Please help, RAM retention arms stuck on a Dell XPS 15 9500

[AleksanderK]

Hi, I was following a tutorial to upgrade ram on my laptop. Each RAM slot has 2 retention arms that hold the RAM stick down. The idea is that you push them away and the RAM stick pops up. When I was doing it, I must have pushed the retention arms too far and now they are stuck. A little bit of metal won't let them get back into the right posirions. I can't get them to close and the new RAM sticks won't stay in the right position without them. I'm running out of ideas at this point and I really need help

[AleksanderK]

This tiny metal hook in red won't let the retention arms be pushed back into the right spot

[da na]

First of all why the hell is that slot labelled "DDR2"... sure it's the second slot, but call it "DIMM 2"

 

The retention arms aren't supposed to bend that far, they are never designed to bend far enough so that when released, they are no longer parallel to the sides of the RAM stick. 

I'm a little confused as to how the clip was bent beyond the metal bar in the first place, but if you have a pair of needle nose pliers you could grab the piece of the clip touching the bar and bend it back. 

Or, grab the top of the clip (side furthest from the slot itself) and bend outwards, away from the slot, while pushing forwards. That might get it over the bar.

[JimD0t]

I think your best bet is to grave a pair of needle nose pliers and pry it back into place taking care to not over bend it

[CommanderAlex]

48 minutes ago, AleksanderK said:

This tiny metal hook in red won't let the retention arms be pushed back into the right spot

~Snipped~

It looks like that "hook" is too far over this piece of metal, making it unable to return to it's original position. 

 

Circled in orange. You're gonna have to bend the clip to the left while trying to get that edge over that piece of metal. This should make it go back into position. 

[AleksanderK]

Thanks everyone, the careful bending with pliers approach worked and everything is alright