Repeated RAM failure... help?

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Chromos1048

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Ok, so I recently built a computer, and things were working fine until hurricane Ike came through. I got hit with a power surge(yes, my computer was off during the storm, it happened days later when I decided that it was safe to turn it back on- I was wrong, apparently).

My RAM died after I went onto the internet; the comp didn't restart, and the CD rom drive wouldn't open, which made me realize that it was likely a RAM failure.

So today, I got new RAM. Put it in, comp booted up fine. I got on the internet, and was on barely 10 minutes, when the RAM failed again.

Thinking that it was possibly a CPU problem, I switched out cpus, only to find that it was not the problem; comp still wouldn't boot up.

So what's the deal here? Why is my ram failing? Is it really possible that a power surge caused this? My neighbor got hit my like 60 of them, and yet their comp still runs fine... but that's my luck, it seems. Or is just that my sicks aren't compatable and they failed because of that?

My comp stats are as follows:

The board is an MSI-945GCM478, CPU is Celeron D 3.06 ghz. The memory that originally died was a single Crucial 1 gb stick(I only bought one due to lack of cash), the new ones that died(installed two 512 mb this time around) are PDi, I believe. Wasn't my top choice, but it was all they had.

I tried calling MSI, to no avail. It seems that there number leads to a conference room, and their site(contact us section) is a joke, to say the least. None of the click and pick options described my problem well.

I believe it came with a three year warranty... so how do I cash in on that if I can't contact them? I want to just exchange the board... I really think the DIMM slots are messed up, RAM shouldn't just die immediately.

I would buy new sticks, but I'm afraid this will just happen again; already happened twice, why not three times, eh?

Help will be greatly appreciated... I am on the verge on just chucking the thing in the trash. This is the third comp I've lost due to hardware failure, and I am seriously about to just give up, and turn my back on computers all together.
 
It could be that the power surge went thru the power lines and shorted out the RAM slots among other things on your mother board. Could have also hit a modem port or something else.

The reason the neighbors PC is jsut fine could be due to them using a power strip with surge protection which trips and stops power surges from ever hitting the PC. PC is fine when you go to power it up later.

So i would say replace the mobo.
 
I actually do have a surge protector attached to it... but when the power flickers off, it won't really help too much.. I need a UPS... that'll be my next purchase, I think.

I was thinking the DIMM slots could be bad, in which case its cheaper to just buy a new mobo. But before I do that, I want to make sure that I didn't just do a dumb-dumb and put the the wrong memory in. According to what I've read, certain boards do better with certain memory; in my case, Crucial, Kingston, or Corsair. So I think I need to test one of those to be sure.

Thanks though.
 
I actually do have a surge protector attached to it... but when the power flickers off, it won't really help too much.. I need a UPS... that'll be my next purchase, I think.

When you get a new UPS. I highly recommend getting one AVR(automatic voltage regulation). All my computers and electronics are well protected against line problems.
 
Yeah, it was the mobo. Which I figured it was.... anyway, got a new one, and since I managed to find the same board, my HDD fired right up.

And there was nothing wrong with my ram apparently... I tested them on another computer, and they all worked fine. I am using the original stick that "died" right now.

I do have one last ram related question though, and I'm too lazy to start a new thread, so:

My BIOS says that my ram is running at 533 mhz, but my stick claims to run at 667. How do I bring it back up to 667?
 
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