bad stick of ram?

youdsy · 2 Sep 2011 at 14:11

hia, ive got a stick of ram that when is left in my pc turned off for an extended period of time, causes my pc not to boot up properly. i have to reseat the ram for it to boot up.

ran mem test and everything is fine. prime 95 is fine, gaming is fine. its just when my pc is sitched off for a few hours does to cause problems.

any thoughts?

Plec · 2 Sep 2011 at 14:23

Is it definitely the memory and not the slot?

Have you tried a different stick in the same slot – or swapped the sticks around (if you have two)?

Also, what is the spec of the memory - check that you have the correct timings, fequency and voltage applied.

youdsy · 2 Sep 2011 at 14:44

hia, sorry should have mentioned i have 6 gb ddr2 corsair dominator 1066 @ 948 mhz 2.1 volts and 5-5-5-15 timmings. have tried in different slot still does the same. weirdly on an occassion my pc wouldnt boot up and i took the two "good sticks" out and it booted up fine.

Plec · 2 Sep 2011 at 15:05

If you've tried the memory in different slots and it's produced the same fault - this would 'seem' to indicate that the stick is at fault (although taking out the 2 good sticks and getting the system to boot does complicate things.)

However, is the system clocked?

If it is, try setting the system back to stock settings and test to see if you get the same results.

youdsy · 2 Sep 2011 at 16:03

ye shes clocked. ill try that mate but what if the system is fine at stock speeds? whats that indicate ?

Plec · 2 Sep 2011 at 20:16

youdsy said:
ye shes clocked. ill try that mate but what if the system is fine at stock speeds? whats that indicate ?

Unsure to be honest - but only because of the following:

youdsy said:
weirdly on an occassion my pc wouldnt boot up and i took the two "good sticks" out and it booted up fine.

If it hadn't been for that i would have suggested that the troublesome stick was 'soley' at fault (with provisos).

Because of the 'slight' anomoly i'm reluctant to make a committed call - but if i was a betting man i would still be looking at the one troublesome stick.

However, this is a computer we're talking about and there is the slim chance that the motherboard just happens to be spitting out that one particular stick - for what ever reason.

But, the fact that it wont run the said stick with the other 2 DIMM slots populated but will operate when in isolation still suggests that the stick is at fault - as in it wont play nice with other memory.

Can you get your hands on another stick of simialr specced memory to rule out the MB?

If not i would run the system with just 2 sticks for while and see if you run into problems - if not blame the stick.

Additional: have you tried running 2 sticks - one of them being the suspect stick?