Ow...

[Mini Canari]

Yesterday i bought parts...<P>I installed everything and it went fine.<P>But when i powered up my computer...the ram chip burnt as well as the DIMM slot. Now i replaced my mobo and ram and im rebuilding it but:<P>There are still some kind of paste on my processor, it came from the heatsink....should i remove it now that i separadted the CPU from the heatsink or should i keep this paste? Should i put some silver paste? or i dont need it?....if i do need it, where do i put it and how much.<P>I want to know what happened to the DDR Ram, why it burned. I dont want this happening again now.<P>Also, i have Win XP on my current HD, should i use this HD on my new system. Will it work without a reformat?

[Admiral Alistair]

that paste was very likely a heat conductive paste to help transfer the heat over to your heatsink/fan. If you can get your hands on some silver, go ahead its always recommended, but most coolign fans should come with a very light layer of silver where the chip shold be.<P>Where do you put the silver? Ok put a VERY fine coat on the smaller chip. (usually silver/metallic colored) make sure it does not go on anything but the very top of the chip as it can also conduct power if you get it someplace it shouldn't be at and that would fry more stuff. <P>XP Shuold work fine if you don't reformat, but be sure to reinstall ALL of the proper drivers, even that of hardware you will be taking from the old computer. But if you start seeing problems just call Microsoft up for a new activation code after you reinstall, that process took me a whole 2 minutes or so and I never got put on hold. ALl you have to tell them is you upgraded your system and need a new code. (For you people trying to get around the code and install on multiple computers you will encounter some problems when MS detects your old code in use )<P>Now as to why your RAM blew apart, there are many possibilities. The most common for DDR RAM is when you buy it from a generic brandname company. For some reason alot of people are having problems with the DDR RAM they buy from the value companies, so stick to the main ones like PNY and a few other major names.<p>[This message has been edited by Admiral Alistair (edited 24 December 2001).]

[Mini Canari]

Doh, i already bought another one <P><BR>I guess im going to let it go and im going to buy a better one.<P>Damn...its 10€ less...i am going to get so much things to pay to my parents after<p>[This message has been edited by Mini Canari (edited 24 December 2001).]

[Mini Canari]

Nm i returned the old one and i got new GOOD ones...<P><BR>WHOA ITS WORKING,YIPEEEEEE

[John Banks]

Damn a double post..sorry <p>[This message has been edited by John Banks (edited 25 December 2001).]

[John Banks]

I have bought DDR Ram a couple of days ago beside my new AMD 1700XP+ and it works fine. Although my DDR Ram is not from a big brand. I have never heard before that low price DDR Rams can burn like christmas trees! Maybe you had an electro statics problem. Sometimes when you touch electrical components and your body isn't grounded, you can kill them due to electro statics discharge.

[Admiral Alistair]

I'm not saying the cheap stuff will always burn like a christmas tree, I'm saying overall they seem to be the ones that burn. I haven't heard anybody who bought from one of the major brandnames report their blowing up or being defective. There are some companies who's RAM is just totally unpredictable and has a very short lifespan. If it was static it would have taken out more than that only the RAm, not the slot (I've been there). And anyways I only said it was oen of the more common reasons, not the only reason <P>Other possibilities:<P>Core Voltage to the DDR slot was too high or had a surge.<BR>Dust somehow got into the slot and casued a short circuit.<BR>You were trying to overclock and it got a tad warm