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March 29th, 2016 19:00

Dell inspiron 3847 (i3-4150@3.50gh) questions

My grandson plugged in some wrong ram in his Dell inspiron 3847 (i3-4150@3.50gh). Its not booting up and "guessing" the MB or maybe the processor also is fried. I saw a post that said if a motherboard is replaced that windows would have to be purchased as its tied in the bios. The poster was asking about upgrading to a non Dell MB so a couple of questions:

1: If a Dell OEM MB replacement is purchased would he still have to buy windows?

2: If he wanted to replace with a non Dell MB and faster CPU, what would be a good choice, I know he wants more computing power but is on a budget.

thanks

Asparky

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44.3K Posts

March 30th, 2016 14:00

How much memory is installed now? The 3847 has only 2 motherboard slots for memory and supports a total of: 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 12 GB, or 16 GB.

Not a great idea to mix different brands and different sizes of memory modules so a matched pair would be best. There's a kit with two 8-GB modules at Crucial that would give you the max that can installed, or other kits -at lower cost- with less than the maximum.

And if Crucial recommends the memory for a specific PC model, they guarantee it works or they take it back.

10 Elder

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46K Posts

March 30th, 2016 14:00

My grandson plugged in some wrong ram in his Dell inspiron 3847 (i3-4150@3.50gh). Its not booting up and "guessing" the MB or maybe the processor also is fried. I saw a post that said if a motherboard is replaced that windows would have to be purchased as its tied in the bios. The poster was asking about upgrading to a non Dell MB so a couple of questions:

1: If a Dell OEM MB replacement is purchased would he still have to buy windows?

2: If he wanted to replace with a non Dell MB and faster CPU, what would be a good choice, I know he wants more computing power but is on a budget.

thanks

Asparky

Asparky

Have you tried reinstalling the original default memory modules, to see if this makes a difference. See page 14

Replacing the default memory, with non-compatible RAM should not have effected either the motherboard, or processor, unless the motherboard was damaged, while physically replacing the memory modules.

Also, after reinstalling the default memory, try resetting the BIOS to defaults, by removing the coin cell battery on the motherboard, wait 15 seconds before replacing the battery, See page 49

http://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_inspiron_desktop/inspiron-3847-desktop_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf

"1: If a Dell OEM MB replacement is purchased would he still have to buy windows?"

No.

Note it's always handy to include the Windows version that's installed, when posting any questions about Windows. 

Regards to replacing the processor, the Dell default motherboard's processor can be upgraded, see Here:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/19591421/20895264#20895264

If a non-Dell motherboard is installed, this would cost you a new retail, or OEM version of Windows.

Bev.

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