Question Laptop RAM slot faulty?

May 1, 2020
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Hello tomshardware!

I own a ASUS ROG G551JM laptop, it’s old but it gets the job done.
I have bought today a 8GB RAM stick to give it a boost.
I have made sure it is the same make, model, voltage, frequency as the one I already have.They even have the same serial number on them.

So here is the problem...the laptop won’t boot with the 2nd RAM slot occupied.With either stick.

I tried the new stick in the 1st slot and it works perfectly.

I saw a YouTube tutorial about how I should wiggle it in the slot, In order to make it sit right, because if the slot was never used it may need this - this video:
View: https://youtu.be/Q1OZQL2l-lM

It did nothing.

I then made a bootable usb with windows and tried to boot from that...no luck.

Now I do not know what to do.

I need advice, I was thinking about this:

1.Maybe if I update the bios it will work?I am not on the latest version, I am on the one from 2014, when the laptop was made.
Regarding this step - I did get the bios archive and extracted it to a stick, but I cannot use the easy flash option because I do not have a battery...
I read you can do it without a battery as well, should I do this? Might it solve something?

2.Take the CMOS battery out and put it back in:
I am willing to try to do this if you think it will do anything... I am not keen on fiddling inside the laptop, but oh well.

Thank you!
 

Gintama69

Reputable
Aug 23, 2019
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4,595
Yes, upgrade to latest BIOS.. it won't do any harm and might fix the problem.

Also maybe trying using one RAM only on slot 2 and check if it boots.

According to quick google search your Laptop should support 16GB DDR3 SODIMM no problem.. but it could be due to speed of the DDR3 SODIMM. Which two 8GB DDR3 SODIMM do you have? i.e. brand/model/speed

cos latest Ghost Canyon NUC can support upto 64GB(2x 32GB) DDR4 SODIMM but only if you use 2400 modules, and if you use 2666+ modules then it can only support upto 32GB(2x 16GB) DDR4 SODIMM.
 
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May 1, 2020
3
0
10
Yes, upgrade to latest BIOS.. it won't do any harm and might fix the problem.

Also maybe trying using one RAM only on slot 2 and check if it boots.

According to quick google search your Laptop should support 16GB DDR3 SODIMM no problem.. but it could be due to speed of the DDR3 SODIMM. Which two 8GB DDR3 SODIMM do you have? i.e. brand/model/speed

cos latest Ghost Canyon NUC can support upto 64GB(2x 32GB) DDR4 SODIMM but only if you use 2400 modules, and if you use 2666+ modules then it can only support upto 32GB(2x 16GB) DDR4 SODIMM.

Thank you for the reply!
So I did try with 1 ram in slot 2, with both sticks, it didn’t work.

The ram are both samsung ddr3l, 1600mhz.this was the one that came with the laptop and I bought another one just the same.

These are the RAM details View: https://imgur.com/a/DbOHADX


This is the original stick
View: https://imgur.com/a/UFCvYjP


This is the new stick
View: https://imgur.com/a/OEeZN13


I will try to upgrade bios, any way I can do it without battery? I lost my laptops battery some time ago..
 
Jun 8, 2020
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Did you get any fixes? I'm facing the same issue but I'm not even upgrading to a new ram, the already working ram in my laptop stopped working but is getting detected, I tried removing it and stuff but to no vain.