[Bug] It is not a bug. It is a help request

[alappatsj]

I have a Macbook Pro 2015 A1502 13 inch 8 GB RAM & 128 GB SSD model. From last one month, I am facing frequent auto-restart issues & on Apple Diagnostics (D), it was showing PPM002 possible memory module issue. Also gives an error message each time the device turned on. 100% chance for Memory issues.

sometime the device works perfect for one hour or two. But sometimes it instantly gets restarted. Cannot install any OS, it won't complete.

I have gone through your Page, it is a very good initiative & if you could help in this kind of case, a lot of poor people can save money by using ram module issue devices again, instead of throwing it and buying new.

I don't have much knowledge in the coding or these things, but still I can manage with a guide or videos. If you can manage a step by step guide or video (from memtest to refind boot to efi script ). It will help lot of people like me. The problem you are solving is big, a lot of people might be facing this issue.

From whatever I understood, I tried to do the memtest, I don't know i did correctly or not. here is the image. I would really appreciate if you could plz help me on this.

Thank You very much in advance.

[0nelight]

Yes! This looks like the ram error which this program might fix.

Please follow this Guide to switch into the error-summary mode within memtest86+ and post screenshot again :) Few right presses on the Keyboard should do it!

[alappatsj]

Thank you very, very much for your instant & prompt response. And I do really appreciate the efforts you have taken to help people like us.

I tried Passmark memtest86. I tested 3 times & all the 3 times, the tests failed inbetween saying "Test has aborted due to too many errors".

As I mentioned, I have made 3 attempts. In all 3 attempts, the highest error address is same. But out of 3, one time the lowest error address is different (slightly). So when you help me to get the EFI file, please use the lowest number in those 2 numbers.

Here I have attached the screenshots of all 3 tests. I would really appreciate if you could please provide me the edited output (EFI) required for this particular system.

I am trying to learn the rEFInd thing. Meantime, could you please help me your file?

Lower address seems to be different here

[0nelight]

So you certainly need to do some reading and learn yourself a little bit about how to boot into rEFInd, put disable-ram-area.efi into the rEFInd Boot Partition, put the disable-ram Boot Stanza within refind.conf and then adjust the parameters to your lowest and highest defective RAM area.

You should please read the "Steps" in the Readme of this Repository - all Links there lead to more Information about how to do the above steps.

I also will transform this Issue into a Q&A Discussion.

The disable-ram-area.efi File you can download on Release-Page.

Don't hesitate to ask Questions which are not answered by the above resoures :)

What seems a little bit strange is that memtest86+ (not passmark) reports from 5.8 GB onwards while memtest86 (from passmark) shows from somewhere 6GB onwards. Maybe run memtest86+ (not the one from passmark) again in the Error-Summary Mode. I hope the range of defective RAM is not chaning too much between runs of memtest86+.

[0nelight]

Please give the passmark values a try. As before put them into the Options Lines in refind.conf (below the "loader" line for disable-ram-area.efi) and maybe then the utility will work - please do this first and report about success or non-success here :)

[alappatsj]

I tried the Passmark Values.
Just changed the lower & higher values with the passmark memtest values. Nothing else. Just changed the values.

What to say bro? I had tried both memtest86+ and also Passmark memtest, and the both utilities used to stop the test in the middle of the tests and announce FAIL. Within short time, they were sure, the ram is very much faulty.

Do you know what did I get after using your tool?

Look below.

After applying it, I boot into the system & opened all the apps in my dock and opened 15 tabs with Youtube 1080p videos. The system still ON, didn't reboot yet. It was not the story prior to Onelight's magic utility. Thank You very much Onelight, it is a great magical tool.

For those who reading these messages: This utility does work, it does help. Consider me as the witness of this miracle.

Used RAM reached to 6.3 GB. It used to auto restart before.

Just check the Swap used: Oh God, it is close to 1 GB.

check the dock and also the tabs opened on top of the image.

And this entire message is typed & posted from this very ram faulty laptop.

Thank You very much bro, now we have to automate the fix.

[alappatsj]

sorry to post again. I just can't control my excitement. The RAM usage is stable around 6.5 GB, it is not going to 7 GB. But check the Swap used, it is almost 2 GB. The miracle is, the system still working fine, didn't reboot & it is not slow, it is very much smooth as it was booted. No fan noise or anything, perfect device. Thank You bro.

[0nelight]

Congratulations 😎😊🥳🎉

Glad all the effort you put in was finally worth it 😊😎

It will also help other people reading this Discussion. I will also use the Insights of this Discussion in a future Guide!

Welcome to the club of people who set a tiny amount of their RAM to "unusable" so macOS stays away from this area.

I see it as a great way to extend hardware lifespan, protect customer and shareholder value, and fight inflation by lowering demand for new devices, thus preserving the purchasing power of the dollar through more efficient resource use. 😊

Keep in mind that you have to run the tool on every boot. Also I have not much data yet of how macOS behaves when going to Hibernation and back again - but I think the ram stays disables.

In case at some point you want to make the utility run automatically every boot, consider reading this Guide of how to do that.

Also it would be nice to open a "Success-Story"-Issue and Link this Discussion in it 😊.

May I ask where are you from?

[alappatsj]

I Hope you are doing well.

The tool does work initially, and then it depends on how much ram is actually corrupt. Both RAM checking softwares showing different values at different times. But your tool doing exactly what you are claiming. What we have to improve is, finding the actual Faulty areas (in RAM). And I also have serious doubt, there can be issues at multiple sectors. Like IN BETWEEN 1 to 2 GB or 7 to 8 GM or in some cases 1 to 2 gb and ALSO 6 to 7 GB. What I am trying to say is, it may not be just a single Low & high, there can be multiple such bad sectors. Your tool currently accepts one range, not multiple range. When you fix one range, the RAM might find another bad sector because the MemTests are closed inbetween if there are lot of errors. It gives one range but this range might not be the final one. Because the test is not done fully. So once we fix one range & then we do the test again, it will give another set of range. IF the RAM has many bad sectors (like mine), we may have to keep doing the test.

