Member Avatar for iceman1007

if the motherboard dies can the memory from it be salvaged or not?

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As asked whether memory can be salvaged after a motherboard failure, and noting comments from and , the practical answer is: often yes, but verify before reuse. The following safe, simple checks will confirm whether a stick is usable.

  1. Handle safely. Ground yourself or use an antistatic wrist strap and touch components by the edges. Do not power anything with the failed PSU or motherboard.
  2. Inspect the module. Look for burned areas, melted plastic, bent or missing gold contacts, or corrosion. Visible damage usually means discard.
  3. Check compatibility. Confirm the DIMM is the correct DDR generation and voltage for the test board. Do not force an incompatible module into a slot.
  4. Isolated test workflow: install one suspect stick in a known-good, compatible board (single module, single-channel slot), power up, and check POST/BIOS. If it posts, run a dedicated memory tester. Use a bootable tester such as MemTest86 and allow several full passes. If it fails, swap the stick to another slot or board to distinguish a bad slot from bad RAM.
  5. If the module passes multiple full runs on different systems/slots, it is safe to reuse. If it fails or shows physical damage, recycle according to local e-waste rules.

For a reliable diagnostic tool, see MemTest86 (https://www.memtest86.com/). If the modules are under warranty, contact the vendor before doing anything that might void it.

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Member Avatar for jbennet

usually it can. The only time it usually cant be is if the Power Supply goes bad and fries the moherboard, and everything on it

Member Avatar for iceman1007

will it hurt the motherboard if i try to put the memory stick on it if it is bad?

Member Avatar for jbennet

possibly. attempt at your own risk

Member Avatar for caperjack

if the motherboard just stopped working for no apparent reason like a power serge ,the ram should be fine .

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