Weird memory problem!!

[RedsB3]

Perhaps someone here knows the answer, it sure has me scratching my head. My wife's computer is a HP m9515y that came with 8 gigs of PC -6400 ram. 2 gig sticks in each slot. Worked fine for two years. About 2 months ago, it would randomly hang or not come out of low power state after sitting for a couple of hours. We normally turn off computers during the week, but let them on from Fri. night to Sunday night. This wasn't an everytime thing, it might work fine for weeks, then hang. A power switch shutdown and reboot always worked and brought it back. This morning, different story. She checked email and we went out for 30 minutes, came back and the screen is up but won't do anything. Shut it down, will power up the fans but no boot, won't even go through bios screen. I thought it might be HD, put the latest clone in, no go, still nothing. Removed the second pair of memory sticks, it booted like nothing wrong. Put current HD back in, still OK. Take out first pair of memory sticks, insert in 3rd & 4th slots, boots fine again. Insert pair of memory that were originally in slots 3 & 4 into slot 1 & 2 with 3 & 4 empty, again, fine nothing wrong. So this now seems to tell me that all four sticks are OK and all 4 slots are OK, BUT put the 4 sticks back in, same problem, won't boot. It's weird, any two sticks will work in either pair of slots, but not 4 sticks in 4 slots. Any ideas???

 

[stargazr]

Try memtest 86+ to test each stick.


http://www.memtest.org/

Just curious, does your mb have dual channel memory, and if so did you test the pairs in the color coded slots?

 

[RedsB3]

Yea, it is dual channel. It's a MSI OEM board. Of course there's no info anywhere about the MB but the first two slots are red and the second two are blue, so I took 1 & 2 as a pair and 3 & 4 as a pair. I tried another pair of memory that I had, still wouldn't boot with 4 slots filled even with different memory.

 

[stargazr]

If the RAM checks out ok, it may be the power supply.

 

[FishAk]

Intermittent problem that gets worse, then is repaired by moving the memory.

Check all the sticks individually, and if it all checks out you're good to go. Don't worry about it unless symptoms show up again. Excessive resistance building between one or more of the memory pins and the socket connector could cause what you experienced. Moving the memory, gives all the connectors a fresh seat.

 

[Shmee]

Could be a motherboard/northbridge being picky about having all the slots filled, I know some older boards have issues like that.

 

[RedsB3]

Thanks for all the ideas guys. Memory checks out but it is working fine with 4 gigs of memory. Will let it go for now, she doesn't really need it anyway. Didn't think about the power supply, did wonder about the memory controller in the CPU. Wondered if a hot spot could cause a problem? Didn't really get repaired by moving the memory. It will not boot if all 4 slots are filled. Any two slots will work with any pair of memory, just not all 4 at once.

 

[buckjrdley]

This only happened after two years, with no problems before?
Sounds like motherboard/power supply problems. I would suggest testing the power supply if you can (maybe install a working one from a different box?). Also, check to see if anyone else online is having trouble with the MSI MS-7548 aspen motherboard when occupying 4 DIMM slots.

I had some issues with one of my machines where it wouldn't post, but the fans would fire up, similar to your issue. My machine was on a carpet and had built up some static inside the case which was causing the issue. Unplugging the PSU from the electrical outlet for about a minute allowed the build-up to clear and I haven't had an issue since. I would suggest trying this out (only takes a minute) and you might even want to remove the battery on the motherboard to be extra thorough. Hopefully that's the only issue.

Good luck!