memory problem leads to system failure!

ivrytwr3 · 5 Jan 2011 at 12:26

I could do with some help and advice please for a colleague! A colleague has just called me to ask for some advice on a problem he is having with his home PC - he is 100 miles away, so i cannot get hands on with his machine and i also do not have the system specs (he will get them for me later today).

His home PC is approx 5 years old and he states he does not want to purchase a new one as all he does is store photos music and browse the net. I believe it has 512mb RAM and 250gb hard drive (!)

He started having problems browsing and opening/closing the system - the shut down would go one line at a time on the screen and took an age to close down. So he went online, entered his spec and was advised on what memory he required. He purchased 2gb of memory.

He tried to install the memory but stated that it would not physically fit - he said the old memory had a hole in the middle of the stick and the new one has a hole approx 3/4 of the way up the stick (ha! ha!) I guess he ordered DDR?

So he has put his old memory back in and now when he boots up he gets messages that the system cannot find his hard drive, no memory etc.

And that is where we are at at present. I have advised him to double check he has inserted the memory fully and check that he hasn't dislodged any cables, failing that, what would you advise next? And also, i recall there is a prog you can install that will tell you the specs of your machine and what you would need to buy should you want to upgrade something - i don't remember the name of the prog!

Any comments/advice welcome.

RJC · 5 Jan 2011 at 12:29

Wonder if it's worth doing a CMOS reset.

Once he gets operational donwload cpu-z this will give cpu details and motherboard.

95thrifles · 5 Jan 2011 at 12:29

Yeah dbl check all cables, incl HDD, make sure he didnt knock any when doing memory
do a clrcmos
the program you mean (i think) is cpu-z, it will tell you mobo which you can then google

ivrytwr3 · 5 Jan 2011 at 12:36

cpu-z - that's the one!

ran_out · 5 Jan 2011 at 12:42

If I had to guess based on that, i'd go with what you said - he has probably dislodged a cable or 2 putting the ram in place, or hasn't pushed both sticks of ram all the way down - common mistakes someone could make if they haven't done this sort of thing before.

If he is sure that all the cables are pushed firmly in place and ram is in place correctly then checking bios screen to see if the HDD is detected would be my next step, if the HDD is detected in bios but it's still not booting, then would need to see what the message he is seeing says exactly.

If the PC used to work fine for what he needs and nothing else changed when it started giving poor performance, then cleaning out dust from the case and doing a clean install of OS may have been better step to take before buying new parts.