Question Tried to upgrade memory in an HP All In One and something went wrong

[Tariq-Signify]

Hi All,

Wondering if anyone can help out. I tried to upgrade my sons computer, it was just a simple memory upgrade something I've done before years ago on desktops but never to an All In One PC.

The PC is an HP Pavilion 24-XA0181NA All In One PC.

It originally had a single SK Hynix 8GB PC4 2666 RAM,I took a picture of the ram in the board so i knew what ram to search for. I bought a ram memory stick what i believe is exactly the same make, model and type so I didn't run in compatibility issues, and should have slotted straight in no issues. I bought a used memory stick from eBay which looked like exactly the same as the one I originally had. I have posted a picture of the image of the eBay listing showing the exact same memory.



I opened the PC up (easy enough) slotted the second ram stick on top the old one 45 degree angle pushed down clicked in.

When I started the computer the BIOS memory count at the start did count the 16MB so i knew it recognised it, but then when it tried to get into Windows, it showed me Blue Screen

"Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart. We're just collecting some error and then we will restart for you." (third picture uploaded) and it would keep giving this screen every restart

The clue was at the bottom Stop code MEMORY MANAGMENT. So my obvious thought was memory not seated right some incompatibility issues or something to do with the memory. So I took the memory out, left the old original memory in just to test to make sure I hadn't messed anything up with the board, and to my horror the PC will no longer boot into windows and just going straight into HP start up repair screen, a screen similar to my 4th upload.

Every time I try start up repair, it tells me it diagnoses, then tried a repair, then tells me it is unable to repair, none of the other options work, it just give me the option to turn off my computer at each attempt of a repair.

I even thought of a BIOS corruption and took out the CMOS battery cleared the jumper and held power button for 10 secs, reseated the battery and still the same.

What could I have done? Did I damage the board somehow?

Appreciate any help from anyone

 

[Ralston18]

Will the HP boot into Safe Mode with either the original or the new RAM?

= = = =

To post images use imgur (www.imgur.com).

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

So, have you taken the new (ebay purchased) stick out, does the PC work as intended? If so, then the purchased DIMM may be faulty. I'd prob just go right ahead and begin a return process.

Laptops and AIO's are typically more forgiving when it comes to adding extra ram, so a matched kit is not often needed. You can often get away with mixing different DIMMS.

However, with that said, even with laptops/desktops unless you buy a matched kit (ie 2 x 8gb or 2 x 16gb) they may not function correctly. It's a bit of a gauntlet!!

 

[Tariq-Signify]

Will the HP boot into Safe Mode with either the original or the new RAM?

= = = =

To post images use imgur (www.imgur.com).

Hi Ralston, thanks reply. I tried the suggestion, I did the usual thing of tapping F8 on boot up, but it doesn't give me the boot options, it just proceeds to the HP startup repair screen. Wether there is another way to get to safe mode or it just can't do it I'm not sure.

 

[Tariq-Signify]

Hey there,

So, have you taken the new (ebay purchased) stick out, does the PC work as intended? If so, then the purchased DIMM may be faulty. I'd prob just go right ahead and begin a return process.

Laptops and AIO's are typically more forgiving when it comes to adding extra ram, so a matched kit is not often needed. You can often get away with mixing different DIMMS.

However, with that said, even with laptops/desktops unless you buy a matched kit (ie 2 x 8gb or 2 x 16gb) they may not function correctly. It's a bit of a gauntlet!!

Hi Keith, appreciate the reply. as soon as I realized there was a problem with the computer after the upgrade, I took the new memory out and just kept the original one in and the problem continued, in fact it was a blue screen on startup with the upgraded memory in but then with the original memory it just wants to go into HP startup repair with options that don't repair it. So I must have done something wrong during the upgrade process somehow?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hi Keith, appreciate the reply. as soon as I realized there was a problem with the computer after the upgrade, I took the new memory out and just kept the original one in and the problem continued, in fact it was a blue screen on startup with the upgraded memory in but then with the original memory it just wants to go into HP startup repair with options that don't repair it. So I must have done something wrong during the upgrade process somehow?

I guess it's possible the original DIMM got damaged somehow. If you take the original DIMM and put it in the other slot, does it still BSOD?

 

[Tariq-Signify]

Thanks Keith, just to clarify it is not doing a BSOD at the moment with the original memory in, it was only blue screening when I added the new memory, since I've taken it out and just working with the old original memory in it, it is not going into windows normally (going into HP startup diagnosis instead) because windows isn't loading. So my task at this stage is not the upgrade but just to get it working again with the original memory I had that didn't have a problem before, and then when I can get it back into windows again I can tackle the new memory and try to upgrade it like I originally intended.

Cheers

 

[Tariq-Signify]

Hi Keith also I never touched the original memory when I inserted the new memory.

During the BIOS post screen it counts the 8gb of memory and during the HP startup repair screen I've done all the memory tests (quick and extensive) and the tests seem to be passing along with all the other components, which leads me to believe maybe there's some sort of software problem when I removed the new memory but I don't know how that could of happened.

 

[Ralston18]

Not just F8

https://www.businessinsider.com/windows-10-safe-mode

https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/starting-windows-in-safe-mode/

And sometimes you may need to wait a bit longer and give Windows more time.

Could be hung up or still working on things.... Difficult to tell.

 

[Tariq-Signify]

Thanks Ralston, the only 2 options I could have tried since it won't boot into windows was the command prompt, I got command prompt through going into startup repair or the the interrupted boot method. Both didn't work. The command prompt option just gave me an error when I typed the command, think there whwre 3 commands i could have tried, and the pressing the power button 3 or 4 times to interrupt the boot sequence just carrys on trying to get into startup repair and doesn't give any boot options.

Didn't think it would be this difficult to get into Safe Mode!

 

[Ralston18]

Time to delve deeper:

https://support.hp.com/ie-en/product/hp-pavilion-all-in-one-pc-24-xa0000i/23302609/model/26210312/manuals

First, verify that I have indeed found the applicable manuals.

Second, read through the various manuals to determine if there are some other viable options that have not been tried or simply missed to date.

What I was thinking about and looking for was the jumpers for clearing CMOS.

Third, found this link but it may not be applicable per se.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01700044

Objective being able to get back to factory settings.

Again no need to rush in and do things. Find possibilities and then research further.

Hopefully there are still things to try and one of them will work.

 

[Tariq-Signify]

Thanks for the time looking into this Ralston

It indeed is the correct manuals for the product, I did spend some time looking through the manuals and documents and a lot seemed very generic not product specific, however focusing on the idea of a CMOS reset, i thought I'd done this but it seems I might not have done it correctly. Within the documentation from that link i found this in regards to resetting CMOS, but there doesn't seem much instruction . It says there is a button, could it just be a case of pressing this button and the reset is done?

Thanks for youtr help

 

[Tariq-Signify]

Hi

So I opened the back up of the PC to try and locate the CMOS reset button, but on this board it doesn't seem to have one. instead it looks like jumpers, it shows which pins to use to reset the CMOS but the pins aren't labeled which number is which, which would be pin 4-3?