Why does reseating RAM help with troubleshooting?

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UKickAss

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This is less a question asking for help and more a question out of curiosity.

So, this morning I wake up and go to turn on my PC but nothing happens, no fans spinning, no lights apart from the motherboard's green LED light. However, last night the computer was working fine. In fact, I hadn't had an issue with the PC for 2 straight years. But then all of a sudden it decided to stop working? It wasn't like I put the PC under some heavy load as yesterday I was just playing some CSGO and watching some youtube videos, that's it.

So the first thing I did was, of course, check that the power cable going into the case wasn't loose. Then I took out one RAM stick and I managed to boot with 4GB. Then, I turned off the computer and put the other stick in and it worked fine.

So, my question is, why does reseating RAM sticks (in fact, any component) sometimes solve troubleshooting issues? This is especially puzzling because I'm trying the figure out what would have caused the computer to stop working overnight.
 
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Fully agree with Phillip Corcoran. In fact, this is the RAM sub-type of one of my most often-used troubleshooting tools. Connectors of almost any type are subject to slow oxidation of the metal surfaces, and the oxides formed are insulators. Eventually that process can create a bad connection point across one or more pins in the connector. If you GENTLY (to avoid damaging nearby stuff) disconnect and re-connect it several times WITH THE POWER OFF!!! that action can "scrub" away some of the offending oxide layer and restore the connections. The is an easy thing to do, costs nothing, and harms nothing if done right. If it does not solve your problem, go on the the next troubleshooting step.

UKickAss

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Sorry if this is a dumb question but what do you mean by a fraction off?
 
Often a problem can occur as a result of poor connectivity between the RAM edge-connectors & the connectors inside the slot.

Reseating the RAM usually fixes that - - which is why we suggest it when cause of PC problem is not immediately obvious.

It's just a basic troubleshooting step in the process of elimination (ie eliminating any simple causes before spending money on hardware replacement ).
 

Paperdoc

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Fully agree with Phillip Corcoran. In fact, this is the RAM sub-type of one of my most often-used troubleshooting tools. Connectors of almost any type are subject to slow oxidation of the metal surfaces, and the oxides formed are insulators. Eventually that process can create a bad connection point across one or more pins in the connector. If you GENTLY (to avoid damaging nearby stuff) disconnect and re-connect it several times WITH THE POWER OFF!!! that action can "scrub" away some of the offending oxide layer and restore the connections. The is an easy thing to do, costs nothing, and harms nothing if done right. If it does not solve your problem, go on the the next troubleshooting step.
 
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UKickAss

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Awesome! So, is there any way that I could prevent or slow down the process of oxidation in the future? Or is it just inevitable?
 


You could run your PC in a vacuum. No oxygen = no oxidation.
 

Karadjgne

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Do you remember the original Nintendo cartridges? They had that green board with all those gold strips. That went to a receptacle that had metal pins on springs. As the strips made contact, the outer layer of oxidation gets scratched off, allowing full contact between the pin and the strip. Exactly the same as ram. Depending on the air quality in the house, pollutants like smoke from cigarettes etc, moisture levels, case dust, pollen, dander, acid etc all those can affect speed of oxidation. And considering the size of the pins/strips it doesn't take much to interrupt just 1 pin flow.
And no, even a vacuum does not work, you'd still need airflow for cooling purposes. You'd need to run the system inside an air proof, sealed, system using 100% inert gasses to simulate airflow or under liquid like the mineral spirits cases which have oxidation cleaning properties.
 


I stand corrected. :)
 

Karadjgne

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No worries, as in most things ppl look at obvious fixes and for oxidation you'd be perfectly correct, no O²=no oxidation. It's what comes after that many miss, no heat dissipation=1 hot cpu and heat won't travel over a perfect vacuum as there's no medium for transference. That includes sound.
 

UKickAss

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So what you're saying is it would not be possible to maintain a computer on its own in a vacuum due to the lack of heat dissipation to the surrounding particles (meaning the components would eventually fry)? If that is the case, then how would space stations function? Do they use stuff like coolants or some shit? Where would the heat radiated from the components on the station go if there is no atmosphere to radiate it to (as you can tell I don't know much about space and space stations)?
 

Karadjgne

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It's like - 400° in the shade, and space isn't a perfect vacuum, it's just airless. Space itself is full of particles of nitrogen, hydrogen etc. Anything outside will freeze almost instantly if not protected, but that's only on contact or long exposure. Human flesh takes like a minute to drop to that temperature, but once your skin is that cold it travels fast. So a pc in space will not fry as cooling fins will become extremely cold very fast and cpus don't put out enough heat to overcome that.
 

UKickAss

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Man, you just dropped the KNAWLEDGE bomb on me. Appreciated though! I kinda wanna do some more research on this now.
 

g-unit1111

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Mine was due to a faulty CPU socket. It's mainly a problem with AMD rigs as opposed to Intel rigs, and I assume that's due to AMD using the plastic socket design. I had a similar problem - I checked and rechecked all the connections and everything, wouldn't turn on. Only after removing the CPU from the socket did I determine that was the problem. So I RMA'd my motherboard and everything is fine again.
 

dj_icarus

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fresh windows on a fresh ssd on my pc with a motherboard which has 2 ddr4 RAM slots. the next day i powered it on and it shut off seconds later over and over until i i literally popped out the second ram stick. good so far, mem diagnostic tool reported no problems. mind blown
 
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