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

[Greg Folkert]

On Mon, 2014-01-20 at 08:52 -0500, Mark Farver wrote:
> 
> 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

This is why "God" made static straps and gum erasers.
-- 
greg at gregfolkert.net
PGP key 1024D/B524687C 2003-08-05
Fingerprint: E1D3 E3D7 5850 957E FED0 2B3A ED66 6971 B524 687C
"From the end spring new beginnings."
    -- Pliny the Elder
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