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Customer sends two-stick $16,000 DDR5 memory kit to repair shop

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Customer sends two-stick $16,000 DDR5 memory kit to repair shop

A YouTube channel best known for its skillful graphics card fixes has published its first RAM module repair video. Tony from NorthWestRepair’s latest video shows his attempts to mend a pair of high-capacity DDR5 sticks worth a purported $16,000. It isn’t the repair skills that are newsworthy here. Rather, it’s the shift in economics that makes the chuck-it-and-replace-it attitude to bad RAM a philosophy that simply doesn’t apply in 2026. The impact of the AI-pocalypse means that spending a couple of hundred dollars on repair labor to save a several-thousand-dollar DDR5 DIMM is now sensible. If you can repair RAM, you can now start a business.

Two DDR5 sticks were sent in to Tony, described as having physical damage. They are both ECC sticks, meant for servers, one with 128GB and the other with 256GB of DRAM ICs onboard. Tony sounded happy at the start of the video, as this is an excuse to use his Unified DDR Flasher Main Board, for which he had just acquired an RDIMM extension that works with these server sticks.

Initial close physical inspection didn’t reveal any conclusive evidence of the source of the problems. So, it was hoped electrical tests would provide more clues. A data line tester didn’t highlight any issues, though. Tony used flux and hot air to reflow the solder on the first DIMM, which is a far simpler process than a reball (where all the memory ICs are taken off, cleaned, and given new solder balls). Initial signs were that the module was now working OK.


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