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Author Topic: Should RAM be fully replaced / can it get full or corrupted?  (Read 790 times)

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Offline SimpleMan

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Should RAM be fully replaced / can it get full or corrupted?
« on: September 04, 2021, 01:28:48 PM »
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    • I have an HP Envy desktop, circa 2012 vintage, that I purchased with 12GB of RAM.  I am pretty sure that it has one bank (or card, or whatever you call it) of 8GB and another bank of 4GB.  I would like to upgrade it to 16GB of RAM, the most that this particular computer will hold.

    Questions:

    1) Would it be better to remove all of the existing RAM, and replace it with 16GB of brand-new RAM?
    2) Or would I be okay with removing the 4GB card, and replacing it with a new 8GB card, leaving the existing 8GB card "as is"?
    3) Can RAM ever get "full", I don't mean in an individual session --- I know that can and does happen --- but does repeated use of the same RAM cards leave any kind of cookies, artifacts, junk files, or whatever, sitting there in the RAM, or does the RAM purge back to zero when you reboot the computer?  IOW, whenever you power the computer down and back up, does that "wipe the slate clean" as regards RAM, and do you then have 12GB (or 16GB) of "fresh" RAM, as pristine as it was the day it was installed?
    4) And can RAM cards ever get corrupted, so that their performance is either diminished, or entirely gutted?

    Please pardon me if I'm not using the precise technical terms, my meaning should be clear from what I've described.

    Thanks in advance for any direction anybody can give me.
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    Offline bodeens

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    Re: Should RAM be fully replaced / can it get full or corrupted?
    « Reply #1 on: September 04, 2021, 02:48:12 PM »
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    • Quote from: SimpleMan on September 04, 2021, 01:28:48 PM
    I have an HP Envy desktop, circa 2012 vintage, that I purchased with 12GB of RAM.  I am pretty sure that it has one bank (or card, or whatever you call it) of 8GB and another bank of 4GB.  I would like to upgrade it to 16GB of RAM, the most that this particular computer will hold.

    Questions:

    1) Would it be better to remove all of the existing RAM, and replace it with 16GB of brand-new RAM?
    2) Or would I be okay with removing the 4GB card, and replacing it with a new 8GB card, leaving the existing 8GB card "as is"?
    3) Can RAM ever get "full", I don't mean in an individual session --- I know that can and does happen --- but does repeated use of the same RAM cards leave any kind of cookies, artifacts, junk files, or whatever, sitting there in the RAM, or does the RAM purge back to zero when you reboot the computer?  IOW, whenever you power the computer down and back up, does that "wipe the slate clean" as regards RAM, and do you then have 12GB (or 16GB) of "fresh" RAM, as pristine as it was the day it was installed?
    4) And can RAM cards ever get corrupted, so that their performance is either diminished, or entirely gutted?

    Please pardon me if I'm not using the precise technical terms, my meaning should be clear from what I've described.

    Thanks in advance for any direction anybody can give me.
    1) Get a matched set, generally. I'd need to know about how many slots you have, speed, etc. You may not be able to get to 16 depending on how many slots there are.
    2) Generally, but I'd need to know more about your RAM. Matching frequencies, again, is the primary concern. You can't mix ECC and non ECC but I doubt that's a concern here.
    3) RAM is wiped with each boot. It is not persistent. What is persistent, however, is cache, paging files etc. Your HDD can slow down your performance in this regard.
    4) If you have bad RAM (dead IC) you'll notice weird stuff. You don't see this with modern componentry but on 80s synthesizers/samplers you see bad individual ICs on RAM and the weirdest stuff happens. You can get memory errors in a single session (non ECC RAM) but a restart fixes this.
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    Offline SimpleMan

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    Re: Should RAM be fully replaced / can it get full or corrupted?
    « Reply #2 on: September 04, 2021, 08:03:48 PM »
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    • Quote from: bodeens on September 04, 2021, 02:48:12 PM
    1) Get a matched set, generally. I'd need to know about how many slots you have, speed, etc. You may not be able to get to 16 depending on how many slots there are.
    2) Generally, but I'd need to know more about your RAM. Matching frequencies, again, is the primary concern. You can't mix ECC and non ECC but I doubt that's a concern here.
    3) RAM is wiped with each boot. It is not persistent. What is persistent, however, is cache, paging files etc. Your HDD can slow down your performance in this regard.
    4) If you have bad RAM (dead IC) you'll notice weird stuff. You don't see this with modern componentry but on 80s synthesizers/samplers you see bad individual ICs on RAM and the weirdest stuff happens. You can get memory errors in a single session (non ECC RAM) but a restart fixes this.
    Thanks.  I think, just to be on the safe side, that I am going to pull the existing RAM and replace it with a fresh set of two 8GB cards.  RAM is not all that expensive.  I've got quite a bit of RAM I really need to sell on eBay one of these days, either pulled, or cannibalized from old machines.
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    Offline bodeens

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    Re: Should RAM be fully replaced / can it get full or corrupted?
    « Reply #3 on: September 04, 2021, 08:39:17 PM »
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    • Quote from: SimpleMan on September 04, 2021, 08:03:48 PM
    Thanks.  I think, just to be on the safe side, that I am going to pull the existing RAM and replace it with a fresh set of two 8GB cards.  RAM is not all that expensive.  I've got quite a bit of RAM I really need to sell on eBay one of these days, either pulled, or cannibalized from old machines.
    Anytime!
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    I accept Church teaching on Implicit Baptism of Desire.
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    NO is a good Mass.
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    Offline Jr1991

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    Re: Should RAM be fully replaced / can it get full or corrupted?
    « Reply #4 on: September 05, 2021, 02:06:49 PM »
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    • You can also scan your PC to see what is compatible. 

    https://www.crucial.com/

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