Questions about replacing corrupt Ram & other parts

mswin10 · 19 Aug 2018

Hi guys,

After getting random BSOD (SEE THIS THREAD) and spending hours trying to diagnose the issue, I took out one of the two Ballistix memory chips and bingo! My PC booted up instantly without any hitches.

Since I'm now only left with 4 GB and the PC is running a tad slower, I'm thinking if I'm better off replacing the motherboard, CPU & ram or just upgrade the ram to 16 GB and stick with the rest of components to save money.

FYI, I mainly use the PC for browsing, editing photos/videos, watching movies and the odd old game.

Here are my current Specs:

AMD FX 6300 Six-Core Processor (3500Mhz)
Biostar TA970 Motherboard
Ballistix Sport BLS4G3D1609DS1S00CEU (DDR3, 1600 MT/s) - 4 GB x 2 (But now down to only 4 GB)
AMD Radeon HD 7700 Graphics Card
Samsung 840 Evo SSD (250gb)
Western Digital 3TB Hard Drive
Windows 10

Your help is really appreciated.

Phone Man · 19 Aug 2018

Crucial has a lifetime warranty on their memory. They will swap it for free.

Jim

mswin10 · 19 Aug 2018

Hi Jim.

Thanks very much for your reply. Being honest with you, I really can't be asked with going through all the headache of support, returning it. The question is whether I just upgrade the ram to 16GB or is it worth upgrading the whole pc due to the parts age and possible speed boost I'll get...or will I not notice much difference?

Geosammy · 19 Aug 2018

Have you tried swapping the Ram Modules, to see witch one is bad?

Over time, some Ram Modules can become unseated in their slots.
The act of re-seating them back to their proper position in the slot, may sometimes be all that's required.

mswin10 · 19 Aug 2018

I've definitely taken out the bad chip. In fact now come to think of it, I've been getting random freezes and BSOD going back 6-8 months and this must have been the cause of it all, so I'm not willing to place it back in the motherboard as I've already lost a lot of data.

Geosammy · 19 Aug 2018

mswin10 said:

I've definitely taken out the bad chip. In fact now come to think of it, I've been getting random freezes and BSOD going back 6-8 months and this must have been the cause of it all, so I'm not willing to place it back in the motherboard as I've already lost a lot of data.

@mswin10
You may be able to purchase a 2x8 set of RAM, for not much money. Depending on the type of modules the motherboard supports.
Check out the Crucial Advisor Tool, which can help you find compatible memory for your system.

Although I wouldn't recommend spending to much money on a 5+ year old PC.

Caledon Ken · 19 Aug 2018

Me I would replace memory.

I think I would explore / determine if motherboard has issue. Take bad memory and install in place of good. Hopefully it will act up so the problem moved with the stick. If the PC behaves then maybe your slot is bad. It very likely is the stick but I would check.
You could run windows memory test tool. mdsched.exe

Since you do photo and video editing having more than 8Gb may give you a boost.

ThrashZone · 19 Aug 2018

Hi,
I'm sure Crucial like most manufactures have express rma
I rma'ed a ssd and it was painless.

mswin10 · 19 Aug 2018

Thanks Geosammy.

I've just tried the crucial tool and it gives me the following choices which seem pretty seem in price compared to 5yrs ago:

Questions about replacing corrupt Ram & other parts-image.png

mswin10 · 19 Aug 2018

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
I'm sure Crucial like most manufactures have express rma
I rma'ed a ssd and it was painless.

But I've got no proof of purchase or even remember the time I bought everything.