Mac BSOD

[DeathLace]

My in-laws were over for the holidays, and were complaining about their Macbook running slow.  It is old (late 2008 13" unibody model), but I know they can't afford to buy a new one, so I checked how much RAM it has, and thought, may as well try to upgrade the RAM from 2GB to 4GB, for $40.  I showed them how easy it is (I've built computers for years) to swap out the RAM, as they thought it would be a big undertaking.  I took it out, put it back in, and left it.

 

This morning they went to turn it on (before I got the new RAM), and it just sits on the Mac version of the BSOD. It just sits on at the blue screen after the Mac startup chime happens.  I said that I'll go get the new RAM, put it in, and try it first, and see if that'll fix it (big hope), obviously it didn't.  They said they never turn off the mac/restart it, they just close the lid, so I don't know if this would have happened without me opening the RAM slots at all.

 

Things I've tried:

- Start in safe mode (doesn't attempt to, just sits at the BSOD)

- Start in single user mode (doesn't attempt to, just sits at the BSOD)

- Start in target disk mode (doesn't attempt to, just sits at the BSOD)

- Hook it up to an external monitor (just sits at the BSOD)

- I've reset the PRAM

- I've reset the SMC

 

It's running Leopard (10.5.5). I loaded it onto a USB (they don't have the original disk), and tried to start holding "C", to have it boot off of the USB stick, but it didn't do anything, just went to the BSOD.

 

Any ideas?

[Eric Veteran]

Did you make sure that the RAM was reseated properly? It doesn't look like you replaced it from your post, only removed and replaced it.

[Circaflex]

Like Eric mentioned, I would reseat the ram to make sure that isnt the problem.

 

Also, holding down C boots off the CD-Rom, you'll want to hold down option when booting to see a USB drive, and boot from it.

 

Also, the unit was shut down and battery removed when you took the ram out the first time correct?

[jesseinsf]

Well, since they never actually restarted it or turned it off you'll have to figure out a way to take the HDD out and back up everything. then you will need to reinstall the Mac OS. Now, you could also try to repair the disk using a Mac OK install disk and then Disk Utility.

[Circaflex]

36 minutes ago, jesseinsf said:

Well, since they never actually restarted it or turned it off you'll have to figure out a way to take the HDD out and back up everything. then you will need to reinstall the Mac OS. Now, you could also try to repair the disk using a Mac OK install disk and then Disk Utility.

What? To be honest, that doesn't make much sense to me. Going straight to a clean install isn't always the best solution, OP has yet to report back on a few things that were asked; but in no way should he go straight to a clean install. It could be something as simple as reseating the RAM again.

[jesseinsf]

3 hours ago, Circaflex said:

What? To be honest, that doesn't make much sense to me. Going straight to a clean install isn't always the best solution, OP has yet to report back on a few things that were asked; but in no way should he go straight to a clean install. It could be something as simple as reseating the RAM again.

That was just my personal preference. He can try my second option. and yes, resetting the RAM is another option. Now isn't there a setting to have a mac delete memory when rebooting instead of saving what was in memory?

[DeathLace]

I know the RAM is installed properly as I get to the MAC boot Chime. When the RAM is removed, I get the single Beep signifying a hardware problem.  This also happened before I removed any RAM the first time, I just opened it to show them where the RAM was and how you would take it out/replace it. I even went back to the original RAM to make sure it wasn't the new RAM causing the problem.

 

I tried what @Circaflex suggested, but it just went to the blue screen again, ignoring to boot off the CD :(.

[adrynalyne]

We should probably get past the notion of this being a bsod equivalent.  The Apple equivalent is a kernel panic which is not happening. You are simply not loading past a certain point. I recommend an nvram reset. 

 

 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

[DeathLace]

Hey @adrynalyne, I've done a NVRAM (PRAM) reset already, it's the only startup shortcut that actually works. Unfortunately, it doesn't fix anything.

 

P.S. I meant to call it "BSOD", just to bring some humour to it.

[adrynalyne]

6 minutes ago, DeathLace said:

Hey @adrynalyne, I've done a NVRAM (PRAM) reset already, it's the only startup shortcut that actually works. Unfortunately, it doesn't fix anything.

 

P.S. I meant to call it "BSOD", just to bring some humour to it.

SMC reset?

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

[DeathLace]

@adrynalyne, done that too sadly :(.

[adrynalyne]

6 minutes ago, DeathLace said:

@adrynalyne, done that too sadly :(.

This?

 

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18789?locale=en_US

 

edit: never mind. 

[DeathLace]

Ended up with the display cable from the screen to the board being a little loose... sigh.

[notuptome2004]

once you get it fixed   if it is capable of running it i would try and get  the latest OSX  on there  as it should run if it is a supported model  if not the latest it will run  so they got  updated security and  software compatibility