Well we tried.....didn't know there was more than one temperature that needs to be checked.
Regarding: "First shut the PC down but do not unplug it from the wall. This will leave the case grounded but there are no dangerous voltages."
I will need to move the computer case out of the table it's on and onto a chair, the power lead may not be long enough. Is it too risky to unplug it at this stage, should I buy an extension lead?
I plan to clip the Anti-Static Grounding Wrist Strap Band onto the metal case of the computer.
"While you have it open, look at the fan and see if you can figure out how it comes off." Ok, will do.
Yes....the Dell Dimension 8100 was sold with both ECC and NON-ECC memory modules based on supply. That was one reason why they asked for my service tag, so they could see which one was shipped, but they could also tell by the date it was purchased.
Despite my computer being well out of warranty, motherboard failure alarm aside, I found Dell to be very helpful the few times I needed their advice.
Regarding MemTest......don't quite understand:
"MemTest86 boots from a USB flash drive or CD
If UEFI is not supported on the system, the older v4 BIOS version is booted.
?
MemTest86 can boot from a CD, USB flash drive or, with Linux systems, by the boot loader (for example, LILO or Grub). Any Windows, Linux or Mac system may be used to create the CD or USB flash drive. Once a MemTest86 boot disk has been created, it may be used on any x86 (PC/Mac) computer."
"Create a bootable USB Flash drive:
Download the Windows MemTest86 USB image.
Right click on the downloaded file and select the "Extract to Here� option. This places the USB image and imaging tool into the current folder.
Run the included imageUSB tool, it should already have the image file selected and you just need to choose which connected USB drive to turn into a bootable drive. Note that this will erase all data on the drive."
Not familiar with 'bootable USB Flash drive'. So I place image file into an empty USB Flash drive to turn it into a bootable drive, leave it in, turn computer off, power it on then MemTest boots instead of Windows....is that what happens?
Edited by scarlet.rose, 05 September 2016 - 08:44 AM.