x17 R1, ram slot A not reading OEM ram stick

Question

originally the laptop had 16gb of ram, but because the A slot isn't reading it now only has 8gb.

Me and my friend checked the ram making sure they were seated correctly, taking the modules out of the slots and re inserting them. it still only booted with the 8gbs. We tried booting up with one ram stick in slot A then B, the used the other stick and did the same thing. each time the sticks were in the A slot, the computer would fail to boot, blinking 2 red and 3 blue (memory error if im remembering correctly).

I tried to gently clean the slot, maybe didnt do a good enough job?

Bought a corsair vengeance DDR4 16gb ram stick that was said to be compatible but i dont think it actually is, this was an attempt to get 16gb of ram without having to deal with the issue in slot A.

From doing a lot of research, i have found a few more things i would like to try, but a lot of it is seaming like the slot needs to be re-soldered or a replaced motherboard.

so im here hoping anyone could have a anything else I should try to helpfully resolve the issue

crimsom · Answer

Hi CoffeeOxide welcome to this free user-to-user Alienware laptop discussion forum.

The Crucial System Advisor database says RAM memory must be DDR4 3200MHz. Alienware Alienware x17 R1 | Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | Crucial.com. BIOS should say that both memory slots have memory cards installed.

Before upgrade, were the two original memory cards and their slots working? If yes, slot A could now contaminated with dust/debris, visually inspect memory slot A using bright light, and use can of dry air to remove contamination.

CoffeeOxide · Answer

@crimsom​ hello I only bought the new ram in an attempt to by pass the issue, by putting the new 16gb ram into slot B and either nothing or one of the old ones in slot A, so i could still have 16gb of ram available. I have cleaned the slot A with compressed air, a soft brush, and inspected it with a flash light and a magnifying glass, there was nothing in the way obstructing the ram sticks. Both slots with the original rams both worked a month ago, but then a prompt on start up saying 'memory has changed' would come up. I googled it and most forums said it was a glitch so i ignored it. I realize a little while after when i tried to play Baldurs gate that my ram was halved, only recognizing 8 of the 16gb in the task manager and BIOS.

crimsom · Answer

Hi CoffeeOxide thank you for sharing additional information.

There is the strange fix of pressing down or up on the memory card gets the memory slot working again. How I fixed memory slot failure | Laptop Repair 101. If pressing down or up on the memory card works, the problem is then how to get a permanent fix.

MarcusJC · Answer

Ciao @CoffeeOxide​ I've had the same problem for a year now, but with two 16GB RAM sticks. Slot A won't read the RAM, but I was sure I wasn't the only one with this problem. I also tried pushing the memory card up and down, but nothing changed. Replacing the motherboard in my model with the RTX 3080 is very expensive. I'm about to buy a 32GB Crucial DDR 3200 SODIMM, but I'd like to know how you solved your problem. Thanks.

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x17 R1, ram slot A not reading OEM ram stick

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