Windows won't boot after RAM upgrade.

Hey everyone

I've got this issue that's honestly driving me a little crazy, and I'm really hoping someone might have some insight to share.
So, my current 4GB of RAM (2x2GB) just isn't cutting it anymore, so I figured I'd go ahead and bump it up to 8GB (2x4GB) while I have the chance.
I ordered some new RAM through eBay—they're a matched pair from Hynix.
Link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/8GB-2X4GB-DD...item33676c5da2

It's for my Toshiba laptop, a Satellite A665-145.
Specs:
Intel i7-740QM 1.73 GHz
4096 MB DDR3 RAM
500 GB SATA
Windows ® 7 home 64-bit
Nvidia gt 330 m / 1GB
The memory is upgradable to 8GB, at least—I'm not totally clueless about that part...

Regarding the RAM itself, I made sure everything matched up—both the old and new sticks are SO-DIMM DDR3, 1066MHz, PC3-8500, dual channel, and 1.5V.

As for what's actually happening—I pull the battery, unplug the power, swap out the old sticks (trying my best to watch out for static electricity), pop in the new ones, plug everything back in, and hit power. The Toshiba logo pops up, I can get into the BIOS, and everything seems fine for maybe two seconds before the logo disappears. Then it hits the boot process where a white cursor flashes twice—it always does that—and then it just freezes. With my old sticks, that cursor flashes maybe three times and then Windows boots up perfectly fine.
When I check the BIOS, it actually sees the full 8GB of RAM without any issues.
I've tried pretty much everything I could think of—swapping the stick positions, making sure they're seated properly, testing each one individually in different slots (which works, the BIOS detects them), trying one old and one new, even resetting the BIOS to defaults... but it's the same headache every single time.
The only thing I haven't tried is pulling the CMOS battery, but it's buried deep inside the laptop, and I'd have to take the whole thing apart. Plus, I'd be worried about messing with anything fixed, and honestly, I don't really know how to handle a BIOS update right now.🙄
Maybe there's something else I could try, but I'm stuck with this stripped-down version of a BIOS that doesn't let me do anything useful...

Please help me out if you can, because if these brand-new, identical sticks won't work, I'm kind of lost on what will—and I really don't want to just throw them $167 in the trash.

I’m not entirely sure if I can offer much help here—you probably already know the answer yourself. It really just comes down to this: mixing old and new RAM sticks often leads to them clashing, and that's pretty much the end of the story.
I actually ran into this myself with my desktop once. I was running 6GB of RAM—three 2GB sticks—and wanted to bump it up to 8GB total. So, I grabbed another 2GB stick, but of course, it wouldn't work. I double-checked everything—latencies, speeds, all that technical junk—and they were an absolute match for the other three sticks, but still, no luck. I ended up taking it right back to Best Buy. A few months later, I decided to take another gamble, but this time I went with a different manufacturer, and it actually worked! No fighting, no issues, and the PC recognized the full 8GB perfectly. Honestly, you need a little bit of luck involved; the easiest and smartest move is always to try the RAM out in the machine before you officially buy it.

I get the whole RAM conflict thing—but since I've only got two slots anyway, I figured it’s either two old sticks or two new ones...
Honestly, I just mashed them together because I was desperate to see if I could get anything out of this machine at all...
I also know you really should test them before buying, but the issue was that none of the local shops had any memory in stock that actually fit my build, and everything else was at least $33 overpriced. Man, once I finally tracked down some identical RAM and realized I could save over $67, I just thought, "well, why wouldn't it work?"...
I even called a buddy of mine who runs a repair shop—he's basically a genius when it comes to computers—and even he was stumped when I told him about these glitches; he didn't even know what to suggest...

P.S.
I was already planning on wiping my hard drive and doing a clean install of Windows in a few days anyway, since my PC is absolutely crawling with viruses. Any chance that might actually fix things?

Honestly, I don't see how that has anything to do with this—not even close.

And I was guessing 🙄

The whole frame issue isn't just simple; there are some specific design nuances involved, which is why it really needs to clearly state "compatible with Toshiba (or whatever brand you're using)." I'm not trying to act like a smart-ass after the fact, it’s just how it is. Users have already run into compatibility headaches with third-party RAM on Toshiba laptops: check this out.

http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Satelli...86/td-p/382473

At this point, your best bet is to try a BIOS update—as mentioned on that forum—since there might be a chance a newer version will make it work. If you're already on the latest version, just contact the seller and tell them it's a dud. Demand they send you something that actually works, or just return these and get your money back. Most sellers will play ball with returns because they're terrified of negative feedback. If you leave a review saying they sent you dead hardware, it'll kill their business...