About your questions.

"May I ask where are you from?"
India.

"In case at some point you want to make the utility run automatically every boot, consider reading https://github.com/0nelight/macOS-Disable-RAM-Areas/discussions/3of how to do that."

I really want to do it automatically, but your guide is for very, very technical & only expert people can pull it off.

I did understand, we have to download shell.efi file from that link.

And we also have to create a text file with the save as extension '.nsh'. And copy the below content to this .nsh file.

echo Running disable-ram-area.efi with Parameters
stall 1000000
fs7:\EFI\tools\disable-ram-area.efi 0x190000000 0x21000000 3000
echo Starting MacOs
stall 1000000
fs5:\5668A9CD-407D-35EB-87EB-59CD393D65B1\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi

I do understand the the fs7: line (3rd line) is what the earlier (manual) refind.conf content (LowV, HighV and time) with the path to your release file EFI. But what I don't understand is, what is this fs7: ? Where to find this path & How? How to find it is fs5 or fs6 or fs7?

and same for the 4th line. Again new path 'fs5'. How to find these things?. It is the path to boot EFI, right? but how to find or get this path? By the way I cannot see any boot.efi file file in entire EFI folder (root folder of main EFI folder which consists of Apple, Boot, Refind, tools etc folders). I checked each and every folder, but can't find boot.efi file or path.

and to set it as default (default selection token), you gave a link which nobody can understand (except top experts).

To help more people with your tool, you genuinely have to spend little time to simplify your guide. In the existing guide, you shared the link for 113 page pdf file for shell commands and again one unending page from refind website for making it is default.

Yes, you did great with your tool. We do really appreciate it. But you seems to be very lazy with your guide. IF your guide is not understandable, the normal non-tech people has to spend money to hire people who understand your guide. So what is the difference you are making? Nothing. Spend money on software people to understand your guide, instead of paying to hardware guys who can make an ATTEMPT (failure or success) to replace the ram ?

[0nelight]

So fs0, fs1… are the mappings of your filesystems partitions within efi. Depending on your computer, these may be different on your side.

How to find them? Best is to enter EFI-Shell from rEFInd - you will look like a hacker in the command line - altough you are only a normal person.

This command line allows different commands to put in. In windows this is called cmd.exe, in macOs it is called Terminal - every system has its own set of commands - also EFI has its own commands.


To find the paths, you have to play around with the commands of the EFI-Shell. If you are not lazy, you can read through the documentation and maybe contribute to this project by writing a guide yourself.

It takes some effort to read through the documentations of course.


Regarding disabling multiple regions - you can simply execute the EFI-App multiple times - every time for a specific RAM-Area you want to mark as disabled. You can simply copy/paste the Line in the NSH script and adjust your RAM-Areas in every Line.





Regarding your changing RAM-Error-Areas: Depending on how damaged your RAM is, it could off course be that every day, more and more RAM-Areas are becoming defective. But in my personal case, my MacBookPro RAM has only one tiny defective area around the 12G area and it didn’t change last 10 years - neither in size nor in position. In that cases my Tool is a great workaround.

If you can or want afford a Hardware-Repair - of course this is always the better way. This tool is for poor and lazy people like me. 

I am really happy to announce my special friend - ChatGPT - which doesn’t need sleep and doesn’t has any other interest than helping you.



Regarding finding fs1, fs2 and so on within the EFI-Shell I asked him how he could help you. You can find his answers here - without you needing to read any documentation :-)

[alappatsj]

BTW IF you really wants to write a guide or help people like me who are NOT from IT industry, You may have to simplify the process.

1. We have to create a NEW text file with the below content and save it as ".nsh" file.

echo Running disable-ram-area.efi with Parameters
stall 1000000
fs7:\EFI\tools\disable-ram-area.efi 0x190000000 0x21000000 3000
echo Starting MacOs
stall 1000000
fs5:\5668A9CD-407D-35EB-87EB-59CD393D65B1\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi

Keep the 1st & 2nd line as it is, Do nothing.

The 3rd line is something important the values are dynamic & are different for each device. It consists the Path to the release file (efi file from this repo) and then the lower & higher value received from the Memtest/RamTest. Keep 3000 as it is. It is just timeout number. So we have to give the path for the disable-ram-efi file, and then the values/range to disable the ram sectors. So how to give the path which EFI shell understand ? Like with fs5 or fs0, fs7 or fs1.
Now you (@0nelight ) or your friend ChatGPT has to help the users here, how to understand or find the path which efi shell understand.

keep the 4th & 5th line as it is. Do not make any changes.

In the 6th line, the program is asking to BOOT the system. Giving the path to boot file which you can find in refind.conf file. But still you need give the path which efi shell understands, like starting from fs5 o fs7 or fs1.
Now you (@0nelight ) or your friend ChatGPT has to help the users here, how to understand or find the path which efi shell understand.

But I have one doubt, what if the user/we have have multiple OSs, like windows or any other dual boot or tripple boot OSs ? Instead of asking to boot MacOS, can't we comeback to Refind boot picker? so the user can select the preferred OS.

And to make the script (.nsh file) DEFAULT, you have to (@0nelight ) write something like I wrote this post. The link you shared for making default, can only understand by highly experienced tech guys.

The guide for the manual process is very much simple for new users. They can use this thread to try the manual process. IF you can discuss & help the automation here, the new users can use this as guide for 2nd step.