is my ram dead

bcham

bcham

bcham

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Joined
4 Jun 2008
Posts
734
Location
west yorkshire
my sons pc kept freezing after arround 5 mins.
he has 2+ 1gig sticks of ram, so i took out a single 1gig of ram stick,then pluged back in and booted up.
fine no crashes or freezes for hours,so i thaught id try the bad stick i took out in a different slot,then after booting back up the bios wont post,nothing, all the fans spin up cpu graphics card,ect,but no beep for bios to load i took out the bad stick of ram,so it was like before,and still nothing,so now neither sticks of ram work ,
ive tried different slots nothing,bios wont post,if i remove both ram sticks i get constant beeping so it cant be the board.is my ram fried,
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The odds are that it is memory related - but it could also be the MB, or other...

Ideally, if possible, we need to get your system posting to test the memory - or you could test your memory in another machine (N.B. slight risk).

For now, try resetting the CMOS - via jumper or taking out the battery. Hopefully, this will enable you to get into the BIOS with the single stick of memory that appears to be the more stable of the two.

If the computer does post go straight into the BIOS and load optimized defaults - save and exit.

Then download memtest (bootable ISO zip) - link -and let it run through a few times. If that passes then it's up to you whether you want to try the other stick, taking into consideration what happened the last time...

If you can't get the sytsem to post after resetting the CMOS you either need to test the memory in another machine (but bare in mind that it 'may' cause a similar problem) or ideally try different memory in yours (again slight risk but negligible). If the machine posts with known working memory that would almost certainly indicate that your memory is frazzled. Note that it is still advisible to reset the CMOS before inserting different memory.

There are always slight risks involved in testing suspect memory in other machines and vice versa but 99% of the time it's a quick and easy troubleshooting method.
 
Last edited:
ive taken the battery out,still wont post.this is an old socket 939 board so the ram is different to mine,its ddr pc3200.
 
You may want to consider running a skeleton setup outside of the case as your options are limited without other memory to test. This would rule out shorting and would ensure that most components and cables will have been reseated. Although you could try a different PSU...

Sit the MB on a piece of carboard and only have the cpu, 1 stick of memory (pick the best stick), and the gfx card connected - remove all other cards, disconnect all sata leads, peripherals, USB, case leads etc...

Clear the CMOS again.

Connect the PSU as you would normally and then try to power the system up, either via shorting the header pins with a screwdriver or connecting the case power switch.
 
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