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up vote 8 down vote favorite

I just dropped some laptop-sized RAM while it was in it's plastic wrapping onto my keyboard of my laptop. What's the chances of it failing because of this drop? If the RAM fails, would the failure spread to my CPU and my graphics card in my laptop?

The height dropped was roughly 25 centimetres.

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6  
I would be more worried about static shock more than dropping it. – Troggy♦ Oct 22 '10 at 15:24
4  
IT'S GOING TO EXPLODE!! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! Ok, maybe not, I'll go upvote one of the answers now, don't mind me. – DHayes Oct 22 '10 at 20:19
2  
If you're concerned at all, run Memtest from the ultimate boot cd, it'll test the RAM, but you most likely have nothing to worry about, RAM is robust, except to wide variances in electrical impulses (such as a static shock or power surge). – MaQleod Oct 25 '10 at 20:24

6 Answers

up vote 30 down vote accepted

The odds of failure are negligible - I would feel comfortable juggling these things barehanded. If I could juggle, anyway.

Even if it has failed, the odds of it damaging any other components are also negligible (more likely the machine just wouldn't boot).

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up vote 17 down vote

I wouldn't worry too much. If you are paranoid, pop it in a computer, and boot one of the live CD versions of memtest (you can also find it on a lot of live Linux disks).

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Just run it all night, and see if it has errors in the morning. If not, paranoia gone!

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5  
+1 This should be done anyways. It's always a good thing to do a burn-in test of a computer when you build one or modify the core components. – Paperjam Oct 22 '10 at 19:46
up vote 5 down vote

Don't worry the hardware for ram is really solid.

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up vote 5 down vote

It happens all the time at Best Buy. Don't worry about it.

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1  
This is why I don't take my pc to geek squad... or anyone else as a matter of fact. – KronoS Oct 22 '10 at 21:29
up vote 4 down vote

No, RAM is pretty resilient. Unless you had a lot of static in that area at the time, I think it is safe to say it is still in good condition. If you are that worried though and the RAM is new and you still have the receipt take it back to the store for a new one.

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up vote 4 down vote

RAMs fallen from 25 centimeters onto keyboard while in their plastic wrapping? Based on this I would say it's very very low probability (scientifically negligible) that they are damaged.

Even if you're so unlucky and one or two of modules are really damaged, it won't spread to your CPU or GPU. OS simply won't start, maybe BSOD, but that's all.

If you want to be sure, try modules one at a time and see if the computer starts properly.

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