[SOLVED] PC Boot Loops after re-installing RAM sticks

Mar 17, 2020
5
0
10
So I recently found out my PC only registered 8GB of my RAM instead of 16GB, I decided to open my PC up and take the ram sticks out and put them back in (Didn’t place them in same exact slots don’t know if that might help). Anyways once I put them back in my PC turns on for ~20 seconds and then turns off, then turns on and after 20 second goes off and it repeats that the whole time. Does anyone know a solution to this? Thanks in advance.
 
Solution
First and foremost, if you pulled the sticks out without draining residual energy you could've potentially shorted something.
This happens most commonly with RAM sticks, and on older hardware.
Seeing as how it's both RAM and 3rd gen Intel, this could've possibly happened to you as it has to me and many others.

Also, with such an old platform and hardware, RAM slots and RAM sticks go bad over time.

However, you also stated that you didn't put them back in their original slots, this could be the issue if you didn't put them in the correct slots for use.

Put one stick in slot A1 and the second stick in slot B1.
If that doesn't work, try A2 and B2 together.

If that doesn't work, try only one stick in each slot to determine if either the...

QwerkyPengwen

Splendid
Ambassador
First and foremost, if you pulled the sticks out without draining residual energy you could've potentially shorted something.
This happens most commonly with RAM sticks, and on older hardware.
Seeing as how it's both RAM and 3rd gen Intel, this could've possibly happened to you as it has to me and many others.

Also, with such an old platform and hardware, RAM slots and RAM sticks go bad over time.

However, you also stated that you didn't put them back in their original slots, this could be the issue if you didn't put them in the correct slots for use.

Put one stick in slot A1 and the second stick in slot B1.
If that doesn't work, try A2 and B2 together.

If that doesn't work, try only one stick in each slot to determine if either the stick is bad, or any of the slots are bad.

Do this for both sticks.

To clarify on what I said in the beginning.
When you turn off your PC, if your PSU has a switch on the back for power then flip it to off.
If it's a pre-built machine with a cheap PSU with no switch, then unplug the cable from the back of the PSU.

Once you do this, press and hold the power button on the machine for 10 seconds to create a closed circuit and allow residual energy left inside the components and capacitors to move through the system and into ground to "drain" it.

Then mess with components and boot the system.
Do this draining process ever time you want to mess with components inside the system.
 
Solution
Mar 17, 2020
5
0
10
First and foremost, if you pulled the sticks out without draining residual energy you could've potentially shorted something.
This happens most commonly with RAM sticks, and on older hardware.
Seeing as how it's both RAM and 3rd gen Intel, this could've possibly happened to you as it has to me and many others.

Also, with such an old platform and hardware, RAM slots and RAM sticks go bad over time.

However, you also stated that you didn't put them back in their original slots, this could be the issue if you didn't put them in the correct slots for use.

Put one stick in slot A1 and the second stick in slot B1.
If that doesn't work, try A2 and B2 together.

If that doesn't work, try only one stick in each slot to determine if either the stick is bad, or any of the slots are bad.

Do this for both sticks.

To clarify on what I said in the beginning.
When you turn off your PC, if your PSU has a switch on the back for power then flip it to off.
If it's a pre-built machine with a cheap PSU with no switch, then unplug the cable from the back of the PSU.

Once you do this, press and hold the power button on the machine for 10 seconds to create a closed circuit and allow residual energy left inside the components and capacitors to move through the system and into ground to "drain" it.

Then mess with components and boot the system.
Do this draining process ever time you want to mess with components inside the system.
Thank you so much man! It stopped boot looping, however I’ve ran into a second problem. The PC doesn’t show any display, also doesnt give any power to my keyboard as the lights don’t turn on.
 

QwerkyPengwen

Splendid
Ambassador
don't know what part of all of that helped stop the boot looping, but if you haven't tried just using a single stick in each slot to determine if one is bad, or if one of the slots is bad, then you should do that.

Try to get it to boot with just one stick in any one of the slots by itself.

However, you might have messed something up prior due to boot looping, so before you waste a huge amount of time doing that process, try doing a CMOS reset first.