That time my blue screen of death turned out to be a loose RAM stick - felt like an idiot for hours

I was at my desk at 11pm last night trying to get my old Dell Optiplex 755 to boot up so I could copy some files off it. It kept crashing with the blue screen error every 15 minutes. I spent like 2 hours reinstalling drivers, running disk checks, the whole deal. Nothing worked. Then I remembered I had bumped the tower pretty hard when I moved it the day before. So I popped the case open and just pressed down on the RAM sticks. Click. Booted up fine and has been running smooth ever since. Has anyone else had a simple hardware fix like that after going down a software rabbit hole?

3 comments

3 Comments

cooper.drew4d ago

Bruh you wasted 2 hours on that?

umar493d ago

Man my cousin once spent like 3 hours trying to fix a broken toaster just cause he wanted to see if he could do it. He ended up just making it worse and it caught fire a little bit but he was so proud of himself. I feel like sometimes you gotta just let people enjoy their weird projects even if it looks like a waste from the outside. Two hours is nothing compared to what some people put into random hobbies.

beth2763d ago

Wait, you think 2 hours is a waste? I used to kinda think that too honestly, but then I watched this one video where a guy rebuilt a whole motorcycle from scratch over like 6 months. It made me realize some stuff is just about the journey and learning, not just the end result. I bet he got way more outta those 2 hours than I do scrolling mindlessly for the same time.