Replaced RAM and now computer won’t boot

[jerryvickiadams]

Hello. I have an ACER ATC-605-UB11 running 64 bit Windows 10.
The stock setup has two ram slots which were both filled with 4gb ram chips for a total of 8gb.

I checked the manufacturer stats for this and found the maximum supported ram was 16gb. I then purchased these (2) 8gb ram chips to replace the original ones. This is the listing and it specifically says it’s compatible with my setup.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F301254900684

I then shutdown and unplugged the PC and removed and replaced the RAM with the new pieces. Since then the computer will no longer boot up. Just goes into a reboot loop and send me to a blue screen giving me recovery options. To troubleshoot this here is a list of things I tried.

1. I tried putting back the original ram chips to see if the new ram was faulty and the computer still will not boot normally.

2. I reset my bios by removing the bios battery. Upon reinserting it I got a CMOS checksum error and it said it was restoring defaults. I then entered the current time and date into the settings and exited. Still would not boot.

3. In recovery options I tried Startup Repair and it told me Stsrtup Repair couldn’t repair your PC.

4. I selected to run Windows in safe mode: safe mode works and windows will load in this way. System > about menu will show installed ram as 8 or 16 depending on which I have inserted when I run safemode.

5. While in safemode I downloaded MemTest86 and made a bootable usb. I then ran the test and it did a check of all my CPUs. The test took about 4 hours and all 4 CPUs passed with zero errors.

6. In the recovery settings I finally chose the option to Reset this PC and selected the option to keep all my personal files. This took around 2 hours and windows will still not boot up unless i select safe mode.

What should I do? Any advice?

 

[kerberos_20]

go in bios, try to switch drive from ide to ahci
on older computers bios usualy defaults to ide when u reset it
windows wont load from ide if it got installed in ahci mode and vice versa
if that wont help, u will need to use your windows install media to reinstall it

 

[jerryvickiadams]

I checked the bios options and it says the Onboard SATA mode is already in AHCI.
I’m not very knowledgeable about this stuff so I’m guessing that’s the option you were referring to as it’s the only one which fits the description.

 

[geofelt]

Two good things.
1. memtest86 runs so your ram is ok as is the basic hardware.
2. Safe mode runs.

safe mode runs with only minimal essential code with no drivers.
Your problem is likely software related and it was uncovered when you created a new configuration with the new ram or the old.

If you can, boot in safe mode and look to see if there is a previous checkpoint that you can reset to.
That may be several versions back.

if no joy, try to reinstall your drivers.
There may be some that are particular to your ACER machine, so look there first for motherboard related drivers.

Last resort will be to reinstall windows.
If you have not yet done so, that would be a good time to convert to a ssd.
Keep your HDD disconnected during the process.
When you reattach the HDD later, your data files will still be there, but you would need to reinstall apps.

 

[jerryvickiadams]

I just decided to try and reset the PC and do a clean install by allowing it to erase all my files.
It erased everything then began installing windows. Told me it would reboot several times. Been rebooting for over half an hour. I’m pretty sure it’s stuck in a loop now and I don’t think I can get it into safe mode anymore. Ugh. Now what?

 

[geofelt]

UGH!!

If you can still run memtest86, then I think your likely problem would be with the hard drive.

 

[jerryvickiadams]

UGH!!

If you can still run memtest86, then I think your likely problem would be with the hard drive.

I put back the old ram again to test and it still has no effect.
Im running the memtest86 again. Did the ram benchmark tests on the old ram and it shows that the ram is fine as far as I can tell.
Running the passmark tests again and that's the one that takes a few hours. So far its finished 2 of 4 detected CPUs and there are no errors... Ill report back when it finishes the rest of the testing.

 

[jerryvickiadams]

UGH!!

If you can still run memtest86, then I think your likely problem would be with the hard drive.

I just finished the test and all test passed. zero errors detected.