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i got a toshiba satalite laptop to work on here. running windows vista. the origional problem was that it would not start. when turned on, the lights came on and you can hear the hard drive makin some noise, but the screen stayed black. i had the idea that maybe the ram was bad, so i pulled one of the 2 ram chips out and turned it back on, and it boots up fine. so i switched the ram chip i pulled with the one i left in, still turns on, so the ram chips are both fine, but when both are plugged in, it wont boot up. the guy that owns the laptop admits to dropping it twice and you can see visual evidence that it has been dropped, and hard. now, im thinking that the top ram slot is bad, when ram is plugged into that slot, the computer wont boot. now if that ram slot is bad, is there anything i can do to fix it? ive never had this happen before, and im not very familiar with laptops, im a desktop guy. any ideas on how to fix a bad ram slot? or is it just messed up and thats all there is to it? anyone with some ideas, id love to hear em. if you want more info, ask and ill do my best to give any more details you may need about this problem. thanks in advance.

Aren't laptops disposable like Barbies first computer?  

So is the motherboard cracked by the ram? Or broken solder.

Or is the tabs out of place like in this video?
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/wGp5AiyJInI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/wGp5AiyJInI</a>

You can also buy a bigger ram stick for the good slot.

And thens theres the jam something in to the back of the laptop to make the ram work(pressure causes a restored connection to a broken bit)....

well, i havent dove into it far enough yet to see if the pins are out of place, i dont know why i didnt think of that one...i was thinking broken solder, but havent taken it apart enough to see yet. and jam somehting in the back? thats a new one... might have to check that out for future uses...lmao...good idea on the pins bein out of place. ill look into that in the morning.

so, i took it all apart, no out of place pins on the ram slot. and i cant see if there is a broken solder point or not. i tried the pressure thing, no luck. tried putting pressure in all possible points to make it work, no luck. if the solder on the motherboard is broken or cracked, i cant see it, but i dont have a good magnafying glass to see it so i really cant say for sure. basically, it works with only one piece of ram in, and not with both. im just gonna have to send the owner of the laptop to someone who knows more about motherboard repairs or possible replacement if he wants both slots to work. it works fine as is, and like zalternate said, he can always buy a bigger ram chip for the one slot that does work so he wont notice any difference in performance. thanks guys.