A user on Reddit reports that he accidentally disabled his girlfriend’s PC while trying to replace the RAM sticks. After the exchange, the PC wouldn’t start anymore. After many attempts and with the help of the community, the issue was finally resolved with a trick.
What happened? On Reddit, a user tells that he replaced RAM sticks in his girlfriend’s PC. He swapped the Kingston DDR4 2133 8 GB sticks for the Corsair Vengeance Pro 3200 8 GB ones. However, the PC was quite old, as the player noted himself, and has a Gigabyte Z170N-WIFI motherboard installed. After installing the RAM, the shock followed: The PC wouldn’t turn on. When pressing the power button, the lights came on, the fan spun briefly, but the screen remained black. It seemed as if the PC was stuck in a reboot loop until the user eventually pulled the plug.
What are BIOS and CMOS?
- BIOS: Stands for Basic Input/Output System and is the fundamental control unit of a PC. It ensures that the hardware is properly recognized and establishes the order in which the system starts. It also manages important settings such as RAM compatibility.
- CMOS: Is a small memory chip on the motherboard that stores these BIOS settings. To retain the data even when the PC is turned off, there is a small CMOS battery that powers the memory.
The player was already afraid he had destroyed his girlfriend’s PC. On the advice of the community, he decided to reset the CMOS and remove the battery to revert the BIOS to factory settings. He also made sure that the slots of the sticks were clean and that the sticks were properly seated when he reinserted them.
It was his last attempt to get the PC running again. But not in vain, as the PC came back to life and started without problems.
What was the problem? After the replacement of the RAM sticks, the PC could no longer start properly. The problem was likely due to an incompatibility or a faulty BIOS configuration. When the user inserted the new RAM sticks, the BIOS may not have been set up correctly for it or could not handle the new hardware.
In such cases, a boot loop can occur where the PC powers up but does not output a video signal or constantly restarts. Such issues often arise when new components are installed, but the BIOS has not been adjusted to the changed hardware.
How was the problem solved? The solution was to reset the CMOS, which reverted the BIOS to factory settings. To do this, the user removed the CMOS battery for a few minutes, which deleted all stored BIOS settings. This forced the system to re-recognize the hardware at the next startup and use the default values.
A CMOS reset is a proven method to resolve compatibility issues after significant hardware changes like replacing RAM or CPU. After the battery was reinserted, the PC successfully started and functioned perfectly.
If your PC won’t start, it’s important to understand the potential errors that can occur when assembling a PC. Mistakes can quickly happen during component installation that may have far-reaching consequences. Some of these mistakes are not only annoying but can also become very expensive. We show you serious mistakes in PC building that you should definitely avoid.
