PC freezes instantly on power-on after upgrading RAM

[saiphcharon]

OS: Win 8 32-bit
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Motherboard: ASRock - G31M-GS (BIOS: P1.80)

I've had 2x 1GB sticks installed for a long time with no troubles (labelled: 1GB 1Rx8 pc2-6400u-666-12-zz), tried replacing them today with 2x 2GB ones (labelled: 2GB 2Rx8 pc2-6400u-666-12-e3) and after I turn it on, no signs of activity on mouse/keyboard and neither does the monitor turn on, while the PC just runs with nothing happening until I hold the power button to shut it down again.

I've tried it with just one of the 2GB sticks (and the second slot empty), as well as combination of 1GB and 2GB, both of which gave the same result. Putting the old 1GB pair back in makes it work compeltely fine as it did before.

I went into BIOS to see what the settings are on voltage or whatever might be relevant, but most of the options there were set to "automatic".

Any ideas? And anything else I could post that might be helpful info?

 

[Carobthomp]

Do you get any beeps when powering it on? It could just be that it isn't being seated correctly.

 

[saiphcharon]

Do you get any beeps when powering it on? It could just be that it isn't being seated correctly.

Considering I've switched them all out multiple times, yet it only works when I put the 1GB ones back in.. pretty sure that's not it. It does make a few short and quiet noises with the 2GB ones, but I know the proper beeps you mean (from when I first switched out RAM a long time ago), and it is not making those.

I'm starting to think if these RAM sticks are defective...but then it would be curious why both of them would be...

 

[Tim_7_]

could be ram, try installing new ram then unplug the psu , press powerbutton and hold it for 40 sek, then plug psu back in and try to start again

 

[Carobthomp]

Do you get any beeps when powering it on? It could just be that it isn't being seated correctly.

Considering I've switched them all out multiple times, yet it only works when I put the 1GB ones back in.. pretty sure that's not it. It does make a few short and quiet noises with the 2GB ones, but I know the proper beeps you mean (from when I first switched out RAM a long time ago), and it is not making those.

I'm starting to think if these RAM sticks are defective...but then it would be curious why both of them would be...

Is it possible at some point they became damaged due to radical temperature change or static?

 

[saiphcharon]

could be ram, try installing new ram then unplug the psu , press powerbutton and hold it for 40 sek, then plug psu back in and try to start again

Didn't change anything unfortunately S:

Is it possible at some point they became damaged due to radical temperature change or static?

That's likely going to be it then. They arrived via mail wrapped in newspaper (sound stupid enough?), were used only in 1 PC before and worked perfectly in it.

Last thing I can try is probably putting them into another PC I guess..

Does my PC freeze on powering-on because it doesn't recognize the RAM or because it recognizes bad RAM?
If it was the first, it'd mean it should work when I have one old and one new in it (the same as if the second slot was empty), so probably the latter is how it works?

 

[Carobthomp]

I'm not 100% on your second question, but typically a BIOS will not boot if it can't find any RAM, so I would go with that it doesn't recognize it. I would also concur that the travel method could be a big contributing factor.

 

[Barty1884]

You could try resetting CMOS before totally ruling the modules as defective, although shipping doesn't sound like it was appropriate.