[GRLUG] Why does removing a stick of memory make a PC work?

[Mark Farver]

On Jan 20, 2014 2:33 AM, "Philip Robar" <philip.robar at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have noticed on numerous occasions that after removing parts from a PC
or it having sat unused for a long time that when I try to start it the
fans and disks will spin up, but that's it. There's no POST sounds, good or
bad and there is no video output to the monitor. The work around that
always seems to work is to remove a stick of memory.

Connectors are almost always the weakest link in any system.  They have a
hard job...transmit data like a wire while still being separable.

Memory connectors are the most challenging.  Here you have a signal in the
hundreds of MHz that has several dozen address and data lines run in
parallel that all must be perfectly identical.  For cost reasons only one
side of the connection is a connector, the other just a plates pad on the
memory. The slightest dust or weakening of the spring over time can cause a
malfunction.

Mark
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