[bmpdesign]

I have a two month old 15" 2.4GHz Macbook Pro with 2 GB memory. I am looking to upgrade to 4 GB.

The problem is the Mac manual specs state the card needs to be DDR3 - 200 pin. I cannot find a third party manufacturer who makes a DDR3 - 200 pin card. They are ALL DDR3 - 204 pin cards. I have tried newegg.com as well as several other manufacturer sites and they are all the same.

Does this matter? Can I use the 204 pin card? Or is this a new thing that Apple is doing to curtail the sales of third party memory?

If anyone can shine any light on this I would greatly appreciate it as it will save me serious cash!

[smax013]

Both Crucial.com and OWC (aka Macsales.com) show 204 pin DDR3 SO-DIMMs as the appropriate memory for the current MacBook Pros. I suspect the 200 pin is either a typo or a "nominal" number of pins.

You should be fine ordering from the likes of OWC...they have a money back quarantee for their memory sales:

http://eshop.macsales.com/CustomizedPages/Framework.cfm?page=PowerBookMemory/memhead/warranty.html

And I have always had good results with Crucial.

[bmpdesign]

Thanks Smax. Much appreciated!

[slowhatch]

Hi, Im a newbie here so please dont take this as gospel. I just found this post after googling "200 pin ddr3". I just attempted to install 4gb of Mushkin 204 pin ddr3 PC3-8500 (2x2gb) part number 976643A in my MB unibody. It did not work, luckily it didnt seem to cause any harm. After the install, all I got was an ominous beep that kept repeating itself and nothing came up on the screen. I removed and reinstalled the ram to verify that it was seated properly(it was) to no avail. I reinstalled the original 2gb of ram and everthing seems fine. I cant bring myself to buy the overpriced ram from Apple. If anyone knows of a source for the 200 pin ram i'd appreciate it. Thanks, Dave.

[bmpdesign]

Yeh, I was certain that the Mac manual didn't contain a typo. Someone gets paid lots of money to make sure that doesn't happen. This is really disappointing. I have yet to purchase memory, and now given your experience, I will not until this gets figured out.

Thanks for replying. I will post back if I gain any answers on this, and please do the same.

Hope your machine is fine.

-brian

[smax013]

Actually, the MacBook Pro 17 in lists it as 204 pin SO-DIMMs:

>Your computer has two memory slots that you access by removing the bottom case. Your MacBook Pro comes with a minimum of 4 gigabytes (GB) of 1066 MHz Double Data Rate (DDR3) Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (SDRAM) installed. Each memory slot can accept an SDRAM module that meets the following specifications:

Quote

- Double Data Rate Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module (DDR3) format
- 30 mm (1.18 inches)
- 204-pin
- 2 GB or 4 GB
- PC3-8500 DDR3 SO-DIMM 1066 MHz Type RAM
You can add two 4 GB memory modules for a maximum of 8 GB of memory. For best performance, fill both memory slots and install an identical memory module in each slot.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/MacBookPro17inchEarly2009.pdf

Both the manual for the MacBook and the MacBook Pro still show it as 200 pin.

This document for how to install memory for the MacBook, however, lists it as 204 pin memory:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1651

Here is the similar document for the MacBook Pro: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1270

You will noted that the OLDER MacBooks and MacBook Pros had 200 pin DDR2 memory.

My guess is that someone forgot to change the 200 pin (from the older DDR2) to 204 pin (for the newer DDR3) in the MacBook and 15" MacBook Pro manuals but did for the 17" MacBook Pro.

I have an email into OWC asking them what they know. And I will likely try to remember to call the Apple Store either tomorrow or Monday and ask them.

[smax013]

slowhatch said:

Hi, Im a newbie here so please dont take this as gospel. I just found this post after googling "200 pin ddr3". I just attempted to install 4gb of Mushkin 204 pin ddr3 PC3-8500 (2x2gb) part number 976643A in my MB unibody. It did not work, luckily it didnt seem to cause any harm. After the install, all I got was an ominous beep that kept repeating itself and nothing came up on the screen. I removed and reinstalled the ram to verify that it was seated properly(it was) to no avail. I reinstalled the original 2gb of ram and everthing seems fine. I cant bring myself to buy the overpriced ram from Apple. If anyone knows of a source for the 200 pin ram i'd appreciate it. Thanks, Dave.

My first comment is that Macs can be a little picky with memory. Thus, it is usually recommended to purchase the memory from someone who tests their memory on Macs...such as OWC (and I believe Crucial does this as well). Where did you purchase the memory?

I still suspect it is a typo...see my other post on why I think that is the case.

Beyond that there is the logical way to look at it. If the 200 pin is correct, then a 204 pin module should not physically fit...unless the 200 pin configuration has some "blank" spots and is kind of really a 204 pin setup with 4 "blank" pins. But, I doubt that is the case. So, more than likely, if it was a 200 pin module that was needed, you would not physically be able to install the 204 pin module as it would be a longer module.

Thus, my guess is that you got memory that your MacBook does not like or you got bad memory.

[slowhatch]

Ok, I think that the memory I bought was bad. My friend and I started playing around with it yesterday and tried installi g one stick of memory at a time to see if there was any difference. We found that with one of the sticks the computer would give us the gray screen and beep in bursts of three repeatedly. We removed that stick and replaced it with the other with a different result. The computer would begin to startup, the apple logo comes on screen and the little spinning clock comes up like a normal boot up. The problem then is that it never fully boots.

I bought this ram from newegg and checked all the reviews. They looked good to me with many people saying that they had no problems although a couple people reported that they had recieved dead ram. Mushhkin specificly says that it is apple compatible and the sticks say "apple oe" right on them. The original ram out of the computer has an Italicized M that looks like It may be Mishkins logo. I am going to return the ram I bought and try again. I'll update this when I get my new ram. Thanks for the site. Dave.

[bmpdesign]

You Rock. Thanks

[smax013]

slowhatch said:

Ok, I think that the memory I bought was bad. My friend and I started playing around with it yesterday and tried installi g one stick of memory at a time to see if there was any difference. We found that with one of the sticks the computer would give us the gray screen and beep in bursts of three repeatedly. We removed that stick and replaced it with the other with a different result. The computer would begin to startup, the apple logo comes on screen and the little spinning clock comes up like a normal boot up. The problem then is that it never fully boots.

Sounds like you should contant NewEgg for a replacement.

Quote

I bought this ram from newegg and checked all the reviews. They looked good to me with many people saying that they had no problems although a couple people reported that they had recieved dead ram. Mushhkin specificly says that it is apple compatible and the sticks say "apple oe" right on them. The original ram out of the computer has an Italicized M that looks like It may be Mishkins logo. I am going to return the ram I bought and try again. I'll update this when I get my new ram. Thanks for the site. Dave.

NewEgg is a good online store...I buy a LOT of stuff from them for both my Macs and Windows PCs. But, their return policy/guarantee for memory is kind of weak compared to some others. OWC is a little more "robust" in this area: http://eshop.macsales.com/CustomizedPages/Framework.cfm?page=PowerBookMemory/memhead/warranty.html. And so is Crucial.com. That is why I tend to buy my memory from them.

[slowhatch]

Hey guys, I received my my replacement RAM on Friday from NewEgg. It works perfectly with no problems. I guess the original stuff was no good. So apparently the 204 pin does work properly. So go ahead and upgrade those Mac-books. Thanks for the support, Dave.