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General discussion

Power supply or motherboard????

Jan 16, 2005 11:03PM PST

Please help. I have a Dell Dimension 4100. Just installed new ethernet card, that went fine. Went to install additional memory and had the wrong type. Well, bro-in-law thought he would help and tried to put the memory in anyway and start it up. System tries to start up then does nothing. I catch him and look in the case. The new memory is not really seated correctly (because it's the wrong kind!!!!!)

I take out the wrong memory and try to start her up. I get initial lights, etc, monitor, then nothing. You can hear one fan running but I get nothing else. I'm going to replace the power supply first and go from there.

Now I'm wondering if my bro-in-law could have shorted out my motherboard with his shenanigans.

Any suggestions?

Discussion is locked

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Power supply or motherboard????
Jan 17, 2005 12:01AM PST

You might try reinstalling windows with the recover cd or windows cd provided by dell. Turn the PC on and insert the disk.Then turn the PC off, wait a few seconds and then turn it back on and boot from the cd.If you get the lights and monitor initially, then I wouldnt think there would be a problem with the power supply. Also check and make sure that the hard drive power supply is connected. Just a few things that may help......

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recovery CD
Jan 17, 2005 1:06AM PST

Tried that - nothing. Any other suggestions?

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If someone tried to force the incorrect
Jan 17, 2005 2:39AM PST

memory into a slot, they may have bent some of the pins in the mobo's memory connector and shorted some pins together on the memory bus. Study the connector interior with good lighting to see if any contacts are bent. Possibly could clear the problem but then not be able to use that memory slot anymore.

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bent pins
Jan 17, 2005 2:41AM PST

Will try that tonight - thanks.

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BEEP BEEP BEEP
Jan 17, 2005 9:24PM PST

Ok, so no bent pins. I unhooked then rehooked everything back up. I get full power to everything. Now nothing will come up, just get a beep, beep, beep. So I put in the recovery disk from Dell, waited, shut down, waited, then brought it back up. Nothing, just beep, beep, beep. Any suggestions/thoughts?

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Those beeps mean something...
Jan 18, 2005 1:13AM PST