# Could 2 ram sticks break at the same time?



## THD (Aug 14, 2008)

Asus P5K Premium
Core 2 Duo E6850 with stock cooling
2gb Crucial Ballistix ddr2 pc8500 (2 sticks 1gb each)
Asus 8800GTS 640mb
Audigy 2 sound card
2x seagate sata2 hard disks
nec...something.. dvd burner
Corsair HX620w psu
Windoz xp sp3

A week ago my pc died after what seemed a long agony (described in detail here). 

Now the first thing I suspected was the mobo and/or psu, so I sent those to my reseller and got new ones back. It still doesn't work, the symptoms are the same. Assuming the mobo and psu I got weren't DOA, it must either be the gfx card, cpu or memory. I tested a different gfx card and it didnt work, so its probably not it. This leaves the ram or cpu. Though I've been wondering, unless my old mobo killed the ram, what are the chances of 2 ram sticks breaking both at the same time?

Another thing I noticed is if i try to boot with no ram it beeps, but if theres no gfx card, it doesn't, even though the manual says it should.

So, what do you think is broken now?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Happen to have an old PCI slot video card laying around? If you do give it a shot.
Have you tested your video card in another pc?
It's possible to fry both sticks of ram were running stock voltages or OC?


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## THD (Aug 14, 2008)

wrench97 said:


> Happen to have an old PCI slot video card laying around? If you do give it a shot.
> Have you tested your video card in another pc?
> It's possible to fry both sticks of ram were running stock voltages or OC?


Unfortunately, I have no pci video card available, but I'm pretty sure my other pci-e card that I tested works fine, I used it a while ago and then it was lying in the box, until now. 

The ram was running at stock voltages, no oc or anything. I wonder if broken ram could cause the pc to not boot at all, or would it alteast come to the ram testing phase in the post? It beeps when the ram isn't there, so it means some of the bios code is running, doesn't it? So, could the cpu be broken or not?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

"So, could the cpu be broken or not?"

It could be as anything is possible only testing will tell for sure.
Were you the system at stock speeds and voltages or was it over clocked?


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## sobeit (Nov 11, 2007)

run a memory test to check your ram Its best to do one ram at a time. 

http://www.memtest86.com/


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## THD (Aug 14, 2008)

wrench97 said:


> "So, could the cpu be broken or not?"
> 
> It could be as anything is possible only testing will tell for sure.
> Were you the system at stock speeds and voltages or was it over clocked?


It was at stock speeds and voltage, and cpu was running under normal temps (under 40°C idle and around 50 at full load). From what I've heard, cpus are usually some of the last components to break, provided they've been working in normal conditions.


> run a memory test to check your ram Its best to do one ram at a time.
> 
> http://www.memtest86.com/


Unfortunately I cannot do that, as my pc won't even boot. I know I didn't mention it in the original post but thats cause I gave a link to a different thread with a detailed description. :wink:


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## sobeit (Nov 11, 2007)

THD;1664826
Unfortunately I cannot do that said:


> and that is a good example as to why there is a forum rule to keep everything in ONE thread.
> 
> If you have another computer that uses the same ram, then you could test them that way.


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