Hp elitedesk 800 g1 Ram Compatibility

[Hagdo]

I just bought corsair cmv4gx3m1a1600c11 4gb for my hp elitedesk 800 g1 and I am not able to boot with my new memory installed I previously had 2 2gb rams installed. And when I put them back in the order they were it makes the same 5 beeps and red light indicator as the new ram. Kindly help.

[DGroves]

it may be that your power supply has/is failing if the original ram which did work is now giving a ram error

however before trying a new power supply, remove the power cord and open the case and remove the cmos battery then press the cmos reset button for 5 sec, reinstall the cmos battery, connect power cord and with original ram installed power on and if it boots  enter bios and set time/date

[SDH]

I've had the 5-beep experience a few times over the last 10 years with our HP workstations... memory issues. In my experience it is very rare to have a HP RAM stick fail, and more common to have a RAM contact develop poor connection with a socket pin. There are dust and outgassing of plasticizers inside the case as usual causes, plus slight corrosion over time.

Each time so far I've been able to resolve the 5 beeps/flashes by removing all sticks and carefully cleaning both sides of the stick's contacts with high percentage isopropyl alcohol. You can buy 90% or even higher in most drugstores. Not so easily found in a grocery store.

I lay out a single layer100% cotton towel to work on and use a damp (but not dripping) 100% cotton cleaning rag, gently rubbing with that. Let things dry. It is also handy to spray compressed air inside each RAM socket (without touching the socket pins) with the motherboard upright, and finally reinsert the sticks and hope for the best.

I had not known about DGrove's idea of a deep level CMOS reset... that will reset your BIOS to "factory defaults" so you may want to reset BIOS changes you might have set in the past after that process. I do a fair number of BIOS fine tunings so I keep a cheat sheet of those in my files, and even tape a note on the inside of the side cover if something unique has been done for a particular workstation.