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Missing bank of RAM

I have a second-hand MacBook Air 11" late 2010, CTO with 4GB RAM and 120 GB SSD.

The previous owner apparently dropped an external hard drive on the keyboard and wiped out half the RAM - there is an indent on the 'I' key where the hard drive landed.

Yosemite and El Capitan both reported that Bank 0 had no RAM, while Bank 1 had 2GB RAM.

Sierra Beta just shows Bank 1.

Are the RAM chips situated under the keyboard on the MacBook Air? I thought they were on the other side of the logic board with the SSD positioned over them. If an impact on the keyboard could knock out half the computer's memory is it possible there could be other issues I don't know about?

I don't have the MacBook Air install USB drive so can't try AHT to see if it reports on the RAM at all.

Has anyone come across this sort of thing before, and could maybe make some suggestions on how to coax the missing RAM back to life?

Thanks,

Jim in New Zealand.

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Thanks guys.

I'll need to get hold of a P5 to open it up.

For the age of the machine though it's probably not worth getting a replacement board.

Jul 27, 2016 by Jim Leary

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Posted: Jul 27, 2016

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Sadly, Yes there is RAM chips on both sides of the logic board. Here's images of the logic board:

In either case the RAM chips are directly soldered to the logic board so there is little one can fix here other than replace the logic board. Here is the IFIXIT guide to do that: MacBook Air 11" Late 2010 Logic Board Replacement and here is the IFIXIT part: MacBook Air 11" (Late 2010) 1.4 GHz Logic Board - 4 GB (P/N 661-5781) which will set you back $300 to 400 US (used/new).

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MacBook Air 11" (Late 2010) 1.4 GHz Logic Board

$49.99

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MacBook Air 11" Late 2010

Missing bank of RAM

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MacBook Air 11" (Late 2010) 1.4 GHz Logic Board

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