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My 8 yo desktop is currently running on half RAM -- one of the 4 GB sticks is not registering. I will crack the case, clean the contacts, and re-seat it to see if that fixes it.
If that fixes the problem, I'll continue limping along with it. The PC runs fine, although it's obviously long in the tooth. I have looked into replacing it, but prices and availability have kept the old tiger running.
If it doesn't fix it? I can get a pair of 4 GB DDR3 (yes, this PC is that old!) for $46 USD.
Any suggestions on where to look for components? I build my own and haven't been pleased with what I've seen at the common vendors.
Thanks!
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Define "haven't been pleased." Please with what?
You've picked about the worst time to build a new PC. Prices are high, and supply is short and even impossible to get. You can't find a video card anywhere on the planet. You're in line behind more than a million (not an exaggeration!) other people waiting for video cards.
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Prices for the little available stock are 2 problems.
Yeah, this is NOT the time to build a new one, but if my old unit craps out, well, there's not a lot of options.
I had hoped to hang on with it another year. Overall, it runs fine for my purposes -- the HD is much newer (I replace the HD every other year, and when I build a new unit), so that's not a problem. Just that pesky CPU + RAM ....
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HD? What's one of those? 
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It's not true he can't find a graphics card. I have a GTX960 on a shelve somewhere - he can have that one for just USD 5000 - I will even throw in free shipping (any import duty is his own problem of course).
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Do you know if this shortage of video cards (and their ridiculous prices) has to do with their intensive usage for crypto mining? Or is just the need for gaming - the raison d'être of 'computers' for more and more people? Because I - not being interested in either perversion - could happily live with what the motherboard itself has to offer in terms of video and sound. At least for a good while.
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Miners are buying them up by the pallet.
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Newegg has a policy of replace, not refund. I once ordered a computer kit from them, in which I had to install the CPU chip myself. The motherboard was bad, it was a design problem that could not be fixed simply by replacing it with another of the same. I forget what the problem was, but had something to do with incompatibility with the CPU. Since they would not refund, I spent several hours with their tech support, who even sent me a new CPU chip to try out. I eventually gave up, tossed the whole thing as a loss, and bought a new burned in computer elsewhere.
Therefore, I no longer buy from Newegg except for commodity parts that are a good deal.
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8 year old? Replace anyway. Either you get something slightly faster but lighter / with better battery life or something significantly faster... with the benefit tha you have less to worry about your PC dying suddenly.
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Most of us are not terrible concerned about the battery life or weight of a desktop system. Though to be fair, it does suck a bit if the CMOS battery is out of juice. 
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Whoopsie 
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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I was planning on replacing the unit last summer, but prices and availability made me hang on. I fear it's the MB, not the RAM, so replacing the unit is probably my best choice.
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BryanFazekas wrote: I was planning on replacing the unit last summer, but prices and availability made me hang on.
Same here
GCS d--(d-) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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If you need it to run for a little longer, grab some ram. But at that age, it's a $46 gamble. It might be the motherboard failing for that RAM slot.
At 8 yo, you need to start planning anyway.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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A quick test to see if its a motherboard issue or not would be to swap the RAM banks around. If the problem follows the RAM, likely its a RAM issue. If the problem stays with the slots, then its a MOBO issue. If it's MOBO, then a replacement is definitely in order. As others have noted, after 8 years, its probably time to consider a replacement anyway. I have a vague notion that consumer grade electronics - particularly capacitors - have about a 5 year life expectancy. Anything after that is gravy. Though no-one has told my 40 year old GE clock radio that!
Keep Calm and Carry On
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k5054 wrote: A quick test to see if its a motherboard issue or not would be to swap the RAM banks around. If the problem follows the RAM, likely its a RAM issue. If the problem stays with the slots, then its a MOBO issue.
That's a great tip! Thanks!
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Yeah, I'm concerned that I'm throwing money away on RAM, even if the problem is not the MB.
As I said in other replies, I've been planning. This may force the issue, which is not necessarily a bad thing as long as I do it before it dies completely.
I considered installing W11 on a new one, but am going to stick with W10 for now. I don't need additional, unnecessary hassles!
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I have old Laptop RAM floating around... You might look around for used.
Someone probably has some shelved (welcome to 2022)!
FWIW, Once a machine hits 2yrs, I try to buy an off-lease cold spare.
My previous cold spare is sitting on the shelf. I am close to getting one.
I've been taken down HARD before. I fresh install is about 80hrs of my time.
[Supporting Software from 25+ years ago]. Moved to VMs, so it might be down to 40hrs.
Eventually, I guess my Dev machine(s) will be in the Cloud, and I will just remote into them.
Why do I picture an X-Windows Like World?
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You sound like my lost development brother 
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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LOL. No, just old enough to have watched HDDs fail. Lost a RAID because a drive failed while the previously failed drive was still repairing (learned not to use drives from the same batch!).
Had SSDs fail. And whole laptops/workstations die.
I was called in to help a client who had Mirrored his server drives. Using an obsolete controller, and NEVER backed up because he had MIRRORED drives. Well his controller took a dump, and BOTH drives were IDENTICALLY USELESS because the controller formatting them to be unrecognizable in a regular system.
I still remember the first time my machine FAILED and I had a spare. It took me longer to take the drives out and put in the backup machine, then to boot up and get back to work.
Glad to consider you a development brother!
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RAIDs - false sense of security.
Years ago (like 20) we had a very high end RAID in our production system. Many systems shipped to customers. One day, our engineering test unit went down with a bad controller board. Now, in addition to RAID drives and dual controllers, it had dual power supplies - I mean the thing was sold as no single point of failure.
Then one of the controllers died. And the tech replaced it, and we found out that the controllers weren't redundant. Apparently the RAID 5 they did depended on the specific controller.
Sales guy and the company were very upset when I cancelled their contract.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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Reminds me of the old 10 inch backup tapes on the PDP/11s
Control Data Came out, and did their maintenance. When they were done, we could read OTHER tapes fine, but the ones we wrote for backups could not be read, because the tape head was out of alignment when the tapes were created. (They aligned it because it was having trouble reading OTHER tapes).
Being Young, we crossed our fingers. But the Operations Managers, barely 20... Changed procedures so that at least the first tape of each backup had to be mounted/confirmed on a DIFFERENT PDP/11, which meant that there were at least 2 tape drives that could read the tape. [FWIW, that process then discovered we hard Morons on the night shift backing up incorrectly. Thankfully he had the morning shift do this when we were all around, so we could find the issues. But backups were being made to the wrong days tapes. Crazy stuff]
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I'd go for it but maybe get more memory.
I have a 10 years old desktop that ended up with 20GB of RAM, a 500MB SSD for system plus 4TB for data drives. It runs like a champ and for dev work is fast enough.
Mircea
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Mircea Neacsu wrote: 'd go for it but maybe get more memory.
At the time I built it, my current desktop was good with 8 GB RAM. 16 pushed the price up more than I wanted.
Assuming I build now (which is likely) I'm going with 32 GB. While 16 is probably enough right now, 32 gives me room for future changes in Windows and other sw.
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