Question Undamaged RAM stick is dead

p4triot

Reputable
Apr 30, 2016
11
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4,510
I've got 4 x 8GB RAM sticks totaling 32GB in my computer, all same brand and model, bought the same day. They have been running smoothly for the past 4 years, until yesterday. My computer froze completely at some point, and after rebooting I've noticed that I had only 24 GB of RAM.

I found out which one of the sticks failed. Tried changing slot but it doesn't work, when I did the computer boots up and fails during POST time only to reboot itself and then boots up normally (just ignoring those 8GB RAM). This happened every time I changed slots.

I've heard about dead RAM before but in 20 years of computers handling this has never happened to me, so I've got no experience on how to deal with it. I've been visually inspecting the RAM stick but I cannot see anything damaged, burned, bend, scratched, dirty, or anything at all. In fact, it looks brand new.

Computer was never overclocked. There's a chance that cable management inside the computer has been applying a slight pressure on the stick, as the one failing was on the right side, next to all tied up cables some of them really close. But that's just me speculating.

Anyway, I would appreciate your knowledge & inputs on how to proceed with this, how to better test and diagnose the problem, and if there's any chance to recover the stick.
 

p4triot

Reputable
Apr 30, 2016
11
0
4,510
RAM doesn't need to have any visible damage in order for it to become unusable. The chips can develop read/write errors over time, just like any storage media.
You can confirm this by testing the modules individually with memtest

Removing the errors is not possible, just replace it.

Is it possible to test it if I cannot get past the POST screen?