Something went horribly wrong after RAM placement

mitk0o0o0

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4
Location
Bulgaria
Hello, so my friend gave another person his 512MB RAM DDR which I believe is 400Hz or something of the sort.
The person's computer has in total 4 memory slots, 2 being used with two 256MB RAM sticks and the other 2 free.
So we took off the cover, completely powered off the computer by unplugging and everything and inserted the 512MB stick into the free slot.

Then we turned on the computer and we heard a few beeps at the beginning, and just a black screen saying "no signal". We said ok, no biggie, that must mean that it's just incompatible. So for a last try, we tried putting the 512MB stick into the other free slot, after that, screen appeared but quite f***ed up looking and some quick text appeared "memory failure... blablaa more text".

We turned off the computer, took off the 512MB stick and powered the computer on again hoping that everything will work as normal since we took off the incompatible stick but it just kept on saying "no signal" on his monitor and there was some weird popping noise coming from his computer ever since.

We have no idea what just happened and what to do. If someone here knows what the problem is and how to solve it without buying anything new that would be great, I don't feel like paying for that guy's repair.. :(

The 512MB stick by the way had a sticker with something of the lines DDR400 and then 500MX оr something like that. So we thought the "DDR400" and the "400" on his current sticks meant they both match and should work.
 
Make sure the other RAM sticks are inserted securely into their slots; if one stick is kind-of inserted, then you'll get the No Signal displaying on the monitor when trying to boot.

I would also recommend trying to clear the BIOS settings. Do this by unplugging the computer from the power cable, press the power button a few times to discharge any remaining power in the power supply.

Remove the small silver coin battery on the motherboard for about 30 seconds. Then reinsert it, re-plug into power, and try to boot up.
 
Make sure the other RAM sticks are inserted securely into their slots; if one stick is kind-of inserted, then you'll get the No Signal displaying on the monitor when trying to boot.

I would also recommend trying to clear the BIOS settings. Do this by unplugging the computer from the power cable, press the power button a few times to discharge any remaining power in the power supply.

Remove the small silver coin battery on the motherboard for about 30 seconds. Then reinsert it, re-plug into power, and try to boot up.
Thanks for the quick reply.

The current 2 sticks which he had in there were never touched, we did make sure that they stay there tight but nothing though.

That trick with the power button and cable we didn't try, thanks! :)

All of those 3 suggestions sound like they should work so I'll report back tomorrow after trying all of that. In the mean time more suggestions are welcome.
 
Well I'm not sure what exactly happened but right when I was on my way to his home he told me he already solved the problem by touching his vga cable. Thanks for the help guys. :)
 
So in the future is it 100% safe to test RAM sticks? We've got another 256MB one for trying out but we're afraid if something will happen because like I said, from our second attempt it started beeping, the screen showed up all messed up with some text spewing out "memory failure" and all that, then some weird popping noise.
 
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