RAM slot not working

Hi guys,

I have a problem with one of my RAM slots. Starting a few months ago, my laptop's boot time seem to take very long time (up to two freaking minutes) before the start-up screen shows. Considering my laptop to have an SSD as the primary storage, you know something fishy is going on. I suspected that my RAM slots are possible culprits for this delay.

My fears were confirmed awhile ago after I got my laptop from a techinician. I made them repair my laptop for a different problem, which is my laptop's damaged hinges. I saw that the technician also removed some parts on my laptop's main body, like the keyboard, RAM and HDD.

After fixing the hinges, he demonstrated to me that only one of my RAM slots is working. (For reference, I have two RAM sticks, 4 GB each). He used only one RAM stick for this demo. When he uses the upper slot for the RAM stick, my laptop gets no problem booting it. But when he uses the lower slot, my laptop's power button and keyboard light up for a few second, then shut down, signalling an unsuccessful boot.

When he inserts both RAM sticks into my laptop, my OS only seem to recognize one RAM, as it indicates that I have only 4 GB of RAM in my system.

Can someone help me figure out how to solve this? Thanks in advance.

 

undulose, what notebook are we talking about? Generally speaking, it's usually much cheaper and easier to replace the faulty part than fix it, especially if it's an old machine. Another option would be use it as is and/or replace with something newer.

 

Agree with Starlight5, it depends on the notebook.

If you're able to use a single 8GB SoDimm in the working slot, while not ideal, it will be the cheapest way forward.

Did he try testing the two sticks you have now in each slot separately? It may just be a bad memory stick?

Fixing this properly means getting a new M/B. Not a cheap solution or worth it if the platform is two or more generations old.

What is worse, if that part failed now, it usually indicates that something else will fail on it soon.

 

I had this happen a while back where one of the pins on the DIM socket bent. Not for the faint of heart. you need great eyes and even a better sense of touch with a probe. I have to agree with those here, it is a repair that may not be worth persuing other than as a last resort (the machine is being tossed away anyways).