XPS 710 Memory Slots Error

BlueDagger; welcome to DCF

 

It sounds like an issue with the slots which will mean you should change the MoBo

 

However.... if it's past the warranty, you cannot hold Dell responsible.

1) You should have bought the extended warranty at time of original order

2) You might have added the warranty at 5 months when you had to do a repair

3) You could have added the warranty still before the expiration date 2 months ago

 

If your car's engine breaks down after the warranty is over, do you think the manufacturer will warranty it?

Will you threaten to not buy a car from them again if they don't?

 

 

 

 

 

Peace

 

 

BlueDagger

Are you running the latest bios? 

What is the voltage requirements of the ram? 

What happens if you place two sticks into the upper pair by themselves..

The latest bios is 1.4.1

the ram voltage is ok.

It is looking more and more like a motherboard issue.

Check in the bios to make sure you have EPP/SLI option under memroy to off. 

You could try a CMOS reset. If you choose this option make sure you go through the bios and note all your settings. This is especially important if you are using a Raid configuration, as the reset will revert all your bios setting to the default values.

MoneyGuy: Yes, it is the manufacturer's fault for creating a piece of crud in that case. If other "cars" are lasting 3-4 years and yours lasts barely over 1, then yes it is poor manufacturing.

 

Dave:

1) Not sure which version is the latest bios, if it has changed in the last year for an XPS710 then no.

2) It is PC2 6400 1.8v RAM

3) When I took out the two bottom chips and swapped them both up top I still got the beep-o-doom.

Any clue where to find that information or know of anyone that could answer witha definate yes/no? I'd hate to ruin some Dell tech help's day by tearing him a new one when he tries to charge me after the $49 extended warranty.

That would depend on how the limted warranty is worded. If you can pull it off it will definatly be worth it as a new board is between 200-300 dollars.

Is this what your are refering too

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/category.aspx?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs&category_id=112&~ck=anav

Running 1.4.1

EPP/SLI is off
Reset was a no go

 

Paying is looking inevitable will the $49 extension of the "Limited Warranty" cover a MoBO replacement?

You links don't work.

Yeah not sure why those came up as links, as they aren't on the page they are listed. That is all the info I have about the warranty.

This is from a post I did today to a fella that had a slightly different problem but is related to yours.

It is no dark secret that Vista has had a memory management problem from the start. The 64 bit version of Vista that you have is supposed to recognize up to 8 Gig. The 32 bit version by default will only recognize up to 2 Gig of memory. That was a Vista flaw that was addressed by SP1. Do a right click on your computer icon on your desktop and see if the full amount of memory you have installed is listed along with the service pack installed. If the amount of memory listed differs from the installed amount, then it is a Vista problem. If you have a another computer or a friend that can test the memory modules, that would help you determine and confirm that the memory is good or bad. In most cases it is Vista memory management that is the culprit. SP 1 was supposed to resolve this issue. Try re-installing SP1 again and see if this helps.

 

 

I have read this thread and it appears that there are multiple instances of many different programs with the same problem. It is not your programs that are giving you the problem, it is Vista. In most cases when a user gets this window popup. "Program" "has stopped working. a problem caused the program to stop working correctly. windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available'" it is because Vista is miss managing "Memory". Vista 32 bit by default will not recognize more than 2 Gig of installed memory. The 64 Bit version will recognize up to 8 Gig. This was a flaw in Vista. Microsoft posted a patch that would fix the problem to show your actual installed memory. In my case, I have 4 Gig of DDR2 memory installed. Before I patched it. System info would only show 2 of the 4 Gig I had installed. The patch will only trick the system into showing the actual memory, not managing it. Microsoft programs, such as MS Office 2007 and Map Point 2009 give the same problems as any third party programs such as Paintshop Pro 8.1 or Adobe Flash and Acrobat. Here is where the problem starts. Programs that require extended memory storage such as Paintshop Pro or Studio that maintains working photos or Videos in memory quickly max out when multiple changes are made to the canvas in either program. Once the memory reaches its capacity as managed by Vista, it will shut down the program and restart it from scratch, erasing or clearing the memory in the process. And of course all your work will be lost if you have not save it prior to the crash. Again, your programs are not at fault, it is a Vista memory management problem that SP1 did not fix. I am running an XPS 710 with a terabyte of storage and 4 Gig DDR2 extended memory. I opted for the 32 bit version only because the 64 bit version was too buggy and did not have drivers for many of the third party programs and hardware that was available at the time. I know this is not a solution, but it is a reasonable explanation that Dell or Microsoft will not give you. To the best of my knowledge, the problem still has not been addressed properly.

Warco104

If you read the first post you would find that the system will not even post with the 4 gigs installed. This has nothing to do with Vista. As the system never gets by post.