[feistychic]

my boyfriend came home with an old pc someone gave him. he found a 256 ram chip thing in it and wanted to put it in my computer. i told him it wasnt the right one for my computer because it doesnt look like the other ones. well i dont know what he did but he put it in turned it on, saw i was pissed, turned it off and put the other one back in and i turned the computer on and....nothing. the lights come on, the fans come on and nothing else happens. the monitor is blank and it doesnt make that noise it makes when it is loading everything. does anyone know what can be done about this? or what the problem can be?

Edited by feistychic, 13 January 2004 - 10:20 AM.

[Advertisements]

Welcome feistychic

well i dont know what he did but he put it in turned it on, saw i was pissed, turned it off and put the other one back in

LOL! Thanks for my first good laugh of the day. Sounds like your nick suits you.

nothing. the lights come on, the fans come on and nothing else happens. the monitor is blank and it doesnt make that noise it makes when it is loading everything. does anyone know what can be done about this?

Sounds like you were right it probably wasn't the correct memory. Hopefully, we can fix it by just clearing the BIOS. Disconnect the power, remove the cover. Look for the battery (usually a nickle size watch style battery). Remove the battery for at least five minutes. Replace the battery, then reconnect the power, and reboot (cross your fingers).

[admin]

Welcome feistychic

well i dont know what he did but he put it in turned it on, saw i was pissed, turned it off and put the other one back in

LOL! Thanks for my first good laugh of the day. Sounds like your nick suits you.

nothing. the lights come on, the fans come on and nothing else happens. the monitor is blank and it doesnt make that noise it makes when it is loading everything. does anyone know what can be done about this?

Sounds like you were right it probably wasn't the correct memory. Hopefully, we can fix it by just clearing the BIOS. Disconnect the power, remove the cover. Look for the battery (usually a nickle size watch style battery). Remove the battery for at least five minutes. Replace the battery, then reconnect the power, and reboot (cross your fingers).

[feistychic]

thanx so much for the quick reply....the battery is out and im hopefully on the way to getting it working again.

[feistychic]

ok well, i put the battery back in and the same thing is still happening, or should i say lack of.... any more suggestions?

[admin]

Hmm... It's rare that RAM would damage a systems hardware, but it's starting to look that way.

First, make sure the RAM was put back in correctly (slots aligned) anf that it's firmly seated in the slots. Also, if there were a lot of dust in the system and it wasn't removed, it could have contaminated the contacts. With the power disconnected, try using a Q-tip and rubbing alchohol to clean the contacts.

Finally, if none of that works try leaving the battery out overnight. Sometimes a corrupted BIOS can be stubborn to clear.

[feistychic]

thanks again....... ill try that. but i do have one other thing to add. on the actual computer there is a sticker, and it says that there are 4 dimm sockets , two and two, and each set has to have the same ram in it. and there is, two identical and two identical. well, my boyfriend only took one out and put the one in that he had, so then when he turned it on, there were two diferrent ones in the one set of sockets...does that help at all? it must say that on the sticker for a reason!!!

Edited by feistychic, 13 January 2004 - 02:03 PM.

[admin]

Still leads me to think BIOS corruption. Maybe leaving the battery out overnight wil do the trick.

[feistychic]

ok thanx for all of your help...ill post again tomarrow after i see if it worked, thanx again.

[feistychic]

hi! well it didnt work. When i turn the computer on now, it does make the initial 3 beeps, and it wasnt doing that before. i dont get it. Im frustrated about the whole [bleep] thing. thanx for all of your help.

Edited by feistychic, 14 January 2004 - 09:05 AM.

[admin]

3 beeps usually mean memory failure. One last resort, you could try removing the stick of RAM that was replaced and see if it'll boot. If not, you're probably looking at a new motherbaord.

[feistychic]

ok i tried that and it didnt work.... ... thanx for all of your help. I do have another question. If i was to go and get another motherboard, will i have to get anything else? or can i just use all of the stuff I have in this computer. I have a pentium 4 processor and i know they cost much moola and I want to try and make this an inexpensive as possible!!! i have another computer besides this one and when you turn it on everything starts to load and then it says no operating sytem found. its a dell.i tried to use fdisk on it with a windows98 boot disk and that said i had to partition it, when i tried to do that it said there was no fixed disk...i dont know if im getting ahead of myself here and im not the most intelligent when it comes to this kind of stuff!!! do have any input on that???

[admin]

I'd suggest you have a local computer shop verify it's the mobo. They can also recommend a compatible replacement. If it's the motherboard that is the only thing that would need to be replaced. Expect to pay around $100 for the hardware, plus what the shop charges to diagnose.

If you'd like help getting that Dell going, please start a new topic.