I just dropped some laptop-sized RAM while it was in it's plastic wrapping onto my keyboard of my laptop. What's the chances of it failing because of this drop? If the RAM fails, would the failure spread to my CPU and my graphics card in my laptop?
The height dropped was roughly 25 centimetres.
36 Answers
The odds of failure are negligible - I would feel comfortable juggling these things barehanded. If I could juggle, anyway.
Even if it has failed, the odds of it damaging any other components are also negligible (more likely the machine just wouldn't boot).
I wouldn't worry too much. If you are paranoid, pop it in a computer, and boot one of the live CD versions of memtest (you can also find it on a lot of live Linux disks).
Just run it all night, and see if it has errors in the morning. If not, paranoia gone!
1It happens all the time at Best Buy. Don't worry about it.
1Don't worry the hardware for ram is really solid.
No, RAM is pretty resilient. Unless you had a lot of static in that area at the time, I think it is safe to say it is still in good condition. If you are that worried though and the RAM is new and you still have the receipt take it back to the store for a new one.
RAMs fallen from 25 centimeters onto keyboard while in their plastic wrapping? Based on this I would say it's very very low probability (scientifically negligible) that they are damaged.
Even if you're so unlucky and one or two of modules are really damaged, it won't spread to your CPU or GPU. OS simply won't start, maybe BSOD, but that's all.
If you want to be sure, try modules one at a time and see if the computer starts properly.
