Aspire A715-41G boot issue - RAM slot problem?

Hi everybody!

Since a month or so, I have started experiencing issues at boot or right after it on my Aspire A715-41G. The Windows loading "rolling wheel" will occasionally get stuck and nothing will happen unless I force the shutdown of the PC. The same behavior is sometimes experienced right after boot. For example, everything sometimes freezes if I open an application soon after a successful boot.
This post from Microsoft Community describes the issue pretty well:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/computer-freezes-while-using-two-ram-at-a-time/e487a3c7-e006-438b-ab0c-571e69e9ded5?page=1

After several trials (wiping the disk from the previous dual boot installation, installing fresh Windows 11, booting Ubuntu from USB), I have concluded that I am facing a hardware issue and that the disk is not the culprit (otherwise the Live ISO would have just worked fine).

I have observed that if I leave the RAM slot #2 empty, the issue does not appear anymore. Also, if I place one single RAM stick in slot #2, the PC does not boot at all (the Acer logo never appears). The RAM sticks themselves are fine (4GB each, factory mounted so no compatibility issues), as they both worked when placed in slot #1.

Does it mean that my RAM slot is faulty, or does the motherboard have some kind of "preference" for RAM slot #1?

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Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/703548/aspire-a715-41g-boot-issue-ram-slot-problem

Crucial recommends 2x4GB kit (DDR4-2666 • CL=19 • NON-ECC • SODIMM • 260-pin • 1.2V • 1Rx8 • PC4-21300) for your laptop: https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/ct2k4g4sfs8266/ct18559876 It should take one 4GB module either in slot #1 or #2. Acer recommends DDR4-2400MHz:

After you reset BIOS (F9 in BIOs and save changes) and tried again Slot#2 without results there may be a problem with that slot.

bluegiraffe

Hi Puraw! Thank you for your answer.

I have just installed new 2x8GB RAM sticks (suggested by Crucial for my laptop model), and I keep suspecting the RAM slot #2. At the first reboot after RAM installation, the system was showing 10,1GB of hardware reserved memory. My interpretation is that 2,1GB are due to the AMD graphics card, and 8GB to the faulty RAM slot. I then rebooted and now the hardware reserved memory is just 2,1GB (which is a lot, but should be correct as now the default GPU is the integrated AMD one). I guess that slot #2 is not reliable anymore, thus sometimes it works, and sometimes not.

I have few more doubts about this issue:

Why does the problem seem to happen at boot (or right after it) only?
How it comes that several Memtest86 runs (with 4 passes each) never spotted a problem that is pretty frequent in normal use?

Coming to possible solutions, in your opinion, is it feasible (or advisable) to change (with professional assistance) a RAM slot? Otherwise, my plan is to buy a 16GB RAM stick to have decent performance with one slot only.

Sorry for the long comment, and thank you very much for your support!

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