Computer problems, need help from tech wizards!

[gordonmull]

Hey folks

I was hoping one of the tech geniuses on here might be able to give me a bit of advice. I'm running on:

Asus P5N-E SLI motherboard
Nvidia Geforce 8800
win xp media edition
1 gig samsung DDR2 DIMM RAM (formerly 2 gig and this leads me to the problem)

The problem started yesterday but I think the symptoms may have been showing for a while in the form of the odd blue screen of death. Tried to start up this morning and...nothing. Not even the boot screen listing the components.

In my usual approach to anything that has stopped working I immediately grabbed a screwdriver and got into the guts to see if I could find the problem. An hour of head-scratching later and I pulled the RAM out of the first yellow slot and she booted up fine. Not to be outdone I thought I should check whether it was the stick or the slot so I took the other stick out and put it in there. To my initial dismay the computer did not load up.

OK, after the tears had subsided I remembered I had 2 other black slots so I cheered up a bit then and put the sticks in their black places, fired her up and NOOOOOOO!!! .

Denied.

Testing continued and I pulled the RAM out of the left hand side black slot and the PC booted up fine. It looks to me like both slots on the left are not working. Somebody please, please put me out of my halved memory misery and tell me my motherboard isn't completely b*****d.

The set up on my board is four slots in a row || || like that and the colours are yellow, black, yellow, black, from left to right. They are coded (Channel A) A1, A2 and (Channel B) B1, B2.

Is there anything at all I can do? I've thought of trying to update BIOS but I got a wee pop-up from ASUS warning me that this could be dangerous. Is it really all that dangerous? If so, what precautions do I need to take and is it really worth it?

I've also seen some stuff on the web where other people have had RAM issues and reset CMOS. I have never attempted this before, so could someone let me know if I run the risk of frying what remains of my system?

Is there anything else I can try?

Any help anyone can give would be appreciated greatly.