Flabbergasted - Memory Fried and Killed Motherboard?

  • Thread starter Thread starter GG.and.UN.
  • Start date Start date
G

GG.and.UN.

The computer is an HP Pavilion a705w - took out the old 256MB stick
and put in a new 512MB Crucial PC3200 stick which Crucial's site says
is fully compatiable. Started up machine and instantly there was a
burnt smell. Looking at the gold contacts a few are burnt. Put in old
memory and computer no longer starts up. What happened!? How could
memory fry a computer? Memory was put in correctly - both tabs
snapped into place.
 
GG.and.UN. said:
The computer is an HP Pavilion a705w - took out the old 256MB stick
and put in a new 512MB Crucial PC3200 stick which Crucial's site says
is fully compatiable. Started up machine and instantly there was a
burnt smell. Looking at the gold contacts a few are burnt. Put in old
memory and computer no longer starts up. What happened!? How could
memory fry a computer? Memory was put in correctly - both tabs
snapped into place.
Click to expand...

Somethnig else (conductive) perhaps trapped in the contacts / DIMM plastic
slot?

A short (fault) on the memory DIMM?

Motherboard was failing and this change of memory hurried it along?
 
GG.and.UN. said:
The computer is an HP Pavilion a705w - took out the old 256MB stick
and put in a new 512MB Crucial PC3200 stick which Crucial's site says
is fully compatiable. Started up machine and instantly there was a
burnt smell. Looking at the gold contacts a few are burnt. Put in old
memory and computer no longer starts up. What happened!? How could
memory fry a computer? Memory was put in correctly - both tabs
snapped into place.
Click to expand...

Pin assignments are in Table 5 page 3 here. Perhaps you can figure out what shorted
by looking at the pinout and comparing it to the burned pins.

http://download.micron.com/pdf/datasheets/modules/ddr/DDF16C64_128x64A.pdf

If a tiny bypass cap fails short, after the module has been
tested at the factory, then that could cause it to burn.
Likely pins are Vref, VDD, VDDQ, VSS, VDDSPD, as those are
associated with power, and more likely to be able to burn if
shorted.

You can also inspect the soldering job visually, for defects such
as bridges or whiskers. But Micron, the parent company, should be
testing for shorts, early in the manufacturing process. Only a
cheesy third world manufacturer ships product with no testing
whatsoever. The module in question should have been inserted in
a tester, for a quick memory test, after all other steps are
finished. If anything is to be burned, it should be the tester
machine (which is fully protected).

Don't ask me what to expect from Crucial. Don't return the module
until all avenues have been exhausted, regarding legal action etc.
See if they'll "do the right thing".

Paul
 
Back
Top