PC Will No Longer Boot with 2 Sticks of RAM

[riva2model64]

Hi folks.

So I was previously running my computer with 2 sticks of G.SKILL 2GB DDR2-1066 RAM. I wanted more memory, so I chucked in a spare Kingston 2GB DDR2-1066 stick I had lying around. It didn't boot up, no big deal, I thought it may not work anyway because the memory was not brand matching. I'll just put it back to the way it was.

I put the memory back in its original G.SKILL configuration, but it still wouldn't start up! It did, however, seem to start up with only 1 stick of ram, one ram stick in particular. I tried loading fail safe default, manually setting timing to 5-5-5-18 800 mhz, nada.

I also tried removing my motherboard battery and plugging the original configuration back again - nada.

It seems too coincidental that one of my sticks would have died when they were working fine up til now, right? Any insight on this issue is appreciated!

Here's the comp specs:
E8400 Stock
2x2 G.SKILL PC2-8500
EP45-UD3R
64gb SSD
GTX 770
Windows 10 64-bit
Antec 650w

 

[Ketchup]

Run a BIOS reset with all 3 sticks in. Don't rely on moving the battery. Remember that if you are running different speed sticks, run the looser speed on the first stick in the channel for the best chance at it working properly (but in chipsets like this that runs dual channel, it's always a toss-up to be able to successfully run sticks of different speeds).

 

[Elixer]

You didn't mention it, but, when you swapped the DIMMs, did you have the power plugged pulled? I have seen lots of boards die by people only shutting down the machine, then replace their DIMMs/ GPU / CPUs without pulling the power plug & hitting case switch to drain the CAPs.

 

[riva2model64]

Hi Ketchup, I'll try resetting the BIOS then rebooting with all the sticks.

Hi Elixer, I did not pull the power plug, but I did initially flip off the PSU switch. I say initially, because I became frustrated with it not starting up and eventually started shifting DIMMs around with the PSU switch on. I hope that didn't roast the one DIMM that the computer doesn't start up with.

 

[piasabird]

RAM is definitely not plug and play. This is really kind of old hardware. Anything could have gone wrong. RAM could be bad, the RAM slot could be bad, the Power circuits on the motherboard could be bad or maybe you moved the Motherboard down too far and it grounded out or you caused some of the other boards like the video card or sound card to go out of alignment and short out or maybe something became unplugged like an auxiliary power connector. Sometimes unused RAM slots become corroded also.