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I think I'm having RAM issues with one of the games I'm playing. It will slowly start dropping frames until it becomes very hard to play. I ran memtest86 and it identified some errors and bad addresses.

I don't think there is a way to disable certain addresses in windows (at least I couldn't find one), so I thought the next step would be to remove the physical sticks of RAM from my computer until the problem went away. However, I have a laptop and it is pretty difficult to reach some of the RAM. Is there anyway, within windows, to 'disable' a stick of RAM without having to physically remove it?

It would save me a lot of time and possibly any mistakes I might make while trying to open my laptop up. Anyways, thanks.

bluemoon12
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There is no way to do this without physically removing the ram (after PC is powered down).

The reason that it is not possible is because the RAM is always being constantly updated and used.

If you have two sticks of ram, they are both being used. Even if you aren't doing anything strenuous it still goes through both sticks to even out the workload.

And to disable one of the ram sticks would cause a great deal of problems. You would most likely get a BSOD and corrupted windows files.

A similar example would be like you are saving a file and then you rip out the sata cables to the hard drive.

RAM is not hot swappable. It would be cool if the ram could dump all of its load onto the first stick and disable but currently it's not possible nor is it safe.

Count Chapula
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    As a Side note there exists motherboards now with the ability to disable the dimm sockets without removal of the ram. Gigabyte has a few, one of thier SOC boards designed for overclocking has a hard switch, others with UEFI enable/disable. Not a live change as a person would have to re-post and re-boot, but at least some troubleshooting can be done without physical removal. – Psycogeek Dec 19 '14 at 03:31
  • I was unaware of that but he has a laptop MOBO so he is out of luck :S – Count Chapula Dec 19 '14 at 03:31
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    This is only partially true. While you can't really disable RAM there are servers which supports RAM hot-swap and RAM hot-replace. Even some Dell models can do this. – Chris Dec 19 '14 at 03:34
  • Yes I should have clarified that it is only true for desktops and laptops (currently) – Count Chapula Dec 19 '14 at 03:35