RAM Problem?

M0T · 11 Dec 2008 at 18:32

Last night I turned my PC off at the mains as usual but when I went to turn it back on again today it wouldn't boot. The fans come on for 10 seconds then everything just goes off, it loops like that until I pull the plug.

I took everything out of the PC and ran it bare and the only way to get it to boot was to remove one of my sticks of ram. It seems this stick of ram is preventing the pc from booting, but it seems odd because up until this morning it had been running in the pc fine for nearly 2 years without any errors.

Is this a failure of the ram or is something else likely to have caused it?

The ram is Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) Dual Channel stuff.

101predator · 11 Dec 2008 at 20:35

you could try booting the machine with each stick of memory in the socket that works. If it boots fine each time your memory is probably ok.

If there are 4 memory slots on your board try using the other two slots to see if it will boot.

LeJosh · 11 Dec 2008 at 21:36

Have you tried using another PSU at all? It may well be RAM but gotta take everything into account.

M0T · 11 Dec 2008 at 22:38

101predator said:
you could try booting the machine with each stick of memory in the socket that works. If it boots fine each time your memory is probably ok.

If there are 4 memory slots on your board try using the other two slots to see if it will boot.

Tried that and it only fails with that 1 stick in any socket.

Blackwhite · 13 Dec 2008 at 20:24

Use Gold memory to test RAM - burn CDROM iso image on CD and boot from CD.
I had 3 sets of Crucial Ballistix this year, and all of them are dead.
If any errors will be found call Crucial Uk and they will replace memory for you.