Won't Boot

I placed a stick of additional memory in my Dell D505 and on boot I received a message of a memory-read error and the unit shut down. On removing the new stick to return to the original half gig my computer will not boot at all. When the unit is turned on it shows activity on the lights for 3 to 5 secs. and then turn off. I have tried f1, f2 f11 and delet on power up with no result.

Help please!

 

The first thing I would do is:

1) Reseat the original memory stick.
2) If your symptom has not changed, remove the original memory stick and install the new in it's place.

Question did you remove your original stick of memory? We need to determine if your original stick went bad, or if the new stick you purchased is not compatible with your laptop.

How about telling us what stick of memory you purchased?

 

The original stick was a half gig and the other was a quarter gig. that was only supporting 192 meg. The second stick was from a HP but it was of the same series and fit perfectly.

I have reseated the original memory to no effect.

 

Try cleaning the memory slots with a blast of compressed air. If that still doesn't help, you might've shorted out the motherboard or changed the memory while some residual power was still in the system (which is why some recommend attempting to power up the system after removing the battery, as this would drain the rest of the power from capacitors).

 

Or you could buy a can of electronics cleaner and spray it in the memory slot and on the gold connectors, just in case you wedged some dust in there somehow (it can't hurt, anyway).

 

Take out the CMOS battery for a while.

 

FWIW, the D505 can support RAM modules of up to 1GB. I assume that you aren't trying to install a higher capacity module.

John

 

Thank you gentlemen, the canned air cleared he problem.