Suspected RAM Failure HP 14s - fq0000na

[Chene_]

Hi,

Yesterday my HP laptop randomly froze with intermittent screen artefacting upon startup and didn't respond to any inputs whatsoever (There were no software/BIOS updates recently to my knowledge). After having to force its shutdown and restart it, it got past the postscreen before failing with a BSOD (Page Fault In Non Paged Area). It then rebooted again and for that night worked fine - I updated my graphics drivers via AMD's Adrenalin software and downloaded and installed the latest relevant drivers specifically for this laptop from HP's website as I originally thought this was a graphics/display driver issue thinking it would fix the problem (It did for the rest of the day). The day after, it didn't get to the postscreen and instead began flashing its caps lock 3 times (which I believe is a memory related problem). Since it didn't boot, I then proceeded to do a BIOS flash/update (ie ctrl+B on start) successfully - booting normally into standard Windows 11 would work until programs such as Spotify would auto open on start before the same freeze and artefact problem would occur again (This might be the fact that all of these programs take up ram upon booting and try to use a ram stick after it exceeds 4 gigs of usage that doesn't work which causes it to freeze and artefact but I'm not sure). I then booted into safe mode after restarting it and noted the fact that task manager was only recognizing 4 out of the 8 Gigs of RAM was present and that only 1 of 2 RAM slots was used (Doing the msconfig troubleshooting from the Toms Hardware forum didn't do anything here). After another restart, it once again posted before BSODing (Unexpected Kernel Mode Trap). I then installed CPU-Z from a brief window of time where it booted to the standard OS, before going back to safe mode and confirmed that Slot 2 was no longer being recognized by any program (see screenshots below), whereas slot 1 was still functioning and had its stick working perfectly fine. Additionally I've run a full test using the Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool but has returned no errors (I'm not sure if it can test a dead stick that it doesn't know exists). I've had similar problems with a computer (ie freezing and artefacting) a while ago which also had a faulty RAM stick - may I ask if I've taken the right course of action, is there any troubleshooting steps I've missed (especially on the software/drivers side of things), and if replacing/reseating ram sticks would potentially fix the problem? (I've checked on Crucial's website and this laptop doesn't have permanently soldered sticks and has compatible ddr4 modules available and this laptop has an expired warranty as its a year and a half old - I'll make sure to be safe when doing this ie disconnecting battery, esd protection etcetc) 

Thank you!

 

(Windows Build)Slot 2 Should have another identical RAM stick hereSlot 1 has a working stickBIOS Version and Motherboard

 

[Raj2111]

Hi @Chene_ 

Welcome to the HP Support Community!

I understand that you are facing an issue with your pc, I am glad to assist you today.

This might require one on one interaction to fix the issue, I am sending you a private message with the steps to talk to HP support.

Please check the mailbox icon at the top-right corner of this screen. I hope this helps resolve this issue completely.

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-Regards,