Shoutout to the old guy who fixed my boot loop with a pencil eraser

Had a Windows 10 machine stuck in a boot loop last Tuesday and a retired tech at the local repair shop told me to clean the RAM contacts with a pencil eraser, which fixed it in 30 seconds and saved me from replacing the motherboard, has anyone else run into a fix that simple that actually worked?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy2759d ago

Yeah my friend tried that pencil eraser trick on his old laptop and @taylor929 might have a point because two months later the computer started acting flaky again. He ended up having to reseat the RAM after cleaning the contacts with alcohol anyway so it was a temporary fix at best. Honestly I think some of those old school fixes work but they're not always the cleanest solution for the long run.

taylor9299d ago

Nah, that's a recipe for disaster. Rubbing a pencil eraser on RAM contacts introduces graphite particles that can cause shorts or corrosion over time. Better to use isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth. I've seen people destroy perfectly good RAM by scraping it with erasers, leaving residue that messes with conductivity later. Stick to proper cleaning methods, not some old guy's hack from the 90s.