Electronics... they either work or don't...

[flav3rsav3r]

We had an issue in the office that may be worth a discussion...

We had the 64K memory go bad on an Intel MoBo...

The user claimed that the last day it was timing out for 20-30 seconds and then after one of our users inserted another 512K of 133Ram the computer would not boot and posted an error for the 64K RAM being corrupt.

After all the normal troubleshooting, the 64K was indeed bad.

The argument that came about was if the 64K could "start" going bad and then die, or it either works or it doesn't.

Does anyone have any insight to add? Can an electrical component start hosing and then die or does it either work or not work?



Cheers!

 

[bdavids1]

There are a lot of factors which can impact whether a part works or not. It may initially work, because temperatures inside the case aren't too high. As things warm up, it reach a point where it stops working. There's certainly a range where it may be borderline -- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Voltage levels can also have the same impact. There are probably other factors as well like humidity, and stuff like that. So, yes it is possible for a part to work some of the time, but not all of the time.

 

[Talz]

Most of the time they either work or they don't. There are many factors that can lead to intermittent issues though, and they tend to get worse rather than better over time.

 

[chrisf6969]

and sometimes things work as long as you keep it running (and warm/hot), then when you let it shut down and cool off something contracts and/or doesnt work anymore. And wont power up.

(maybe what happened)

 

[flav3rsav3r]

Thanks for the input, that is pretty much what we came up with... shit happens.