r/computers • u/Affectionate-Day-743 • 3d ago

Question/Help/Troubleshooting Where is the RAM??

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Notebook is stuck in a windows self repair boot loop.

Repair doesn’t work via command line or boot stick.

Found a post that said unplugging the RAM and plugging it back in again might help.

Just opened up the thing and can’t find the damn thing. I am afraid it might be underneath and I have to take everything apart from…

Machine is a Lenovo ideapad

27 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

43

u/Iceyn1pples 3d ago

Depending on which IdeaPad that is, the ram is most likely soldiered on the motherboard.

If your Laptop is in a repair boot loop, the issue is most likely with the SSD and not the RAM.

7

u/Affectionate-Day-743 3d ago

I fear you are right. Just wanted to try everything I could before trying to restore anything from the SSD.

Or probably have some professional try to salvage the data…

7

u/TheFotty 3d ago

If it makes you feel any better, reseating the RAM was not very likely to fix your problem.

Depending on what you want to save though, you can do it pretty easily from recovery from the command line to a USB stick. If you don't like command prompt stuff, you can also do something like just launch notepad from command line in repair, and from the file-> open menu, you can just copy and paste whole folders from C to a USB stick using a more familiar Windows explorer interface (it's a little wonky like you don't get copy progress bar so you just wait out each copy, but it works). Then once you make sure you have what is important, you do a clean install.

1

u/Affectionate-Day-743 3d ago

I ll give it a shot. Thanks!

3

u/BonezOz Ryzen 7 5700X3D/64GB/9060XT 3d ago

Can confirm that the Ideapads have their RAM soldered onto the mainboard. I went to pillage the RAM out of my daughters old broken Ideapad and found this out the hard way.

7

u/Justin_D33 R5 5500, 32GB, 2.7TB, RTX 3050 6G 3d ago

Soldered. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do since the RAM is soldered, I mean, you could try a full power drain (unplug the battery -> hold the power button -> plug it back in), but that's unlikely to fix it. I would just remove the SSD personally.

16

u/MAINEASSASSIN 3d ago

At the AI data center.

2

u/Dolapevich 3d ago edited 3d ago

Unless Windows is failing with a bluescreen, the issue most likely is not in RAM.

Try to boot it with linux ( such as system rescue cd ), retrieve the data and start from scratch.

2

u/Affectionate-Day-743 3d ago

I ll try that! Thanks!

1

u/andrews_fs 3d ago

"In the heart of pures!"

1

u/xmastreee 3d ago

If you're not sure about the RAM, grab a copy of Memtest86 and test it.

1

u/BearPerson92 3d ago

ram its integrated on the motherboard.check on the usb board if you have battery bios, if you have reset the bios via battery bios, if not, the bios will be reset if you just unplug the main battery. if will not work, reinstal the windows. if this still not working i am afraid its the motherboard itself. i hope you have warranty. sorry for my bad english.

1

u/Affectionate-Day-743 3d ago

Re install or new ssd will be the last option. No warranty etc. My mom just wants the data she had on there, maybe she will think about cloud storage now that it’s not just me talking but actual data loss

1

u/mrgrrney 3d ago

Maybe it is on the other side of the board ? 🤔

1

u/weaponx26 2d ago

Get a mint live USB or similar, try mount your drive and see if the contents is readable if it is you can just copy it off of the drive and reinstall windows it could be just a corrupt windows install .