Just had a Dell Tech tell me to reinstall windows for no reason.

     I woke up today and my computer wasn't showing anything on the monitor.  I restarted a couple of times and still had the same problem.  I determined it wasn't a problem with the monitor by pluging it into another computer.  I called dell and the tech I talked to was convinved it was the monitor even after I told him several times I had plugged it into another computer and it worked.  After i convinced him it wasn't the monitor he had me (I'm not really computer savy) open the computer and removie this 4inch long green thing that was fastend with black and white clips, (I believe this had to do with the memory) and restart it.  I still had the same problem.  So he had me rotate these green things about three times and restart each time.  None of this was successfull.  So he then had me move what he called a "jumper" and than move it back and restart.  That did the trick. After the next restart the monitor did come on and said "resuming windows."  And that's all it said.  It just sat there saying resuming windows everytime we restarted even when he had me press the f8 key several times. 

     It was at this point that he told me my computer was fried and I'd have to reinstall windows. He said he hoped I had backed eveything up because it was all gone.  I just about died when told me this.  As I was sadly putting the tower back together I noticed I had failed to put one of those green things back in properly.  It was only half-way in and had been like that during the last restart.  I told him what I had just noticed and he proceeded to tell me that piece had nothing to do with my current problem insisted on reinstalling windows at that time.  I told him I didn't want to give up that quickly, it seemed I should at least try to put it in correctly before I wipe out my whole hard drive.  He again went into great detail about how this green memory piece had absolutley nothing to do with windows not starting and it was time to just reinstall windows and start from scratch.  

     I didn't want to take that for an answer and I ended the call.  I then proceeded to properly put that green thing in and restarted.  Well, guess what?   It worked.  I now have no problems at all.  I called Dell back and spoke with another tech and told him the whole story.  He flat out told me the other guy was incorrect and that green thing has everyithng to do with the computer staring up.  

      So, what it comes down to, is Dell almost had me wipe out my enire hard drive for no reason.  Pretty nice Huh?