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‎09-22-2026 08:48 PM

HP Recommended
Product: HP Pavillion Gaming 15-ec1xxx
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11

I have this laptop for like 4 years and I've been having this 8GB RAM extension in it for 2 years so in total I had 16GB Ram. Today, the laptop suddenly started lagging heavily. In Task Manager, RAM dropped to 7.4 GB usable and showed Slots used: 1 of 2.

What I've tested(It's okay if you don't read this but read the Important one):

- Both RAM sticks work fine when tested individually in Slot 1 (laptop boots normally).

- Putting a stick in Slot 2 alone causes a black screen.

- HP UEFI Diagnostics detects Slot 1 (Passes Memory Quick Test), but shows Slot 2 as \[Not Installed\].

- The weird part(IMPORTANT):

1. Performed a hard CMOS reset (received CMOS checksum is invalid 502 prompt).

2. Put the second stick back into Slot 2 and rebooted.

3. Result: It actually detected the full 16 GB for about a minute, but shortly after, the laptop crashed to a black screen, I rebooted, and dropped back to 8 GB with Slot 2 failing to register again.

What do I do? Do i need to change my motherboard now?

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