How To Check Faulty Ram Slot
I have a late 2011 15' MacBook Pro that at the end of 2016 had the logic board replaced under the GPU replacement program. So the Logic board is 7 months old. The computer is in great condition, never dropped or misused. Randomly the machine wouldn't start and it was giving me the three beeps, signaling a RAM issue. I tried reseating, replacing, cleaning the sticks and the slots. Nothing. Then I used just one stick and it worked. The bottom slot (when the computer is laying on its lid) is faulty and is not allowing the machine to boot, it'll only boot with one stick installed in the slot closest to the back case. What can I do to make both work? Or is one 8Gb stick a good option, will it perform as if there were two 4Gb sticks (Im worried that if one slot has went bad that the other will too.)? I'm very upset that a virtually new logic board is having this issue and that apple refuses to work on it because it is 'too old'.
Replacing the logic board is a way to costly option, so not really an option.
Ive tried loosening the logic board screws, as some have said that that has helped the slot read the ram, nothing.
Has anyone else encountered this issue? What did you do. What do you recommend?
My motherboard is a ASUS Prime Z270-K and the CPU is a I7-6700K. The RAM is Ballistix Sport DDR4-2666 Slots 1 and 2 on my M/B work fine but if I try 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 then all I get is a blank screen. The fans etc are running but nothing is on the screen. I have changed the RAM and the CPU but just the same. Could slots 3 and 4 be faulty? Thank you for correcting your question. To know if an application is causing a “memory leak” simply open and leave task manager running, if the amount of memory a process uses (without any user involvement) shows a significant increase in size ove. How to Test RAM With Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool The next easiest way to test your memory is with Windows 10 's built-in Memory Diagnostic tool. Search for 'Windows Memory Diagnostic' in your.
Thanks.
Is this a good question?
Is it possible to fix laptop memory slot failure with a guitar pick? Yes, it is. You will not fix the memory slot itself, but you can work around the problem. 🙂
Today I received a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 laptop with the following complaint:
The laptop starts and works properly, but recognizes only one of the two memory modules installed. The laptop has two 256MB RAM modules installed, but registers only 256MB.
First of all, I removed the memory cover to find out if both memory modules are installed correctly. The laptop had two 256MB Kingston modules installed and they were seated properly.
When I started the laptop and entered the BIOS setup menu, I found that only one of the two memory modules is detected and the laptop registers only 256MB (262144KB) of RAM instead of 512MB (524288KB).
Just a side note. In the computer world 1MB=1024KB. That’s why 256MB=262144KB and 512MB=524288KB.
I tried reseating both memory modules but it didn’t help.
After that I tried installing both memory modules in both memory slots one by one and here’s what I found. The laptop worked absolutely fine when both memory modules were installed into the slot A, but failed to boot with both memory modules installed into the slot B.
Apparently, there is nothing wrong with the memory modules and the laptop has a faulty memory slot B. The memory slot is permanently soldered on the motherboard. If one of the slots fails you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard or use the laptop with only one working slot.
Buying a new motherboard for this older laptop wouldn’t make any sense because it’s too expensive, but the laptop is still in a good working condition except the faulty memory slot B, so I continued playing with that trying to find the solution.
I noticed that the laptop start normally with the memory module installed into the faulty slot if I slightly press on the module with my thumb. And this gave me an idea.
This guitar pick is going to fix my laptop. 🙂
I installed both RAM modules back into the slots and then placed the guitar pick over the module in the slot B as it shown on the picture.
I thought if I close the RAM door it will press on the guitar pick/memory module and it will have the same effect as pressing on the module with my thumb. And it worked!
Both memory modules were detected properly and the laptop registered all 512MB. After “the fix” I tested memory with Memtest86+ and the laptop passed the test.
I wouldn’t call it the best solution for fixing a faulty memory slot but in some cases it will work.
By the way, I didn’t charge the customer for this “repair”, he knows what is going on and how I “fixed” his problem.