciated here and I have tried to search the internet but couldn't find any real leads on what's wrong.

Update 1: I've been reading tonight and I was wondering do I need to update / change my SMBIOS info on memory (manf, serial, size) ?

[haze295]

42 views and still no suggestions? Could it be brand of RAM? Do I need to Set MaxRam on Chameleon to 4096?

[Imkantus]

Try to delete your current DSDT.aml if you are injecting one.

[haze295]

I purchased another set of ram (different brand and chipset and same results). I know it's mac having the problem... I'll try removing my DSDT and go from there.


Thank you so much for replying !!!


I went ahead and removed the DSDT and now the progress wheel does show up on the booting screen. Therefore we know that it is the DSDT that was holding up the system. However, the problem is now that it just sits there spinning on that screen for minutes.

-- V gave me this error : Failed to Locate SMC Driver. (I do have fakesmc in my extras extensions


My assumption with this information is that something is messed up in my DSDT concerning the memory? Everything else on my system works if the regular ram is in there (BOOT, Video, Sound, CPUS... etc). Also, my system boots just fine with the DSDT in place and no major lock-ups or errors

[haze295]

I've now found that my osx 10.5.8 drive i had lying around for this laptop and my vista drive both accept the new ram with no issues.

Therefore what is it about 10.6.x (3) could be causing the ram issue? DSDT? 64bit vs 32bit?

[haze295]

I give up. The only thing I can think of doing a fresh install with the ram in and hoping it works from there.

[Imkantus]

Hi,

You might try to repair the file permissions & to rebuild the Extensions Cache.

If that doesn't work, maybe your old DSDT.aml file does contain any fixes that had been necessary for your Snow Leopard Installation to boot up properly.
So we might try to fix your working DSDT to support your new set of RAM. :)

As your 10.5.8 disk boots properly with your new set of RAM, use it to extract a DSDT when using your new RAM - dissamble both, the old one and the one created when using your new RAM and have a look at them.

There should be at least one line (maybe more) that look like this (it's taken from my systems DSDT table) :

OperationRegion (BIOS, SystemMemory, 0x3FFC0064, 0xFF)

See if you can adjust those values in your old DSDT to match those of your new RAM, then reassemble.

Good Luck. :)

[haze295]

I ended up building a new DSDT and having to reinstall. It was an uphill battle with my horrible keyboard and mouse but everything is up and running except sound which needs a custom hda. :) Thank you so much for your posts!!!!

[uwannacookie]

Wow... New Memories = Fresh Install ? OMFG.

[haze295]

Cookie I've never seen anything like it. I couldn't believe it myself but it thrashed my entire system (thanks to 1gb memory limit in my dsdt). Even after removing the dsdt I started getting issues all around and I figured a wipe would be better. :) (live and learn).