Well I went ahead and used rubbing alcohol to clean the ram and the contacts. I managed to removed three of the chips out of four. Two of these were thin boards, and one was a little thicker. The fourth one, which was also a thicker one, wouldn't budge. Should I try removing this one too? Oh and I also reconnected the four cords the attach to the optical and hard drives. The amount of unused ram is no longer flickering, and I have had three successful boots in a row.