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Dell Inspiron 530 monitor stays black at start up
So I had a problem with the monitor not turning on when I start it up and there was 4 beeps continuously cycling one two three four, one two three four over and over again. So I took out the memory cards blew into them as suggested in another thread that was old and started it up and the beeping was gone however the screen was still black on my monitor.
There were many suggestions in an older thread from like 2010. I asked my girlfriend if she had put any of those memory cards and their herself and she told me that yes she in fact had. So I figured out which two were the original 2 that came with the tower. I took out the ones that she installed rebooted and it started right up no problem monitor was working fine.
RoHe
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January 16th, 2017 12:00
Does it ask for a password to get into Windows (what version) ?
Did she set up more than one account on this PC?
Which account does it open if / when it boots to the desktop?
What happens if you just press Enter when it asks for the password?
The user profile(s) may be corrupted. So unless she can come up with a password that works, you may have to wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows and all your software. BUT, you need to rescue your files first, unless they're all backed up on external media already because you'll lose everything...
RoHe
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January 16th, 2017 12:00
Sounds like you isolated the problem to the RAM.
To test further, remove all original RAM and substitute one of the other 2, in slot 1 (closest to the CPU). See if it boots. Then swap in the other one of that pair and see if it boots. If both work in slot 1, put the other one of that pair in slot 2 and see if it boots.
If they work together in slots 1&2, add the original 2 to slots 3&4. If it fails now, then you may have a bad motherboard slot.
If either of the 'new' pair fail in slot 1, you'll have to replace both of them as a matched pair.
Billdee33
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January 16th, 2017 12:00
Thanks Ron for the advice. Yes that makes perfect sense. I'll actually give that a try tonight. Thanks again.
Also... She forgot her password and she's the administrator on this computer. She has the disk that came with the machine comma however comma when she want to run it it started working but fails every time a little way into the process. She says that it wouldn't read the desk. Is there some way to get past that whole password thing so that we can gain back control as administrator on this PC? And I wouldn't even care I would just use this PC as a guest however... we don't have internet here and are using our neighbor's Wi-Fi. So in order to use this personal computer this desktop computer, we had to use a Netgear wireless dual band stick in order to catch Wi-Fi. But it wants to install the software in order to use that stick but in order to install this software I cannot do it as a guest LOL so do you see my dilemma? And when I asked her what her password was she said she just cannot remember. She sat down and tried a bunch of them and was messing with the computer for several hours the other night and just cannot remember her password. Any suggestions???? We would like to try to avoid bringing it in and having it worked on because truth be told at the prices they would charge us we could probably just order a new tower off of Amazon or something because we have a keyboard a mouse and a monitor and speakers etcetera etcetera. We are looking to try to avoid spending any money at all so thank you very much for any suggestions you may have.
Bill
Billdee33
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January 16th, 2017 13:00
Okay so the machine boots up and you see the screen that has her name and and guest. So there are those two choices. If you click on her name it asks for her password if you put one in incorrectly it tells you that it's incorrect. Now, I can go and just click on guest and get right in. But then when I want to install something on the computer or do anything important that requires using the persons profile that owns the computer, I cannot do that because we don't have the password. She has repeatedly tried different passwords and she cannot remember the one that she used. She had to ex boyfriend living here before her and I met years ago that she didn't quite trust and so she changed her password. She has since gotten a laptop and uses that. I am home a lot during the day and could use a computer I am on my phone right now however it's much easier to do work from a computer as you know. So when those guys were here she changed her password and she just doesn't remember what it is. She has the install disc you know if I wipe everything out. However she did try to reinstall the other night using that disk and it will not read that disc for some reason. It is a Dell Inspirion 530 and it's running Windows Vista. So what you are saying is a, the only way to do this is if I wipe out the entire computer's memory? I don't know if she will go for that is there any way to just change the administrator password without erasing the Entire Computer?
RoHe
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January 16th, 2017 16:00
Several issues here...
Did GF try pressing Enter instead of entering a password?
Nothing personal, but how do we know whose PC this really is and if you or GF have the right to use an account with Admin privileges?
There are ways to crack Windows passwords, but you'll have to explore those on your own. Don't think it's appropriate (or even allowed) to discuss them on this forum.
If PC works, aside from the password issue, then using the Vista CD isn't going to help, unless you want to wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything.