@grammargirl Excessive heat can cause a system to slow down to protect itself from overheating. Is it possible that in all this futzing, you incidentally removed some dirt or hair that was trapping airflow, blocking a fan, etc.?
@fivetonsflax It's possible. I was surprised to find some dust inside the chamber that holds the RAM. It wasn't a lot, but the receptacle seems well sealed. I was surprised there was any.
@grammargirl if you are able to make a USB bootable key, it's easy to run a diagnosis software. I'd definitely recommend you to check this tool: https://www.memtest86.com/
@grammargirl Once you have replaced the Mac and experimentation is prudent, you can move the memory cards back to the old slots to see if the computer becomes slow again; it's the sort of thing I'd do simply to satisfy my curiosity.
(With non-tech-savvy users, the speedup might result not from moving the memory cards but rather from the power-down-power-up necessitated when moving them; I'm confident that powering down and back up was tried here before the memory cards were moved.)
@dashdashado I’ve been thinking about moving them back to see what happens — my old biology lab experience is kicking in.
I wondered if the 20 minutes unplugged could have caused it to start working normally again because I had read about that as a troubleshooting step. I tried it a couple of times about a month ago, and it didn’t help, but I think I only unplugged it for 3-5 minutes back then.
Back up everything on that computer that you care about right now. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
Someone will have to look at the actual computer. But I’d guess you have a loose or bad memory socket. I’d further guess that it’s only accidentally working at the moment.
@danblondell But now it’s working almost like new. Maybe the smoking burned off a speck of dust that was blocking something? Seems unlikely that a near fire would fix anything. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
@grammargirl@danblondell that is weird! I was going to suggest dust was what was smoking - maybe previously you had an inoperative memory chip and the smoke inspired reseating got it working again.
@dxzdb I didn't get a picture, but the RAM card had a black melted spot on it. The smoke was definitely more than dust.
I'm actually going to buy a fire extinguisher tomorrow. We had one, but it got lost when we moved, and I remembered yesterday, at what could have been an inopportune time, that I've been meaning to get another one.
@grammargirl the materials that the memory module is made out of are required to have a low flammability rating. It would be fun for a mythbusters episode to show how likely a fire would be.
it’s pretty hard to explain the shift from not working well to working great without some sort of physical change - maybe the burned pin was higher resistance causing it to heat up and torch and when it did it cleared itself.
Won’t happen on a new Mac - because replaceable RAM isn’t an option. 👍👎
I don't think Activity Monitor was showing problems. I used a tool called CleanMyMac X that measured a lot of different things, and I didn't see any big red flags.
@dxzdb I have not. I’m quite far from the closest Apple store, and for some (perhaps irrational) reason, I despise bringing my computer in for service.
@grammargirl You may have a faulty DIMM slot. I recommend you get it checked out. Also, do the new DIMMs exactly match the old ones for specifications?
@grammargirl There are also speed/frequency ratings that will usually need to match, but it’s really sounding like a slot may be faulty. I’d check those other specs, and if the computer is important, I would get it checked out by a technician, just to establish that the DIMM slots are sound. BUT, it’s entirely possible you got a bad DIMM too.
@grammargirl Definitely something wrong with those slots. They're working, but perhaps not at the correct frequency for the new RAM, which is what caused it to let the smoke out[*] when you plugged the new chips in.
Then you put the old chips back in, and it works because the old chips don't require the higher frequeny... but it's slow because the old chips would prefer to be faster.
The other slots can accommodate the old chips at their preferred, faster speed.
That's just pure speculation on my part, but it feels reasonable to me that that's what's happening. :)
That... uh, that seems like a house fire waiting to happen. When you say "smoking," do you mean like actual smoke coming from the RAM? Because that sounds like a pretty big problem.
@Legit_Spaghetti I didn’t actually see smoke, but there was a bad smell like an electrical fire, and when I pulled out the card, part of it was black and a little melted.
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