Broken memory slot????

[tivon]

Last night, after using the htpc for about 5 minutes the screen suddenly went blank. I tried to restart but it would not post. I started to disconnect stuff and found that after removing 1 of the 2 sticks of ram it would post and would function normally (of course this is with 1gb of ram instead of 2gb).

It appears that slots 3 and 4 are broken. The htpc will work with either stick of ram in slots 1 or 2, but it will not post if I add either of the second sticks to slots 3 or 4.

How can I diagnose this...what's causing this?
Can it be fixed?
If it can't be fixed, can I buy a 2gb stick of ram and just not use slots 3 or 4 anymore?

Thanks for any help

Seth

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz
Scythe SCMNJ-1000 80mm Sleeve "NINJA MINI" CPU Cooler
GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400
A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB
AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe
LG Black Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16x
Antec Fusion Remote Black

 

[tivon]

So I've tried swapping the 2 sticks of ram around some more. I used compressed air to clean out the memory slots. Still only getting one stick of ram to work at a time. Putting either stick in slots 3 or 4 and the computer still won't post.

I'm thinking the slots are dead...can't understand how this happened...but anyway. I checked newegg and 2gb sticks of ram are pretty cheap. I know I won't get dual channel, but how will using one 2gb stick of ram instead of 2 1gb sticks impact performance? Will I still be able to play my blu-ray MKV rips?

 

[jaggerwild]

Buying new ram will not fix it, as you said it is the slot or the mother board. I would contact the MB company ask for an RMA number, or try this. Use the other two mem slots that have never been used before see if that helps you?
Regards!