HP Laptop Killing Ram Modules

[MattPrime]

I wonder if anybody else has experienced this one?

 

I have owned a HP Pavilion laptop (model n097sa) for around 3 years now. When I first got it it had the original 4gb ram module and an additional genuine HP 4gb module that was specified for this model of laptop. After about 6 months of use I started having weird issues, blue screens, booting problems, etc. From experience with other machines I knew to check the ram first and tried re-seating it with no luck. Removing it entirely solved all the problems though!

 

After some more testing with no luck I bit the bullet and bought another identical module brand new. I installed this and everything was fine again for around 9 months when the all the same issues started happening again. Once again I attempted re-seating and that, again, didn't help. I removed the module and all was well! This is how I've left the machine now, with the original 4gb module in place.

 

Has anyone heard of these laptops killing off modules, or do I just have a dodgy system?

[dragoon20005]

check what voltage the original RAM is using

 

and compare those to the RAM you bought

 

i suspect you need high voltages RAM but you got Ultra Low voltages which are running over volt causing the stability issues

[MattPrime]

Oh, right, yeah, I didn't consider that could be the issue. I (perhaps wrongly) assumed the modules would be correct because I had bought the exact modules specified in the upgrade documentation.

 

I'll check that out. Cheers.

[MattPrime]

Okay, so i've done a bit of research on this now and it seems that I have the correct voltage ram module. That said I thought I had a genuine HP module but I'm not so sure now...

 

The module I removed was actually an ADATA module (model AM1L16BC4R1-B1GS) - Amazon link here for details. It DOES have the label on it that states "REPLACE WITH HP SPARE 691740-001" which, when Googled, does match exactly the specifications  of the ADATA module.

 

I assume then that I must have had the correct module to begin with... So what happened??

[Ace McPlane]

8 hours ago, mhammonde said:

Okay, so i've done a bit of research on this now and it seems that I have the correct voltage ram module. That said I thought I had a genuine HP module but I'm not so sure now...

 

The module I removed was actually an ADATA module (model AM1L16BC4R1-B1GS) - Amazon link here for details. It DOES have the label on it that states "REPLACE WITH HP SPARE 691740-001" which, when Googled, does match exactly the specifications  of the ADATA module.

 

I assume then that I must have had the correct module to begin with... So what happened??

They meant to go into it's bios and see what voltage the ram is set to.

You can try disabling XMP profile and letting it go to stock frequency and voltage to see if that fixes it first.

You'd be cutting your ram speed in half though.

Then, enable it again and see if the frequency, timings and voltage match what's printed on the stick.

 

examples so you know what these look like:

Frequency: 2400mhz

Voltage: 1.65v

Timings 10, 12, 12, 31 

[MattPrime]

Hello all,

Thank you for your input on this so far. Took a while to get back to this (life gets in the way, doesnt it!) but I have done some more research.

 

The ram is most definitely the correct replacement part for this model of HP laptop (as mentioned previously) and there are little to no advanced or super-user settings in the BIOS on this laptop to set voltages, clock frequencies, etc so I can pretty safely assume they are running at a pre-configured speed and have been since day one. I do still find it fishy that the original 4GB module that came with the laptop has survived through the death of two additional 4GB modules so something MUST be different between them.

 

I found out that the laptop as a complete set of diagnostics you can run at POST so I did this and the tool confirmed that there is a memory module fault and the memory test failed. Googling what to do with the failure code suggests speaking with HP Customer Services but I am WELL passed any warranties now.

 

My next idea is to look up the model numbers for the module that has survived from the beginning and (1) see if it differs from the "recommended spare part" and (2) see if I can get a new module that matches that.

 

Thoughts?

 

Thanks

Matt