05-15-2007, 04:37 PM
I bought a refurbed Mac mini (1.66 core duo/512MB/80GB/etc.) back in October. Everything has appeared to be running just fine. At one point I had bought a 1GB RAM chip from ChumpUSA and tried to install it, but the mini never booted with it in. So I chalked it up to a crappy RAM chip, returned it, and just kept going with the stock RAM.
The odd thing about that was I noticed the RAM chips were labeled as 512MB chips (or so I initially thought), but system profiler only said 512MB of RAM, so I thought maybe Apple labeled them weird, as 512MB for the set since Mini's always get sets of RAM from Apple. I guess I never checked the memory menu in system profiler to see what each chip was showing as since I never was able to boot the mini with the 1GB chip in.
Fast forward to yesterday. My 2GB of Crucial RAM from Newegg arrived and I went to install it last night. After initially installing it and booting the mini before putting the case back on I notice System Profiler only says there's 1 GB of RAM installed. I look at the memory tab and see that 1GB is listed in the one slot but the other is listed as empty! I tried every combination possible with two 1GB chips and two 512MB chips to try and determine if it was the chip or the RAM slot. NOTHING showed up in that slot despite what was in there, but everything showed up correctly in the other slot!
I don't know if anyone has ever had a similar situation, but it seems odd. I guess it's not impossible for one of the slots to be bad. Either way, it's down to the Apple Store later today to try and get the mini repaired/replaced. I'm just glad I have the PowerBook to hold me over.
Now, what I am concerned about is whether Apple will say I voided the warrantee by taking the case of the mini off. I was thinking I'll just tell them that I looked at the memory tab in system profiler for the first time and noticed one slot said "empty" but I was under the impression that mini's shipped with two, equal RAM chips, kind of play dumb and let them figure it out. Or should I admit I opened the case, saw the two 512MB chips, and then checked system profiler and noticed it wasn't recognizing both slots?
~A
The odd thing about that was I noticed the RAM chips were labeled as 512MB chips (or so I initially thought), but system profiler only said 512MB of RAM, so I thought maybe Apple labeled them weird, as 512MB for the set since Mini's always get sets of RAM from Apple. I guess I never checked the memory menu in system profiler to see what each chip was showing as since I never was able to boot the mini with the 1GB chip in.
Fast forward to yesterday. My 2GB of Crucial RAM from Newegg arrived and I went to install it last night. After initially installing it and booting the mini before putting the case back on I notice System Profiler only says there's 1 GB of RAM installed. I look at the memory tab and see that 1GB is listed in the one slot but the other is listed as empty! I tried every combination possible with two 1GB chips and two 512MB chips to try and determine if it was the chip or the RAM slot. NOTHING showed up in that slot despite what was in there, but everything showed up correctly in the other slot!
I don't know if anyone has ever had a similar situation, but it seems odd. I guess it's not impossible for one of the slots to be bad. Either way, it's down to the Apple Store later today to try and get the mini repaired/replaced. I'm just glad I have the PowerBook to hold me over.
Now, what I am concerned about is whether Apple will say I voided the warrantee by taking the case of the mini off. I was thinking I'll just tell them that I looked at the memory tab in system profiler for the first time and noticed one slot said "empty" but I was under the impression that mini's shipped with two, equal RAM chips, kind of play dumb and let them figure it out. Or should I admit I opened the case, saw the two 512MB chips, and then checked system profiler and noticed it wasn't recognizing both slots?
~A