PC builder shocked after RAM “upgrade” ends in disaster

A Reddit user was attempting an upgrade when he fell victim to a disastrous mistake that may have ruined his entire motherboard.

Building or upgrading a PC is a tricky process, and not everyone has the skills to complete such a task quickly or easily. Many amateur PC builders will have felt the sudden cold dread of feeling something go ‘thunk’ and wondering if an expensive component is now broken or properly seated in its proper slot.

It is impossible to truly know what was going through the mind of Reddit user TristanJamesVFX when he took to Reddit to ask for advice after a mishap occurred. Tristan was attempting to perform an upgrade on his RAM, but during the process of removing the RAM module, the entire slot that usually houses the RAM stick came with it.

TristanJamesVFX asked the experts on the r/PCMasterRace subreddit if the part could be replaced and the motherboard saved, but commenters did not have much good news.

An upgrade attempt and a ruined motherboard

“That’s not supposed to happen. This is why the tabs push the DIMM out for you when you press them,” said Reddit user VogonPoetry, “In any case, your board is probably ruined now. You are very unlikely to be able to get all 288 pins back in their respective channels.”

Reddit

Other users were slightly more optimistic, explaining that the motherboard might still be usable as long as it didn’t require that specific RAM slot to boot. However, without the plastic RAM holder, there is a substantial danger of shorts occurring, which could damage more of the board or even other components like the CPU.

Sometimes lessons need to be learned the hard way, but if you want to avoid the pitfalls of a botched build, perhaps our building guide might help. Or if you have trouble trusting yourself near PC components, perhaps you should peruse our list of great pre-built gaming PCs.