After I upgraded my PC I setup my old PC downstairs for my dad to use (Athlon 64, Asus A7N8X Deluxe (N-Force 4)). It's installed in a TT Xaser 3 case which is a bit bigger than his old case and wouldn't fit under the computer desk so was placed beside it. It's worked fine for the last month or two since I set it up, however last Monday my 5 year old nephew knocked the side of the case with the office chair (lightly I was told) which resulted in the PC not booting up (screen remains black and no bios Posts or windows loading screens), or if it does manage to boot, random freezes (both when loading windows and once loaded). The memory in the system is 2x512mb corsair XMS Pro (the ones with the activity lights in the heatspreader Linky) the lights are dimmer than they were before the knock and the activity patterns look different - which leads me to believe that the problem is either with the motherboard or with the RAM. So I tried replacing the RAM with the sticks from dad's old computer (which is only 512mb total). The computer now boots and is useable (if extremely slow ). I've priced replacing the RAM on Scan which has a 2gb kit for ~£65 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=156701&source=corsairmem) which seems a bit excessive considering that I only paid ~£30 for 4gb for my new motherboard and I could get a pre-built mobo (incl Processor and 2gb of RAM for little over £90 from Novatech) although I would probably have to get a new copy of XP for it then as the current copy is an OEM of MCE which I doubt would activate on the new hardware. So my question is would a light knock really break a memory stick like that?
not unless he took the side of the case off and he hit the RAM ith the chair lol. i highly doubt a slight knock from a chair would break memory. possible that cables both internal and external could have come loose maybe however unlikely. have ya tried running mem test on each RAM stick ? if its really the RAM thats gone ive got some lying around you can have from me cheap PM if interested
After looking at your link to scan, I see that its DDR, I brought some from play.com about a year ago, 2x 1GB sticks for £16.99 each, that was for my parents system too. At the moment the ram has gone back upto £29.99, I got it on offer, if your in no rush to get some more then it maybe an idea to wait for it at an offer price. Although I agree with the 2nd post that knocking the computer shouldn't of caused the RAM to malfunction.
I was in work when it happened, so I don't know how light the 'light knock' was. I couldn't see how a knock could have broken them either. It was frustrating that I had only just activated a copy of MS Office on it the day before too. Cheers for the offer, I'll see what dad wants to do with the PC first. It's generally only used for the internet and for mum to talk to my aunt in canada, so he might decide to leave it as it is (as long as it's working).
could have grounded out on something in the case during the bump.. strange I've knocked around cases before while they were on and never had a problem
This wasn't even switched on when it was bumped. think I'll test the memory in dad's old PC see if that boots.
Your nephew = RAM EMP? XD A light knock, even a heavy one shouldn't hit the RAM. If it did the case will be bent severely. Might be worth to clean the connections of the XMS RAM and try again.
