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Dell Inspiron 1520 Memory Issues
Hi, I am in pretty desperate need of help here, so any help to bail me out of this problem will be much appreiciated.
Neighbour came over the night before with their laptop (the Inspiron 1520) asking for the memory to be upgraded. They already had bought the RAM so it was just a question of me replacing it. I followed the procedures I had found to replace the RAM, and then tried to boot up the laptop.
There was nothing. The only thing that happens is a flashing caps lock light, and then the laptop switches off after about a minute.
I replaced the new RAM back with the old RAM to try and boot into the computer, and I still get just the flashing caps lock.
I've tried all booting configurations with the RAM - even trying to start up with no RAM in there, but that just fails completely.
I have read that the motherboard may be faulty, but if I return a broken laptop - that was working perfectly fine to my neighbour - then its going to look like I have broken it (Even though I'm convinced I followed the instructions perfectly. I have upgraded many conponenents on laptops and desktop, with out anything going wrong, and your not even given any access to the motherboard when replacing the Dell's RAM, so I couldn't have damaged that).
The laptop is also well out of warranty.
Any advice?
EDIT: I should also say I have tried reseating all conponenets on the motherboard aswell.
Spongebob92
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December 31st, 2010 04:00
I've tried this with both the old and the new RAM in both RAM slots. Nothing is bringing the laptop to life.
Apparently the flashing Caps lock means somethings wrong with the memory, so it being the Gfx card seems unlikely (however, I'm not ruling anything out).
Not looking forward to taking it over the the neighbour, cause it's going to look like I have broken it, however I'm posistive I haven't done anything to cause the laptop to not even boot. Im convinved its just an old'ish laptop thats gone dead, and its a coicidence it happened to do it when I replaced the memory.
vans113
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December 31st, 2010 04:00
Is the ram inserted all the way? I've seen computers beep before and turn off with no ram detected. Does it even go to load the bios? if so it is proboley decting the ram if not and its just a black screen and turns off and it was working before the ram was took out than its proboley just not dectecting the ram i would make sure it's inserted correctly. put it in at a 45 degree angle and push down firm until you feel it lock into place and then push it down towards the motherboard until it locks until place you should hear a clicking noise. hope this helps
Spongebob92
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December 31st, 2010 04:00
The RAM seems to be inserted the whole way, and no, the screen will not turn on at all. There isn't any access to the BIOS or anything.
vans113
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December 31st, 2010 04:00
the ram could be bad, just because its new dosnt mean its working, try inserting only 1 peice of the old ram at a time and try booting and see if anything happens if so the ram is proboley bad if not the graphics card could have went bad from my guess nivida graphics crads in labtops are known for this
ejn63
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December 31st, 2010 05:00
Remove the battery and unplug. Hold the power button for 30 sec. Then reseat both memory modules. Try powering up again.
Spongebob92
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December 31st, 2010 05:00
No, it still comes up with a flashing caps lock and a blank screen. Thanks for helping though.
ejn63
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December 31st, 2010 10:00
You can try the memory modules one at a time in each socket to see if one of the sockets is bad -- other than that, if you know the memory is OK, there's not much you do other than replace the system board.
Spongebob92
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December 31st, 2010 10:00
Bump. Sorry, I just gotta really get this laptop back to its owners in a working state.
vans113
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December 31st, 2010 20:00
also i would add try taking the ram out and cleaning the ram slots on the motherboard with some compressed air just to make sure no dust is present
vans113
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December 31st, 2010 20:00
yes i would try one ram stick at a time, and not saying this could have cause it but static electricty kills computers so if you didnt discharge any static electricty you had on you and you went in there touching the motherboard and all it could have done some damage just saying to throw that out there