Hey guys, welcome back to PC911. I’m going to show you today how to do an iMac RAM upgrade which is the memory. One of the easiest upgrades that you can do on a computer  .We are going to get this unit here and we are going to upgrade that. Sometimes it’s simple, sometimes it gets a little complicated. In this case I have a customer that brought in the memory for it.I’ll show you what he brought me.

This computer has 4 Gb of RAM and he wanted to go to 16.  He brought me this right here which is 2 8 Gb sticks which goes 16. But that doesn’t work, it’s not as simple as some random RAM and just slapping it in there. The first thing you got to do is look up your serial number.  Go online and see what unit you have and then specifically see what RAM it’s going to allow. I’m going to go through this RAM upgrade and give you some tips how to get this done right.

So we set this iMac down on its back. First we want to get the serial number. If your computer is working you can get your serial number from right inside. I want you to grab that serial number then I want you to go to this website right here everymac.com. And this will allow you lookup. You’re going input the serial number there and you’re going to get the information you need. Now, I’m going to pause this video and get that information for you.

So I got the number in here and I am going to look up. It is going to ask you if you are a robot and we’re not. It will pull up your specific model giving all of the detail then you want to go down here to this more specific and so everything you want to know is pretty much here. As far as RAM it tells you the RAM that it came with 8500 DDR3 also the standard and the maximum RAM. You can also just go to crucial or one of those other websites and put your particular Mac probably might make it a little bit easier.

Just to jump a head here, the RAMs that they purchased did not work. Couple of reasons:

  1. The unit has 4 slots so to get to the 16 GB you got to go 4 slots of 4 GBs. It doesn’t recognize 8 GB at all. So when you put those in there you get beeping. It does not work.
  2. It is supporting this 8500 RAM. The speed is also an issue so just make sure you get the right one. This one here is Mac it actually comes with Mac memory so that’s playing it safe. But it doesn’t have to necessarily be Mac compatible it just has to have the specification have to be correct it doesn’t have to show you that.

So we are going to come over here, this is a pretty simple upgrade. You can see down here we got three little screws we are going to take those out and there you going to have your slots. It has a little plastic tab that when you pull on it, it pops the memory out that’s specifically for that. So if you pull that gently and then it just pops get it right out there so that’s the trick. A good idea is to take a look at how they are coming out short side to the left and to the right and what have you that when you put that new one in you don’t have to guess which short side goes where.

We are going to grab the new ones and we are going to pop these in there. We got the new ones here and you’re going underneath this flap, don’t press the flap in and that’s going to be one and it’s pretty hard to push them in but you’ll feel it kind of goes all the way in there. Press them evenly on both sides may be your best bet don’t want to get it jammed up in there so easy does it. Press on both sides evenly and that’s going to get it all the way up in there.

Now what you want to do is test it before closing it up. And doing all that and this unit here specifically its very picky with the RAM. I had some other 4 GB RAM that I had here at the shop did not want to boot with none of them earlier apparently it want the 8500 RAM doesn’t want any other speed, the newer speeds. It just was not compatible for it. So if all goes well and those are the RAM that this computer likes this unit is going to boot up. And it is going to boot up obviously. If not you would hear like a bassy type of beep at the start and that is your brand air tones.

So basically we’ll let to go all the way up to the desktop. Verified everything was good to go and we’re just going to be putting that cap back on. Three screws and we are going to be good so the important part is make sure you get the right RAM. Otherwise you are going to be ordering another set to coming in. You’re going to be putting it in. You’re going crazy and Macs are very picky across the board. For most things but for RAM especially. That’s your tutorial how to upgrade an iMac the right way. Get the right RAM and how to put it in. Thanks for watching.
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