Photos crashing after memory upgrade

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Level 1

34 points

Photos crashing after memory upgrade

2019 iMac 27 running Sequoia. Yesterday I upgraded my memory from 16 to 32 MB with two new memory chips. I initially just added the two new 16MB chips in the two open slots but that wouldn't turn on so I removed the old chips and it booted and has been working just fine. The old base memory was in slots 1 and 3. The new cards are in 2 and 4, and 1 and 3 are empty. Every thing seems to be working fine, except that twice photos has crashed, with the error message EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV) which is apparently suggesting that the photos are being sent to an invalid memory address. Everything else is working fine with no crashes at all.

Not sure what to do at this point. I've been using photos a lot, and it has only crashed twice. Is this something I need to deal with by changing slots? Is it something that might correct with time? I have no idea.

iMac 27″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jul 10, 2025 5:01 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

214,386 points

Jul 10, 2025 9:59 AM in response to davidra

Where did you get the additional memory modules? Macs are extremely sensitive to memory module quality. The only source of memory the more experienced users in these forums will use or recommend is OWC (MacSales.com): iMac OWC Memory Upgrades-MacSales.com. This is because OWC test the memory with each Mac model the memory is designed for.

So to see if the additional memory is the cause of the problem remove the additional memory modules, leaving just the original Apple modules, and test to see if Photos is still crashing.

If it isn't I recommend that you return the additional memory modules that you got and replace them with modules from OWC directly.

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

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Answer 2

davidra Author

Level 1

34 points

Jul 10, 2025 2:08 PM in response to Old Toad

I got A-Tech chips, which have great reviews. Last year I upgraded my wife's iMac with these chips and she's had no problems. I had no crashes like this with the original memory chips.

The only item on your list that I use is NordVPN, and now that you mention it there haven't been any crashes with it disconnected.

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