Desperately need help with this RAM problem...

Manja Man

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Mar 10, 2015
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I'm quite new to computers but at the moment I've got two computers worth more than 800 quid (one's my brothers) and neither of them work!

Specs: Intel i5 quad core @ 2.8 ghz, asus p7p55 d- e motherboard, a corsair power supply and 4 sticks of 2 gb ram between both computers - if you need more info just ask and I'll try my best to find out.

It's quite a long story but I'll do my best to keep it short and concise..

So both computers were made exactly the same and both worked fine for a couple of years, then my brother's one fell over and as a consequence one of the RAMs were damaged, we couldn't find out which one because we didn't know how and so we sent it off for repair and they managed to fix the problem. After that it got a virus (the worst I have ever seen) that claimed it was from spotify.exe so I think it was a Trojan and since then his computer hasn't worked because this Trojan wouldn't even let us boot the computer in safe mode.

In the same span of time my computer worked fine, the only problem I encountered was with thermal paste (or the lack thereof, and some of you will cringe at my solution) so I used toothpaste and Vaseline as a temporary thermal paste and while I'm not sure this has caused a problem I thought it should be mentioned as my computer would overheat sometimes and it's left my processor chip a little worse for wear than my brother's. Then out of the blue recently the RAM's stopped working, the computer wouldn't boot and either the DRAM_LED or the CPU_LED on the motherboard was a solid red.

Recently we've bought a windows recovery disk and a new stick of RAM, thinking it was the CPU that may've been causing the fault I switched my CPU with my brother's and put ONLY the new stick of RAM in my computer and it worked perfectly fine. So after fixing my computer I had to fix my brothers but it appeared we only had one working CPU and one working RAM so I swapped them out into my brother's computer. CPU_LED lights up and I notice a few of the pins are bent on the thing that the CPU chip rests in and bend them back but that doesn't solve the problem and after googling for a while I give up.

Then I swap the CPU and the RAM back into my computer that was working fine yesterday and the DRAM_led is lighting up! the processor is working fine but now the RAM's having a problem, I've put the RAM in the same slot as it was in yesterday (the one furthest away from the processor) and have read to reset the CMOS which I've also done but now my computer's just not even booting just getting stuck on DRAM_LED with a solid light, it will flick from CPU to dram led, back to CPU and then finally get stuck on DRAM_led.

I also have tried holding down the MemOK button but that's not working either. I have a strong feeling that at least a couple of the other RAMs work but whenever I try them instead it still gets Stuck on Dram_led and I'm just really stuck.

We don't have much money at the moment and can't afford for them to be sent off and even then it's hard to find someone who will look at 'custom rigs', we realise we will probably need a new CPU and some more RAM in future but for now the things we have should at least have one computer up and running. As I said it was working fine yesterday, and although I took due care in swapping the parts neither are working.

Any help is greatly appreciated and if there's anything I've missed let me know.
 
Solution
After reading the first two paragraphs I was already not suprized you had issues. You are clearly in need of a new motherboard and CPU for both systems and likely new RAM. Since both systems were messed up it's very hard to even troubleshoot since you don't know what works from each system and what doesn't. Toothpaste for heat grease, things breaking after being knocked over, CPU pins bent.

I would put both of those systems aside, get a new CPU, new motherboard, and build a working system. RAM, case and power supply you can keep from the original systems. At least then you know the CPU and motherboard are OK. Then if none of the RAM works, or if some does not, you know the RAM you tried is bad and can go from there.
After reading the first two paragraphs I was already not suprized you had issues. You are clearly in need of a new motherboard and CPU for both systems and likely new RAM. Since both systems were messed up it's very hard to even troubleshoot since you don't know what works from each system and what doesn't. Toothpaste for heat grease, things breaking after being knocked over, CPU pins bent.

I would put both of those systems aside, get a new CPU, new motherboard, and build a working system. RAM, case and power supply you can keep from the original systems. At least then you know the CPU and motherboard are OK. Then if none of the RAM works, or if some does not, you know the RAM you tried is bad and can go from there.
 
Solution