PC won't post, RAM issue?

zynfinitee · August 28, 2019

First of all, my system's specs are,

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-AB350N-Gaming WIFI

Processor: Ryzen 5 2600

Graphics Card: Geforce 1070Ti

RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX

OS: Windows 10 + Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

PSU: Cooler Master MWE 500 Bronze (500W)

So basically what happened today was that I was using on Ubuntu and it started to freeze (the whole system) whenever I tried to watch a Youtube video for a certain period of time or try to open multiple applications. Other times my computer would restart suddenly without any reason. I then tried loading up Windows 10 to diagnose the problem, but when Windows 10 started up, no startup applications started and it showed the BSOD (I don't remember what the stated cause was but it was an error about a service not being able to start). After Windows restarted, I saw artifacts on the lock screen's wallpaper. Soon enough it showed another BSOD (another service couldn't start).

I started to suspect that there might be a problem with the RAM, so I turned the computer off, plugged it off, opened up the case, and pulled the RAM on the far side. I then turned it back on again and loaded Windows. When I logged into the desktop, it loaded the startup applications but it took a while (longer than usual). So my thought was that the other RAM was dead and the RAM that's still in there is slowly dying. I wanted to confirm my suspicion, so I switched the RAM inside with the RAM that's supposedly dead--and the computer wouldn't load even to the BIOS (the fans were running though). But when I tried switching it back, it wouldn't run as well. I tried putting the supposedly working one on the far side slot and it still won't turn on--I also did other combinations and it still won't turn on.

I then reseted the CMOS by both unplugging the motherboard's battery (for around 15 minutes) and shorting the reset CMOS jumper but it still wouldn't turn on. The motherboard's LED only briefly flashed white. My question is, is this the RAMs that are not working? Considering that, before today, whenever I started the computer up at the beginning, it would run very smoothly, but overtime the performance deteriorated and I would have to restart the computer so that it would run properly again.

Thanks for all the help!