Man, I’m hitting the exact same wall with my HP. On paper, this new RAM is a perfect match for the old stuff. So, I pulled both old modules out, popped the new ones in, and everything looks fine—the BIOS sees them clearly. But here’s the kicker: the built-in BIOS memory test won't even run. If I try to boot Windows, it just freezes up after a few seconds. But then, get this... if I boot Linux from an external drive, it works perfectly fine?!

So, I’ve been reading through all these different opinions—everyone seems to have their own take—but honestly, it happens all the time where even those sites claiming 100% compatibility for specific RAM on certain laptops end up being totally wrong...
I think I saw somewhere that Toshiba recommends Kingston (even though they actually use Samsung, lol), but people have had great luck using Hynix in their Toshibas too.
Anyway, I tried updating the BIOS, but lo and behold—absolutely nothing changed...
But here’s the weird part—I was testing this random thing I read about RAM combinations, and it turns out the only way this setup actually works is if I put the old stick in the bottom slot and the new one in the top slot; then, miraculously, it boots right up. No clue why that's the case, though. If I try that same old stick by itself in the exact same slot where it was working just two minutes ago, the system won't even start...

I guess I'll have to mess around with it a bit more and reach out to the seller—maybe we can work something out 🙄

Honestly, you can't trust those knock-off laptop RAM sticks. You gotta go with the genuine stuff if you want any peace of mind that it'll actually work.

slyraven2 said:Hey everyone

I've got this issue that's honestly driving me a little crazy, and I'm really hoping someone might have some insight to share.
So, my current 4GB of RAM (2x2GB) just isn't cutting it anymore, so I figured I'd go ahead and bump it up to 8GB (2x4GB) while I have the chance.
I ordered some new RAM through eBay—they're a matched pair from Hynix.
Link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/8GB-2X4GB-DD...item33676c5da2

It's for my Toshiba laptop, a Satellite A665-145.
Specs:
Intel i7-740QM 1.73 GHz
4096 MB DDR3 RAM
500 GB SATA
Windows ® 7 home 64-bit
Nvidia gt 330 m / 1GB
The memory is upgradable to 8GB, at least—I'm not totally clueless about that part...

Regarding the RAM itself, I made sure everything matched up—both the old and new sticks are SO-DIMM DDR3, 1066MHz, PC3-8500, dual channel, and 1.5V.

As for what's actually happening—I pull the battery, unplug the power, swap out the old sticks (trying my best to watch out for static electricity), pop in the new ones, plug everything back in, and hit power. The Toshiba logo pops up, I can get into the BIOS, and everything seems fine for maybe two seconds before the logo disappears. Then it hits the boot process where a white cursor flashes twice—it always does that—and then it just freezes. With my old sticks, that cursor flashes maybe three times and then Windows boots up perfectly fine.
When I check the BIOS, it actually sees the full 8GB of RAM without any issues.
I've tried pretty much everything I could think of—swapping the stick positions, making sure they're seated properly, testing each one individually in different slots (which works, the BIOS detects them), trying one old and one new, even resetting the BIOS to defaults... but it's the same headache every single time.
The only thing I haven't tried is pulling the CMOS battery, but it's buried deep inside the laptop, and I'd have to take the whole thing apart. Plus, I'd be worried about messing with anything fixed, and honestly, I don't really know how to handle a BIOS update right now.🙄
Maybe there's something else I could try, but I'm stuck with this stripped-down version of a BIOS that doesn't let me do anything useful...

Please help me out if you can, because if these brand-new, identical sticks won't work, I'm kind of lost on what will—and I really don't want to just throw them $167 in the trash.

Look, the only thing that makes sense is that the board recognizes the RAM, but... for some reason, the RAM
a) either isn't working, or
b) isn't making a solid connection.

This might help, though you're doing it at your own risk (not that there's much risk involved, I guess):

1. spray the RAM pins (contacts) with some WD-40.
2. after 10 seconds, lightly wipe the contacts with a bit of toilet paper so a tiny bit of the spray stays on them.
3. pop the RAM into the laptop.

Optional: try it with one stick first (the bottom one, closest to the board). Pop it in that way and boot the laptop. If everything works, obviously do the same with the second stick.

If the laptop still won't boot after that, I rest my case.

ps: about six months ago, I had this whole debate over whether it was a dead motherboard or just one single stick of RAM. After trying the steps above, the RAM finally worked after we plugged it in maybe 7 or 8 times right before, which hadn't worked at all.

RAM on laptops can be a total headache, honestly. One thing I’d suggest checking before you go out and buy anything is whether you need standard DDR3 or the low-voltage DDR3L. Some laptops just won't recognize the non-L modules, and you don't want to waste your money on something that won't even show up in the system. Beyond that, there's always the chance the motherboard itself isn't compatible with those specific chips—so maybe it's worth looking into flashing the BIOS if you haven't tried that yet.