Aspire 830 After upgrading the RAM there was terrible high pitched whine from fan

BrianBarnes

I have two Aspire 830 PCs and have purchased a Crucial RAM upgrade kit of two *GB modules of DDR4 3200MHZ CL22.

When I installed them and switched on there was a terrible high pitched whine from (I think) the fan and the PC didn't boot. In the other Aspire PC I installed an Acer badged 8GB module which worked perfectly. I'm assuming the Crucial modules are incompatible for some reason.

Any ideas ?

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]
[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/727903/aspire-830-after-upgrading-the-ram-there-was-terrible-high-pitched-whine-from-fan

Hi Brian, Thanks for sharing your upgrade attempt — it's a bit of a puzzle, but I think we've cracked it.

You mentioned having two Aspire XC830 PCs, and based on Acer’s specs and community feedback, these models officially support up to 8GB RAM (2×4GB). However, some users have successfully installed 2×8GB DDR4-2666 CL19 SODIMMs, especially in the XC830-UW91 variant.

Your Crucial kit — 2×8GB DDR4-3200MHz CL22 UDIMMs — may be incompatible for two reasons:

• Form factor mismatch: Aspire XC830 uses SODIMM, not UDIMM modules.
• Speed/timing issues: 3200MHz CL22 may exceed what the motherboard can handle, causing the system to fail POST and trigger that high-pitched whine.

The Acer-branded 8GB module worked because it likely matches the required specs (DDR4-2400 or 2666 SODIMM, CL19 or lower).

If you're aiming for 16GB total, I’d recommend trying 2×8GB DDR4-2666 CL19 SODIMMs, ideally 2Rx8 and 1.2V. That combo has worked for others in the same model line.

Hope this helps clarify things! If this turns out to be an Aspire-specific issue, it might be worth asking the mods to move the thread to the Aspire Desktop category for better visibility.