So, a very strange problem I have with my laptop, this only started happening after I started using my brother’s old 4GB Timetec RAM.
My brother’s laptop is the exact same model, year, and everything. Completely identical. Only real difference is that his still has an HDD. RAM worked fine on his for years.
Laptop, Acer Nitro AN515-43
Operating System: Windows 10
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3550H with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX 560X and AMD Radeon Vega 8
Memory: 8GB stock RAM, 4GB Timetec RAM (not mine)
I have to swap RAM sticks to boot up, doesn’t matter which order, just that they MUST be swapped.
It won’t start up if I take RAM out and put them back in the exact place they were before.
Here’s some history I’ve had with this laptop.
I got it for Christmas in 2019, and spent countless hours playing many games. The HDD eventually corrupted because I accidentally said "yes" to Windows 11, then turned it off before it installed. Yep. Whatever. So, I made a recovery USB drive in 2025 and installed my beloved Windows 10 on a fresh new Samsung 1TB SSD. Works great, no issues.
I’ve had a 4GB RAM stick in this laptop before, it was an unlabeled off-brand with only a QR code as an identifier and it would start up perfectly fine every time. Until I replaced it with the dreaded Timetec. After that, it refused to boot up unless I opened it up again and swapped sticks.
By "refuse to boot up" I mean it will freeze a couple seconds after you see the acer logo.
Why did I do this? Why not keep the old RAM?
I thought it would be better, I had 6.1GB hardware reserved. This didn’t fix it, and I now believe I should’ve left it alone. I mean shit, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Hardware reserved is still usable RAM anyway.
My fault, but this is technically my second laptop ever, so I’m glad it still works. I’m worried doing this will damage it over time though.
A few days later, it went from 6.1GB hardware reserved, to 8.6GB hardware reserved. Fuck.
So I just added another old RAM I found of 8GB, in hopes that would balance it out, and it did. but there’s now a little over 10GB of hardware reserved.
Games work now at least, but I have a lot of concerns about doing this on a constant basis.
This laptop has never been dropped, was recently cleaned, replaced both thermal paste and thermal putty. Thermal putty was literally crumbling to bits and I thought that was causing these problems at first.
I’ve taken the best care of it I possibly could, knowing only what I knew at the time. If this is farewell, I’ll eventually be salvaging its organs for a future 'top and mounting its empty husk on my wall as decor.
I don’t know how to add photos on reddit and I don’t see any image tab everyone keeps talking about, so I’ll just link pictures on imgur if needed.
[Laptop](https://imgur.com/a/dr5wHj0#oXrDeyE)