Recently, Apple has released firmware updates for most of their current computers in production. Under normal circumstances, this is a good thing, however in this case, there are some issues cropping up. Some customers who have performed this upgrade report their computer stops seeing any third party RAM they have installed. This hasn’t been an issue for anywhere near everyone, but a significant number of people have had problems. It appears that the new firmware is less tolerant of RAM performance, and RAM that may have performed fine previously is instantly reclassified as unusable once the firmware has been updated.
So, what’s the solution? Apple’s Hardware Test CD can pass memory that will not work after the firmware update, so you may not be able to tell beforehand whether or not your RAM is going to pass the new firmware muster. There is a handy little application called DIMMCheck that detects RAM that won’t pass the new firmware’s standards, but we’re not sure if this is 100% foolproof. The early indication is that the new firmware is sticking much more closely to the specs for RAM, which once again brings to bear the age-old argument about subtle differences in RAM, and thus why prices can be different for what ‘appears’ to be an equal product, but that’s another Tech Tip for another day.
Our recommendation is to hold off on the firmware update unless the issues it addresses are of concern for you (FireWire, Target Disk Mode, Network Booting, Gigabit Networking or System Stability – okay, we realize this last one is ubiquitous, but use some judgement). There are conflicting reports about whether Apple plans a fix, or whether it is even a problem at all (one could argue that RAM failing to survive the upgrade is the problem with system stability in the first place). When it all gets sorted out we’ll be sure and make you aware of it.
Sweetwater customers will be happy to know that the RAM we’ve been selling is fully compatible and should not cause any problems with the new firmware. That said, if anyone does have a problem please contact us and, as always, we will make it right.