Inspiron 5100 won't boot after RAM upgrade

ncpa,

  Thanks so much for coming back to this thread and helping me out!  I LOVE my old 5100 and I am so excited about this RAM upgrade. I am led to believe that it will make a big difference in it's performance. I ordered my new RAM from Dell the other day and it should be here soon. I will check it against the specs you have told us about. Hopefully Dell knows enough to send the right ones! I know I should have waited but I was sort of anxious so I went ahead and ordered them before you had responded here. We'll see what they send, I guess! I'm especially thankful that you mentioned the difference between the sets that you tried! That must be the key to why some RAM worked and others did not. 266 instead of 333. I'll check it out when my new RAM arrives........................

   BTW, I installed Ubuntu on my old 5100 recently. It is so cool! It works wonderfully with the 512 RAM that "Ole Blue" has now. I expect that 1Gig will make it run even better! Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!

Warmly,

Jim

Linda,

  Well, it seems that I ordered the exact same RAM that didn't work for you. I had even entered my service number, just the same way you did. I guess I had supposed that they might have made a correction after having shipped the wrong memory to you, but I guess not. I suppose there might be some quirky little difference between your laptop and mine that might allow mine to work when yours didn't.....but I doubt it.

    I found a website using the Toshiba numbers you so very kindly posted and found the correct memory for much less (why would Dell mark up their shipping so much? Overnight shipping at this other place was $6 less than the 2 day shipping from Dell! Why, Dell? Why?) The memory was $7 less per stick, too. I just Googled the number you provided and found some very quickly. Both shipments (Dell's and the other place's) are due to arrive on the same day and I will try both sets of RAM and see which of them work in my computer. I'll post the results here!

You're so sweet for helping me out with this, Linda! I have "babied" my 5100 during its life and it is in pristine condition. A RAM upgrade and my new Ubuntu OS will make this laptop my "go-to" computer for many tasks again. I am glad to still have it around!

Regards,

Jim

Update-Received my Dell RAM, installed it, and it does not work. Part # is SNP6G649C/512.

The ones from the Dell website are wrong, even if you enter your service tag they send you the wrong RAM. Just like they did for Linda (ncpa), Dell sent me memory that will not work in my 5100.

Here's hoping that the other one's I've ordered (from a different source) will work! They are the slower ones (PC2100) vice the faster ones (PC2700).

I'll keep you posted!

Jim

Found a reference that the 5100 will NOT run with faster RAM. Must use the PC2100.

Alaso found someone who was successful using 2GB RAM. This seems typical on Dells. You can generally use more RAM than they say is the max. Probably a borderline issue, with some working and some not working, so they go the conservative route.

Hello KirkD!

That's for joining in on this thread that I seem to have hijacked! I really appreciate your input. Is the reference that you found available on line? If so, can you post a link to it?

   BTW, just another update. I called Dell to get a return authorization for the incorrect RAM that I received. They were only too happy to refund my purchase price but they did NOT want to refund my shipping costs (I had paid extra to get 2 Day shipping. $21.99, to be exact) When I asked why they would not refund my shipping costs, I was told that because I had placed the order online, that it must be that I had screwed up somehow and ordered the wrong part. I had to, very patiently and repeatedly, tell the heavily accented fellow on the other end of the line that I had merely entered my computer's service number and had ordered the RAM that was suggested by Dell for my particular service number. It took me a while to convince this fellow that the error was not mine, that I had only purchased what had been recommended for my computer by the website, again, based on it's service number. Finally they agreed to also refund my shipping costs, but not without a bit of aggravation on my part first! Sheesh!

  Dell, I love you. I have 6 Dell computers in my house as I write this. But sometimes you make things very difficult! Needlessly!

Regards,

Jim

It worked! I received my PC2100 RAM yesterday, installed it, and my 5100 works fine.

Thanks to everyone for their help and insights. Hopefully, this thread will show up in someone else's search results when they go to upgrade the RAM on their 5100 and it will save them a bunch of time and aggravation!

Regards,

Jim

Thanks to you all, I'm experiencing the same issue. I'm working with Sweet Memory is SF and hopefully they can resolve for me today.  If not, I'm joining the bandwagon!! Thanks again

    Perhaps you could direct your computer repairers to this thread so that they do not make the same mistakes that I (and others) have made. Remember, you have to have the latest BIOS (A32) for the RAM upgrade to work and you must upgrade from the original A02 Phoenix SEQUENTIALLY, meaning you must install the intermediate A22 upgrade first (must be done by boot disc!) and then finally an upgrade to A32 (can be done more easily, I loaded mine onto my desktop) The BIOS upgrades have to be done in a Windows environment (I had to uninstall Ubuntu and reload Windows XP) Once the BIOS updates were accomplished I started the attempts at the RAM upgrade. Remember, you can only use the PC2100 RAM, the faster PC2700 will NOT work in your 5100. Yikes! Sounds like a big pain in the backside, doesn't it?

