I just thought I'd let everyone know what happened to me today, so maybe you can learn something...
Someone had given me a 256 MB ram chip, so I opened up my tower and put it in one of the slots. However, though the RAM said on the outside that it was the same type my computer uses, it was just slightly smaller than my existing chips. I decided to see if it would fit anyway.
The problem came when the two tabs on each side of the bay would not lock it into place. The RAM was as far as it could go to my knowledge, and as I said it was the same type of RAM as all my other chips according to the label. So, I tried to secure it as best I could.
I turned on my PC (stupidly), driven by the idea of overcoming my crappy current RAM (384 MB), and all went well for a period of 10 seconds. But then I started to smell what can only be described as frying silicon. As it turned out, I practically melted the contacts on the RAM chip and just missed permanantly ruining my motherboard. Luckily, I re-inserted the 128 chip I took out to make room for the 256 and everything ran fine.
The moral of this story ...
1. Don't turn on your computer if your RAM doesn't lock into place
2. Don't attempt inserting RAM when you are sleep deprived and can only be described as an utter idiot!
A word of wisdom - DON'T PUT RAM IN WRONG!
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A word of wisdom - DON'T PUT RAM IN WRONG!
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Also, if you're installing RAM< make sure you turn your PC off at the wall, otherwise there can still be residual voltage going through the motherboard, and you can blow the chips through voltage build-up on the circuits. Static Discharge can also happen, so make sure you touch the case with your other hand (While already holding the memory card), and that usually overcomes any problems. They sell those wrist straps and stuff, but that really is a bit of overkill.
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