RAM slot problem

Bryan Harmon

Reputable
Apr 19, 2015
14
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4,510
My motherboard recently bit the dust in my Silverstone Raven Mini-ITX case. So I found, what I thought, was a great deal on Newegg for a Asrock mini-itx motherboard, open box for $100 bucks. It had all the bells and whistles I needed and was inline with my i7 processor. So I purchased it and my friend and I installed it in the case.

Everything seemed great until I went to turn the computer on day after installing it and the computer would start up, light on fan runs, for 2 seconds and then shut off. This process would repeat until I manually shut the computer off. I had recently put thermal past on the cpu and heat fan because the rig seemed to be much noisier than it used to be. After that it wouldn't start.

Completely stumped I took the rig to the local computer repair store and the guy figured out it was one of the RAM slots that was bad in the board. When he took the 4gb RAM card out, computer worked fine. So now I am down to 1 RAM slot with a 4gb card in it. I could return the board and get something else but I would have to uninstall it, reinstall new on, reinstall OS and redownload everything back to my hard drive again. Huge pain. I have decided to roll the dice and buy an 8gb RAM card for the one working slot and just hope that slot remains ok. Computer working well now.

My question is has anyone ever encountered this and is there a way to fix a broken RAM slot on a board without just getting a new board?

Thx!
 
Hey Bryan, I know exactly what you're going through. I have the same problem in this rig right now. The only way to fix it is to by a new MB. But I'm stuck like you said, not only do I have to fork over 400 bucks for a new board but I have to download over 700 gigs of data back on my 3tb HD.
 


Ya it sucks. I thought I was getting a great deal by getting the Asrock mini-itx (open box) MB for $100 but turns out it was a broke board. The thought of doing everything I have just done, all over again is depressing. I guess I will just cross my fingers and hope the MB works fine from here out.
 
One thing I always suspect on open box deals, is that someone else got it, discovered a problem, returned it, and some tech slapped a slow stick of memory in one of the slots, a CPU, and fired it up on a bench, and if it got to the BIOS screen, it probably was tossed back into the box and put up for sale.

I know enough about how corporations work to know that they absolutely hate returns, and would rather sell them at a discount than have to actually deal with the manufacturer to get the motherboard replaced with a new unit.

So when it comes to electronics, I always buy new.
 


I could only find 8gb stick for close to $70. You have seen them for $40? Where at? I want to buy it there..
 
So, you get a board on sale for $100, then spend $70 more to fix it. You already know the board works with your system, I'd RMA the board, and upgrade to a non-open box, new one, which will be cheaper overall and not require any software changes.
 
It happens. I was dping and upgrade in the past two weeks and When I went to start it, it didn't POST. I was using the integrated Graphics as I knew the card was fine as I was keeping the one I was using. I removed all the memory and tried one stick and it posted. Okat that's nice, so I proceed to try the others one at at time and no post. I then put the first stick back in and lo and behold, it didn't post. The one thing I noticed was that the DIMM slots seemed very loose. I called Newegg and got an RMA for this Board and told them I was buying another one and they could just give me credit for that board. That one was fine and I am on the computer now.