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We have two computers in the basement to run the printing equipment we have and my father bought four gigs of ram for each.
Well, he got the ram in one of them and it worked fine. When he put the ram in the other one, it all went to hell. Now, he’s a car mechanic and thought nothing of putting his fingers all over the ram, just as an important detail.
Now the other computer, even with the original ram back in place, all you have to do is plug it in and the fan takes off like a plane. It won’t boot and you don’t even have to turn it on for the fan to go nuts. What are your thoughts? Power supply? Motherboard? Something else?
To be honest I’m not sure, but it reminds me of the one time, several years ago, that my sister-in-law (before she was my SIL) and I tried to add RAM to my computer. She grounded herself and was careful when adding it, but we still fried something. I couldn’t boot my computer at all, luckily my brother had a different computer that we could put my hard drive in so I could pull data off it. Good luck figuring things out.
After my experience, I take my computers to the “Geeks” when I need help for things like that. “Geeks” being the Geek Squad at Best Buy.
For the computer that isn’t booting up all the way, but is getting power:
You have power (the fan wouldn’t run without it), but it is possible that the power supply could be weak. What wattage is the power supply supposed to be running (should say on the label). What type of CPU does the PC have (Intel, dual-core, AMD, etc.). To check the motherboard, you sort of have to swap in other known good parts to figure out if the motherboard is gone or not (it’s more of a process of elimination on that one). RAM is sturdier now than it used to be, so I wouldn’t be concerned as much of your dad touching that than say, other parts of the computer with out being grounded (if he wasn’t grounded, then that could be a concern and what I said about touching it goes out the window…. they have little wrist straps to wear for grounding yourself to the case…. components are so small they can be very sensitive to this). The static that you as a human being have around you can be enough to fry a component. The first thing I would check is with the new RAM he bought for that PC.
Is it the correct RAM for that computer? Is it in the correct slots? Some computer require it to be in a certain order (fill certain banks first, some may require 2 banks filled, splitting the RAM between two banks instead of just having a larger amount in a single bank). Could be that some or all of the RAM that was put in that computer is ‘bad’ (yes – you can get bad RAM…. just send it back and have the store replace it). If you can test one at a time, try just putting in a piece at a time. If the other computer can take the same type of RAM, try swapping into that one to see if the working computer comes up (just keep track of which one is which!). If the computer can see all of the RAM on boot up, then the RAM is good and isn’t the problem. Check the Power supply, then start looking at other components. If these PCs have been in the basement for a while, another thing to check is the CMOS battery (especially if they have been sitting around for a while). You can get one of those at Radio Shack (take the old one in and they can hook you up with the correct one). They’re not that expensive at all (think overgrown watch battery…).
Geek squad … *shudders* *twitch* *shudders some more*
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