Wrong memory killed logic board

[johnrobert]

Customer brought in a MBP saying it was slow technician who is not familiar with Macs and business was slow did a tune up of sorts and increased memory from 2 gigs to 4
It accepted new memory and was much faster next day customer brought MBP back saying battery was no longer charging, technician had no idea customer took MBP to Apple store and was told incorrect memory made Logic board defective hence battery not charging.
This happened to a friend but it could easily have been me.

Its hard to believe but its true

 

[NYJimbo]

Its hard to believe but its true

Well, since all memory is "keyed" so you should not be able to install the wrong ram I don't see how that could be done. If you install "bad ram" it would make the system unstable but I don't see how it would damage the motherboard. If the ram was just the wrong timing or latency or dual channel or something else about the chip then I would think they machine would not work properly, rather than work flawlessly for 2 days and then kill the machine.

Could be it that Apple was looking for a reason to not honor a warranty or offer any discounts on replacement by blaming the tech for using "wrong ram" ?

I would love to hear more cases like this because I don't think I have ever seen it happen in a modern computer (apple or PC).

 

[altrenda]

My experience with Macs is that even if the RAM fits in the slot, if it is not compatible, the computer beeps and does not boot.

 

[johnrobert]

Apparently the memory was not exactly the right type. It was all working apart from being slow before.
Macs are very unforgiving, maybe theres more to the story
Since it only had 2 gigs ram it would be an older model and out of warranty
I agree he would not get any pity or empathy from Apple store; they would get an orgasm out of that.

 

[Markverhyden]

I don't buy that story. I've never had a RAM chip that fit properly into a slot kill a MB. Three things can happen - the machine will not POST, the machine will power up and give a POST code, or the machine will boot and run.

Sounds like the machine had other problems to begin with. RAM has nothing to do with battery charging

 

[nlinecomputers]

Could you post some part numbers? I'm no Mac guy but they do post specs for what memory can be put into them. No offense but I'm not taking anyone's word on what is or isn't compatible if you don't mention the brand and model numbers being used.

 

[altrenda]

Apparently the memory was not exactly the right type. It was all working apart from being slow before.
Macs are very unforgiving, maybe theres more to the story
Since it only had 2 gigs ram it would be an older model and out of warranty
I agree he would not get any pity or empathy from Apple store; they would get an orgasm out of that.

Macs are not any more or less unforgiving than Windows machines.

This is more likely the result of the work of someone inexperienced with Macs. I would bet there is more to the story.

 

[phaZed]

My bet is on coincidence. DDR1, DDR2, DDR3 are all specs and to be those classes of memory they have to adhere to those specs.

 

[CTNorthShore]

Actually this was my shop it happened and my good friend johnrobert posted for me after I shared the experience. I agree with phaZed that this may be an unfortunate coincidence. The guy swears it worked before and I do believe he was sincere. Unfortunately I had to tell him that we can't take responsibility for it since we don't know if it worked before and other than put in the stick of ram all we did was a tune-up.

To fill in the blanks my tech has upgraded Macs a number of times before although we are not a 'Mac shop'. In this case he matched whatever was in there (DDR2). The speed may have been different but as has been pointed out that would not kill the mobo. It accepted it and ran much faster. We had the laptop plugged in the whole time so cannot honestly say if it worked before.

Apple store wants $470 to fix it. Yikes.

 

[trevm999]

The Apple store just saw non-Apple RAM in MRI and decided to blame it on that. Can take it to an AASP for second opinion on "the cause"

Hopefully the Apple store actually did diagnose it properly and isn't turning into BB

 

[CLC]

The Apple store just saw non-Apple RAM in MRI and decided to blame it on that. Can take it to an AASP for second opinion on "the cause"

Hopefully the Apple store actually did diagnose it properly and isn't turning into BB

I agree, no way ram took out the board. I think the whole idea is major bs.

 

[NYJimbo]

I agree, no way ram took out the board. I think the whole idea is major bs.

I had a customer who brought in a HP HDX-18 which was dead from overheating. This is a common problem with this model, once dust starts to build on the vanes of the heat pipe will kill this machine well before the vent is fully clogged.

It turns out he had extended warranty on the machine so I told him to call HP to see if they would fix it. He sends it back to HP (or whoever does their fixes) and they claim that there is a small crack on the corner of the laptop. They said it appears that when he dropped the laptop the heat pipe assembly broke away from the cpu and that allowed heat to build up and that killed the machine.

That was a total lie. I opened the machine and there was nothing broken and the pipe and fan were secure. The crack on the corner of the laptop was just a small bump crack on the top cover and nothing else was damaged.

Bottom line is that the repair people who work for these companies are trained to look for reasons to not fix for free. As soon as they find something they try to use that as their excuse. Unless you are tech saavy or stick to your guns and fight them they will just push the machine back to you without a repair.

Kinda like insurance companies that sell those $1 a week life policies. How can they afford to do that ? Because they never pay on a claim. If you die in a car accident they will get the autopsy report and if it says cause of the death was cardiac arrest, it doesn't matter if it was cardiac arrest due to blood loss or because of the injury from the accident, they will try to claim it was a "pre-existing health condition" and fight you until you give up or take them to court which most people don't do.

 

[johnrobert]

Bought a 2007 MBP yesterday nice and clean needs battery, 2.33 duo $120
I thought it was cheap

only 1 gig ram 2- 512's
I immediately upgraded ram with mismatched memory speed etc. and still charges no problem

Owner said glossy screen was upgrade from Matt I thought it was other way around matt was extra

 

[johnrobert]

I don’t understand this don’t they charge even when laptop is turned off
It can only be battery or charger, what’s logic board got to do with it

 

[phaZed]

I don’t understand this don’t they charge even when laptop is turned off
It can only be battery or charger, what’s logic board got to do with it

The battery charging circuit is on the motherboard and also ties into the ACPI (Which at a very low, hardware level, will not allow the motherboard to start without it reporting in on the I2C bus or a latching signal). There are transistors/MOSFETS and coupling capacitors that are usually the culprit in non-charging boards. There are times when the actual IC goes bad for whatever reason, as well (Shorted, lighting, etc).