Question Faulty dual channel

[eligri97]

Hey!

So I have a Lenovo L380 Yoga that I got from a friend. It ran great for 6 months or so, until I spilled some vodka and sugar on it (oopsie).
Quickly killed the power, grounded myself to remove static, and screwed the laptop open. Fully tore it down, cleaning it very well. It ran great for a few more months (although having to replace the keyboard since it got sticky and the high % isopropyl damaged the key mounts). However about 4 months after the spill, the computer started crashing. The screen goes black, and a loud screeching noise happens if any audio is playing while it crashes. Problem report shows no errors.

I have fully reinstalled drivers, updated bios, etc. I have however limited the problem to one of the ram slots.

Both sticks of ram work, but when one of the slots is used, the laptop sometimes won't start; and usually crashes after 30-60 min of use (as described above).
The computer passes a Windows Memory Diagnostic without problem.

I have cleared CMOS, and cleaned the slot with compressed air, alcohol tissues and 99% isoproyl. This makes it run, but still crashes and sometimes won't boot.
When it has problems booting, one of the following happen:

1. Keyboard works. Keys react when pressed, but screen is black and no sound coming from computer.
2. Black screen, keyboard unresponsive and no sound. Backlight of keyboard and all the "toggled lights" (such as for caps) blink slowly.

No visual damage to the ram slot nor anywhere else on the motherboard. No burnt smell, or high temperatures while running.

Anybody have any suggestions?

No warranty on the laptop unfortunately. I have ruled out faulty ram sticks, but suspect one of the ram slots might be broken.

Thanks

 

[eligri97]

Hmm, odd. Now both slots seem to run OK individually. Tested both sticks of ram in single slot, with like 15 tabs of youtube open. So far 10 min each stick and each slot has worked good.

Any chance that there is something wrong with dual channel only; but single channel works in both slots?

 

[eligri97]

Put both functional sticks in now, and BAM! Crashes within a few minutes under exact same load.

This time not black screen, just scrambled screen. Buttons still work (light goes on when pressing caps or mute button, so computer is still running).
pasteboard.co/K48t6Kh.jpg

 

[SamirD]

Use memtest on the ultimate boot cd and test the ram. I think you may have a module going bad versus a system issue.

 

[eligri97]

Ran Memtest with both sticks at once. No errors after 4 passes. Also no crashes during the 4-5h that it ran. Makes me wonder if something else is the issue?

 

[SamirD]

Boot up a linux live cd/usb and see if that works fine. If so, sounds like a windows corruption issue.