Can a failing RAM/mobo break a HDD or visa versa?

[Imbajoe]

I began to have computer problems this past Saturday, and from what I've gathered so far, either my RAM sticks or the memory slots on the mobo are breaking, as well as my hard drive is broken. It seems unlikely that a two pieces of hardware would unrelatedly fail at the same time. Is it possible one failing caused the other to fail?

 

[Hawkeye22]

Failing ram will usually cause corrupt data, including corrupt data written to disk. You didn't say how your hard drive failed, but corrupt files can cause havoc, especially if they are system files.

If your drive has no SMART errors but is actng erratically, ram may be the issue.

 

[frombehind]

I have seen faulty power supplies fry PC components before... Especially in 24/7 on systems. In fact my last gaming PC, I lost my Mobo and 1 stick of Ram on the same day. Everything else was fine. RMA'd the board 4 times... finally said F**k it, and replaced the power supply as well. "Magically" worked after that.

 

[Imbajoe]

Failing ram will usually cause corrupt data, including corrupt data written to disk. You didn't say how your hard drive failed, but corrupt files can cause havoc, especially if they are system files.

If your drive has no SMART errors but is actng erratically, ram may be the issue.

It was a complicated system of events that led to my hardware failing, so I'm not entirely sure how it came to be. All I can be sure about is that on Saturday night, my computer suddenly lost all visual and audio output while playing DOTA2. I tested a different GPU in my computer, which didn't fix it. Tried dusting off any possible problem areas, no fix. I awoke on Sunday with a reply to a forum topic that suggested I try placing my pieces of RAM (I have two 2 GB pieces of RAM) into the other two slots. This fixed the problem for about an hour, when I suddenly got a BSOD error. All subsequent tries to boot with that HD have failed. I tried placing the RAM in different slots, booting with only one, but I would always receive BSOD errors and my computer would restart. I don't know if a Hard drive can partially or temporarily fail, but it did work on Saturday before it broke, and then early on Sunday again after switching the placement of the RAM sticks.

Since then, I've replaced that HD with an older one and installed Windows 7. Since then, I've been able to successfully boot my computer into Windows with specific placing of the RAM. If you picture four RAM slots on the mobo labeled 1-4, it only seems to boot without giving me a blue-screen error if the RAM sticks are in either 2, 4, or both.