[jeevesthestag]

Hi,

I've having a bad week with PCs, this is my second problem this week!

My Dell Latitude 120l needed some new RAM, the old RAM worked but was only 512k. I put some more in (from an old Dell Inspiron 1501 that no longer worked), having following the instructions, taking the battery out, earthing myself etc. I didn't check if the memory was compatible, because I stupidly assumed that all Dell RAM would be compatible with all other Dells.

I turned the Latitude back on and I got a message saying new memory installed. It asked me if I wanted to enter the settings screen or continue. I chose to continue and Windows started normally.

It worked for about 10 minutes and then shut down. It was out of charge and I hadn't realised it wasn't charging as normal, despite the power charger being plugged in.

It now won't turn on at all.

I've tried the following.

1. Checked the power charger is working.
2. Removed the battery and replaced it again.
3. Tried a number of combinations of memory, including returning the original memory to the laptop.

I still have no power. No lights come on, it is completely dead, as if the power supply is not attached at all.

Please help, thanks.

Jamie

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There is a possibility that if the Ram was a different voltage that the MB has shorted out and will need replacing, post the details for the existing Latitude 120l Ram + that of the Ram that you tried just before the issue started.
Have you tried removing the battery and only using the AC adapter?

[phillpower2]

There is a possibility that if the Ram was a different voltage that the MB has shorted out and will need replacing, post the details for the existing Latitude 120l Ram + that of the Ram that you tried just before the issue started.
Have you tried removing the battery and only using the AC adapter?

[jeevesthestag]

Thanks for the reply. I've tried plugging in without the battery without success. The original ram was 512mb 2rx16 pc2-4200s-444-12-ad

The other ram was 1gb 2rx8 pc2-5300s-555-12-13.

Thanks again.

Jamie

[phillpower2]

It is possible that the issue is pure coincidence and the Ram had nothing to do with it, do both lots of Ram have the voltage printed on them 1.5V, 1.8V, 1.9V for example.
Can you check the power jack at the back of the laptop, these sometimes come away from the MB and can result in there being no power getting to the battery to charge it or again it can short out the system components.
Repairing laptops can be difficult and unless confident should be left to a suitably competent person or tech but that said below is a link to your systems manual; http://helpdesk.ugen...t.htm#wp1111212 and one thing you can try first is swapping out the MBs CMOS battery, it is a long shot but I try not to forget that sometimes it can be a simple fix after this I`m afraid the laptop will need to be dismantled for further investigation signs of scorching, clogged CPU fan etc.