WD Hard Drive not detected after RAM upgrade!

[Aviate68]

I recently upgraded my RAM from 2 X 8GB sticks (16GB) to 2 X 16GB sticks (32GB) and after a few minutes figuring out how to make it work, I troubleshooted it and it runs fine. The problem I have is that it seems like immediately after the upgrade, my WD external hard drive seemed to fail. I still see the light on the hard drive and can feel it power up but every time I try to open file explorer my computer freezes totally; as soon as I unplug the drive, everything is back to normal. The weird thing is that it seems like my computer detects the drive as it shows up in "Windows - X > Device Manager > Disk Drives". 

 

This is the only evidence that it's detected by the computer, it does not show up in file explorer and even if I try to interact with it ie. going into "This PC" to look at all my drives, it freezes the computer, even though it doesn't even show up. Im really confused and could use some help.

 

Current Specs: 

OS Name    Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3601 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date    American Megatrends Inc. 0609, 3/23/2017
BaseBoard Manufacturer    ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
BaseBoard Product    PRIME H270-PLUS
Installed Physical Memory (RAM)    32.0 GB
RAM    CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 2 X 16GB | 32 GB 2400MHz

 

Previous RAM   XPG ADATA DDR4 2 X 8GB | 16 GB 2400 MHz

[Radium_Angel]

Unlikely the RAM has anything to do with it, but what happens if you put your old RAM back in?

[Aviate68]

13 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Unlikely the RAM has anything to do with it, but what happens if you put your old RAM back in?

 

I haven't tested this yet, however I just plugged the Hard drive in to another computer and all the files are still there, they weren't wiped. *sigh of relief*

[Aviate68]

I ended up doing a CMOS reset in the whole RAM upgrade process. Could that have been the problem? Do I need to recheck my BIOS again? I swear I didn't see anything out of the ordinary in terms of drives.

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, Aviate68 said:

I ended up doing a CMOS reset in the whole RAM upgrade process. Could that have been the problem? Do I need to recheck my BIOS again? I swear I didn't see anything out of the ordinary in terms of drives.

That should have anything to do with it, a drive is a drive, it's *possible* the RAM isn't fully seen by your mobo, and thus causing erratic issues with things, but that seems to be more an issue (from what I"ve seen around here anyway) with Ryzen CPUs.

Are you running the RAM with stock RAM settings?

[Aviate68]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

That should have anything to do with it, a drive is a drive, it's *possible* the RAM isn't fully seen by your mobo, and thus causing erratic issues with things, but that seems to be more an issue (from what I"ve seen around here anyway) with Ryzen CPUs.

Are you running the RAM with stock RAM settings?

I believe I am. Not trying to overclock anything. In the BIOS it says my RAM is at 2400Mhz and that's what's stock on the sticks. Idk if that's what you mean lol I'm new to actually working with my computer but yeah, I haven't tried to change anything besides putting the two RAM sticks in and making sure everything in BIOS looked right and testing it out with a few flight simulator games. (high RAM usage)

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, Aviate68 said:

I believe I am. Not trying to overclock anything. In the BIOS it says my RAM is at 2400Mhz and that's what's stock on the sticks. Idk if that's what you mean lol I'm new to actually working with my computer but yeah, I haven't tried to change anything besides putting the two RAM sticks in and making sure everything in BIOS looked right and testing it out with a few flight simulator games. (high RAM usage)

That's fine, RAM is running as it is suposed to.

I assume the mobo supports both the name of the RAM (Crucial) and amount of RAM, as well as the speed?

 

[Aviate68]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

That's fine, RAM is running as it is suposed to.

I assume the mobo supports both the name of the RAM (Crucial) and amount of RAM, as well as the speed?

 

Absolutely, I triple checked that the RAM I bought was from the QVL for the Asus Prime H270 Plus motherboard. 

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, Aviate68 said:

Absolutely, I triple checked that the RAM I bought was from the QVL for the Asus Prime H270 Plus motherboard. 

I am a big fan of Crucial, but I have seen firsthand that RAM not on the QVL can cause issues, it didn't used to be this way back in the C2D CPU era, but faster systems demand better RAM.

So either test it with MemTest86, or swap back and see what's up.

[Aviate68]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

I am a big fan of Crucial, but I have seen firsthand that RAM not on the QVL can cause issues, it didn't used to be this way back in the C2D CPU era, but faster systems demand better RAM.

So either test it with MemTest86, or swap back and see what's up.

Ok I'm gonna try MemTest86 first. Will reply when done. 

[Aviate68]

Radium, I ran the test and it came back clear. RAM passed. What should I do next to troubleshoot. We've confirmed that the RAM is not the problem.

[Aviate68]

On 7/2/2021 at 1:18 PM, Aviate68 said:

Ok I'm gonna try MemTest86 first. Will reply when done. 

What should I test next?