Part of RAM socket broke off

[BlittzOff]

So, one of the clippers that hold the ram in place broke off.Can i still use that socket?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

It may or may not work , Sorry to hear that.

 

[JobCreator]

The thing is, if you use the remaining clip, it may force the other end of the RAM where there is no clip out of the slot. If I were desperate and feeling ballsy, I'd pop the other clip off too and see if I can't just rely on the slot itself to keep it in place. That's a tricky situation you got there. See if you can just use the one clip, but I have a feeling that may cause more angst than good.

 

[InvalidError]

Normal DIMM slots hold the DIMM quite firmly even without the locking tabs requires some seriously rough case handling to make them fall off so their apparent primary purpose is not actually that important - at least one of my ASUS boards uses DIMM slots with only one "locking" tab.

Those tabs serve a secondary purpose when REMOVING DIMMs: many models I have seen have a nub at the bottom of the slot that pries the DIMM out of the slot when you open the tabs - those are the same nubs that make the tabs close when the DIMM is inserted. This is to prevent people from having to pull on the DIMM slot when removing DIMMs, which could break solder joints or even rip the slot off the motherboard.