   Was it worth it? All this grief? The OS changes? The BIOS updates? The failed RAM upgrade attempts? The hours spent googling trying to find all the required info? YES! I love my "Old Blue" laptop! I reinstalled Ubuntu on it (9.04 Jackalope is the most recent Ubuntu that will work on the 5100. The more recent 9.10 Koala requires more video RAM than my 5100 offers and I haven't found a suitable workaround for this issue. Yet.) and I love it! It is great to have my old laptop back up and running smoothly and it's now faster than it ever was!

Good luck to you! And thanks again to all those who provided all the help and info in this thread.

mgp001,

I also attempted to upgrade directly to the A32 BIOS and I received the same error message that you did. Only after some serious googling and searching did I find out why..............You must upgrade the BIOS in steps. You cannot upgrade (update, whatever) directly to the A32 BIOS from your original Phoenix BIOS. You must upgrade in steps, first upgrading to the intermediate A22 BIOS. You must use a bootable disc for this BIOS upgrade. It's sort of a pain in the crevice, but it's the only way that you can ultimately upgrade to your desired A32 BIOS. Google "Dell BIOS A22 Upgrade" or any reasonable facsimile thereof and you will find dozens of pages describing the disc burning and BIOS upgrading process. Once you have successfully updated (upgraded, whatever) to the A22 BIOS you may then (and only then) upgrade to the A32 BIOS, which is required for your RAM upgrade. The A32 update is a bit easier and can be downloaded directly to your desktop. Double click the icon and your BIOS will automatically upgrade to A32. I'd disconnect my mouse for either procedure and use the touchpad, just so you don't accidentally bump the mouse and damage your system during these BIOS upgrades (updates, whatever) Evidently, moving your mouse or touching a key during a BIOS upgrade may seriously damage your system! Use caution, unplug your mouse. Just a thought.

Whew! So once you have upgraded your BIOS to A32, your 5100 will accept a RAM upgrade, if you have the correct RAM, that is. You'll most likely have to find a different source for your RAM sticks-Dell continually sends out the wrong parts for a 5100 RAM upgrade, as you already know. Using the information that my new best friend Linda provided elsewhere in this thread about RAM that worked for her, I was able to search and find suitable RAM sticks without any problem at all. Remember, the RAM must be PC2100, nothing faster than that will work. I found some easily by searching "KTT3614/512"-that's the number that Linda (bless her heart) provided from the RAM that worked for her. Her other info was useful also "512 MB-266MHz-SO DIMM 200 pin".  The actual physical replacing of the RAM is pretty simple. A small phillips head screwdriver is all that's required to do the job.

I hope all this info is of some use to you. Stay with it! It sucks (as we Americans say) to have to go through all these steps, but the rewards are worth it!

BTW, I changed my OS to a Linux distro called Mint 7 (after I performed the BIOS upgrades, that is) It's fun, fast, easy, and best of all FREE! I can't recommend it enough.

Good luck to you,

Jim

You have to upgrade to BIOS A22 first. Then you will be able upgrade to BIOS A32 and you will be able to see PC2700 RAM

You have to upgrade to BIOS A22 first. Then you will be able upgrade to BIOS A32 and you will be able to see PC2700 RAM

No. Reread the thread. PC2700 RAM will not work in the 5100. PC2100 only. That's why everyone is having trouble. Because Dell sends everyone PC2700 RAM AND IT WILL NOT WORK IN THE 5100. One contributer even claims that he found a reference which explains why this is so, but sadly he didn't post a link.

And yes, you have to upgrade to BIOS A22 first before you can upgrade to A32. That's been discussed.

I currently have a my daughters 5100 running Gskill PC2700 memory with Bios A32

Hi Jim,

To confirm what you (Jiminator160) and others have said, if you click on

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/previousversions.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4_5100&releaseid=R87515&formatid=-1&deviceid=5466&formatcnt=2&dateid=-1&releasetype=BIOS&servicetag=&typeid=-1&catid=1&libid=1&impid=-1&osl=en&vercnt=8&os=WW1&checkFormat=false

this shows a list of the different versions of the BIOS for the Inspiron 5100 that are available. When going through these, from A32 backwards, you get to A28 which is the highest version containing the following under “important information”:

Note: You must update your BIOS to version A22 prior to attempting to upgrade to BIOS versions A23 and higher.

So, if you then look up “important information” for version A22 by clicking on

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R65450&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4_5100&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=5466&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=8&catid=1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=1&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=85187

you may find that Dell offer to send a bootable CD to upgrade to version A22. In order to save myself hassle burning CD’s or writing floppies I ordered this on 15 March 2010. As of 27 March 2010 I’m still waiting for this. However, I could self-help myself here if I wanted to.

The technical support guy I spoke to on 15 March 2010 put it to me that I could upgrade from my version A06 to A32. The technical support lady I spoke to on 23 March 2010 wasn’t aware of the need to go via A22 either.

So this leaves the question of the memory speed. Why do Dell seem to not read their own important information and send out the wrong stuff? 

I think I’ll stick with my 2 x 256MB.  

Mike