[SOLVED] Do either of these RAM sticks in the photos look bent or damaged to you?

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AzzyDude24601

Oct 3, 2019
26
1
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Built my girlfriend a computer just under a year ago and it has been working smoothly since then. However yesterday it randomly started refusing to boot. The fans turn on but there is only a blank screen.

Guided my girlfriend through all lot of steps of adding and removing hardware components and she commented that one of the RAM sticks was very hard to insert (slot A). We realised the pump on the CPU cooler is pushing against it slightly. I then remembered struggling to get it in myself when I was building it.

Is it possible that over time the RAM has been slowly damaged from the pressure being applied to it? I have included three photos below of both RAM sticks side-by-side. Please let me know if you think one or both look damaged.

  1. https://imgur.com/sGbFMvd
    View: https://i.imgur.com/sGbFMvd.jpg
  2. https://imgur.com/oqqJBPh
    View: https://i.imgur.com/oqqJBPh.jpg
  3. https://imgur.com/8LuKujP
    View: https://i.imgur.com/8LuKujP.jpg
 
Solution
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AzzyDude24601 said:
I instructed her to insert her headphones into the mobo to try and hear beeps but she didn't hear anything which I thought was strange. We have removed the graphics card and tried the RAM in various configurations, swapping, trying with one, etc. And the computer booted to Windows once but then stopped once we inserted the GPU. So we took the GPU out again but it wouldn't POST again.

My theory is the GPU hit off the RAM that is already been warped by the CPU cooler. The reason I think this is because when I assembled the computer a year ago I had a similar problem and there was no GPU inside to cause it. I had to mess with the RAM for ages and suddenly worked again for seemingly no reason but now I think it's because the RAM...
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A

AzzyDude24601

Oct 3, 2019
26
1
35
Hello all, so we were able to reorient the CPU cooler over the weekend. While we were at it, we checked the CPU and the CPU socket and there was no evidence of any damage. We also checked the RAM slots for any warping and didn't detect any, although we didn't remove the motherboard entirely to check.

Anyway, after reinstalling everything with the RAM no longer hitting the CPU pump, the computer turned on again and has been running more or less smoothly ever since. I am not sure if we solved the problem but we are going to wait and see if it randomly shuts down again anytime soon.
 
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Ferimer

Ferimer

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AzzyDude24601 said:
Hello all, so we were able to reorient the CPU cooler over the weekend. While we were at it, we checked the CPU and the CPU socket and there was no evidence of any damage. We also checked the RAM slots for any warping and didn't detect any, although we didn't remove the motherboard entirely to check.

Anyway, after reinstalling everything with the RAM no longer hitting the CPU pump, the computer turned on again and has been running more or less smoothly ever since. I am not sure if we solved the problem but we are going to wait and see if it randomly shuts down again anytime soon.
Click to expand...
Thats awesome news. Maybe due to the pressure it just wiggled it loose causing an incomplete connection and when re-inserted it made a full connection again
 
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