Desktop wont Boot

I decided to go ahead and buy a new computer. I bought a PowerSpec G156 desktop from Microcenter. I swapped the HDD with my SSD and the disk drive with my Blueray drive. Except for having to update the chipset driver everything went OK. I was going to add my ram to it but the ram looks different so I decided to see if they are the same type ram first.

These links may be useful:

Understanding, Identifying and Upgrading the RAM in your PC

Crucial System Scanner | Crucial.com

Winuser said:

I decided to go ahead and buy a new computer. I bought a PowerSpec G156 desktop from Microcenter. I swapped the HDD with my SSD and the disk drive with my Blueray drive. Except for having to update the chipset driver everything went OK. I was going to add my ram to it but the ram looks different so I decided to see if they are the same type ram first.

The Asrock H110M-HDV and Microcenter PowerSpec G156 both use DDR4 RAM. I'm not sure why the RAM would "look different", except for mostly cosmetic things like heat spreaders.

However, you may face problems using RAM pairs that aren't identical. I've done it in the past by using manual settings for the RAM frequency and timings, based on the slower pair.

If you want to check additional details, you can see whether the RAM is on the supported list for the motherboard in the G156: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-B360M-A/

zbook said:

These links may be useful:

Understanding, Identifying and Upgrading the RAM in your PC

Crucial System Scanner | Crucial.com

bobkn said:

The Asrock H110M-HDV and Microcenter PowerSpec G156 both use DDR4 RAM. I'm not sure why the RAM would "look different", except for mostly cosmetic things like heat spreaders.

However, you may face problems using RAM pairs that aren't identical. I've done it in the past by using manual settings for the RAM frequency and timings, based on the slower pair.

If you want to check additional details, you can see whether the RAM is on the supported list for the motherboard in the G156: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-B360M-A/

I took the ram out of the old computer and found that the difference is the old ram has heat shields. What I'm thinking about is removing the 4 GB 2666 ram and replacing it with my 2 16 GB 2400 ram. This computer is listed as having 16GB Intel Optane Memory. Anyone know what exactly this is and if I would actually use it. I don't play games that use a lot of power such as World of Warcraft.

Winuser said:

I took the ram out of the old computer and found that the difference is the old ram has heat shields. What I'm thinking about is removing the 4 GB 2666 ram and replacing it with my 2 16 GB 2400 ram. This computer is listed as having 16GB Intel Optane Memory. Anyone know what exactly this is and if I would actually use it. I don't play games that use a lot of power such as World of Warcraft.

Heat spreaders, not shields. (A useless detail.)

You may be able to swap the RAM without problems. It's likely to be better to have 32 GB of 2400 MHz RAM rather than 8 GB of 2666. Before doing the swap, you might go into the new PC's BIOS settings and set it to use defaults for the RAM, which would be 2133 MHz.

I know very little about Optane memory. It's a new-ish product from Intel that is supposed to combine the speed of DRAM with the nonvolatile character of SSDs. If 16 GB is present, I suppose that it'd mainly be used as some sort of nonvolatile cache.

bobkn said:

Heat spreaders, not shields. (A useless detail.)

You may be able to swap the RAM without problems. It's likely to be better to have 32 GB of 2400 MHz RAM rather than 8 GB of 2666. Before doing the swap, you might go into the new PC's BIOS settings and set it to use defaults for the RAM, which would be 2133 MHz.

I know very little about Optane memory. It's a new-ish product from Intel that is supposed to combine the speed of DRAM with the nonvolatile character of SSDs. If 16 GB is present, I suppose that it'd mainly be used as some sort of nonvolatile cache.

I did a search on Optane memory and from a video I watched it's just a cheap way to speed up a computer using HDD and has very little effect on a computer using a SSD. I was going to down load any program or drivers need to turn it on but it looks like I don't really need it. I am going to upgrade the memory to the 32GBs from the old computer.

Winuser said:

I did a search on Optane memory and from a video I watched it's just a cheap way to speed up a computer using HDD and has very little effect on a computer using a SSD. I was going to down load any program or drivers need to turn it on but it looks like I don't really need it. I am going to upgrade the memory to the 32GBs from the old computer.

So the Optane memory is used as I expect: as a cache (for the HD). Small SSDs have been used for that in the past; the Optane memory may have higher data rates than an SSD.

Please post how it goes. (I expect that it will go well.)

@bobkn , I am going to try changing the ram later today.

SIW2 said:

As well as trying different psu:
Detach everything except cpu and 1 stick of ram. See if that let's you get into bios. If not, try a different ram stick in a different socket.

If still no joy, then most likely the mobo.

I gave up on the desktop that stopped booting and purchased a new desktop. Nothing I tried would even get me into bios let alone boot. I still have it if I ever decide to mess with it again.