Problem in motherboard/Slot of memory

[kulatrax]

Hi dear fellows,
First of all, please note that I will talk about a laptop problem, not about desktop/builds. I have a laptop with a HM76 Chipset and I've upgraded from an i5 3210M to an i7 3630QM, so perfectly compatible. I also bought an additional stick of 8GB RAM with dual voltage of 1.35V and 1.5V, from Crucial (according to the information on the Crucial's website, I think they are both running at 1.5V).

But, when I finish the assembling and press the power button, the PC boot but it was on a black screen, even the logo of "ASUS" don't appear, so it failed to POST. After some tests, I discover the problem was in RAM slot 1. If I put any stick of RAM in slot 1 the laptop has the mentioned problem. If I only use the slot 2, with 1 stick of RAM, everything works perfectly and the boot is super normal.
In some of the times I could boot the PC with the 2 sticks of RAM in the 2 slots doing what is presented in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js6DNbZDJ1o) what may indicate dirty in the slot/stick but I have already cleaned everything with a can of Air compressed. But in other times I cannot boot normally the PC

I've test individually each stick of RAM and they are good (I stress test it in memtest86 and memtest86+). But, if I put a stick of RAM in slot 1, in the times when I can boot the PC, doing a stress test with memtest86 and Prime95 I got some errors and BSoD. With a stick of ram in slot 2 I have 0 errors, even with stress test of 15 hours both in memtest86 and Prime95.

So, this may indicate that I have a problem in slot 1 right? What do you think that have caused this, because it just appeared after upgrading the CPU ?

And, more important: Do you think if I leave the slot 1 empty and use only the Slot 2 I could have future problems? Because buying a new motherboard or repair this one will be a little bit expensive, and if using only slot 2 and ignoring the damage in slot 1 would not result in aditional problems/damages, it would be a good thing for me.

I appreaciate every opinion you could give me,
I wish you all a great week!

Best regards.

[piernov]

Re: Problem in motherboard/Slot of memory

Check RAM/CPU socket and CPU pins and make sure everything looks good. Use some contact cleaner to clean the CPU socket and the RAM socket. If you can stress-test it without issue with RAM only inside the other slot, the CPU is probably fine but somewhere between the RAM and the CPU there is probably a bad contact. Just put the maximum amount of RAM inside the working slot and you should be fine.

[kulatrax]

Re: Problem in motherboard/Slot of memory

Check RAM/CPU socket and CPU pins and make sure everything looks good. Use some contact cleaner to clean the CPU socket and the RAM socket. If you can stress-test it without issue with RAM only inside the other slot, the CPU is probably fine but somewhere between the RAM and the CPU there is probably a bad contact. Just put the maximum amount of RAM inside the working slot and you should be fine.

Hi Piernov, thank you very much for your help. I think I have already saw one of your videos on youtube, about fixing a motherboard. I'm very happy to have your help.

You said: "If you can stress-test it without issue with RAM only inside the other slot, the CPU is probably fine" when you said "with RAM only inside the other slot" you mean RAM only in Slot 2 right? If so, yes, I stress test with 8GB RAM on slot 2 for 15h in memtest86 and 15h in Prime95 and everything was OK. The max heat was 90ºC what I think is good (the Tj max for this CPU is 105ºC) and no BSoD and not errors on Memtest86.
So, you're saying that if everything is OK when the Slot 1 is empty the CPU is probably fine? But can't be a problem in the CPU that is just affecting the Slot 1 and not Slot 2?

What you say here "Just put the maximum amount of RAM inside the working slot and you should be fine" is that you recommend me to ignore the damage in Slot 1 and use 8GB in slot 2? That's what I'm alredy doing, but someone have told me that somewhere in the future the Slot 2 will have the same problem, and I'm worry about that. And, with 8GB of RAM, I'm always with 65% to 80% of RAM usage on task manager.. but I think I can optimize it and close some things..

I will appreciate your opinion again, please.
Thank you