ok so i recently just bought a new kingston 1g DDR RAM upgrade for what i already had (512mb Samsung - came with computer) so i tried installing it yesterday and it doesnt work i just got a black screen so i tried taking it out and reinserting the old ram in the origional slot, and now nomatter if one or both ram are in or whatever slot they are in all i get is a black screen and long repetative beeping

any suggestions?

i dont know an awful lot about computers but i just did what i was told to do by friends and the guy shop i bought it from, however i do know i nudged the graphics card out with my hand but i put it back in position, has it anything to do with my problem?

In my experience, the long beeping is faulty or incompatible memory. As you have put your original ram back in, possibly, that is now faulty.
Have you made sure the ram is locked properly in place? Have the clips located properly?
Did you ground yourself before you touched the ram?
With no ram, you will see nothing on the screen.

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I doubt the original RAM was damaged, but there *may* be an incompatibility prob with the new RAM. Since you didn't post the make/model of your board or the make/model of RAM you bought (DDR266, DDR333, DDR400, etc), we have nothing to go on.

However, my guess is the prob has to do with the video card, not the RAM...more than likely you didn't reseat it fully in it's slot.

in reply to clive's response, yes its been locked in properly and i did ground myself before touching it, and in response to jam im not entirely sure of the make/model but ill have a look and try to find something but the video card was reseated properly as far as i can tell.
i have spoken to a few friends and they say there has been the possibility that i have fried my motherboard... is this possible or just a bad guess?

ok so ive had a look around but i cannot find any information on the chips, is there anywhere i can find the information?

I highly doubt you fried the motherboard. Try taking the video card out completely, then put it back in again. And make sure the computer is off & unplugged whenever messing around inside.

ok tried the video card again and still same outcome

What typing of beep code are you getting? Is it a constant beep, beep, beep, etc...that generally indicates a RAM error. Try reseating the RAM. Some recommend carefully cleaning the contacts on the RAM module with a pencil eraser.

If the beep code is 1 long, 2 short, it's the video card.

Those beep codes are for the Award BIOS, if you have something else (AMI or Phoenix for example), the codes will be different:

http://bioscentral.com/beepcodes/aw...

the beeps are long beep, beep beep, and they last about 3/4ish seconds each beep, is a pencil eraser not risky for cleaning components? just doesnt seem very safe for me but you seem to know your stuff

ok i was wrong about the beeps its about 7 second beep with 3-4 sec break betwen beeps

You can try removing the battery on the motherboard. To reset the CMOS. Leave it out for half an hour.

There might be a label stuck on to the motherboard, google it, to get some idea of the manufacturer.

I have had problems with RAM compatibility, there are low density versions & high density.

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If you get any beeps at all your motherboard is not fried. It takes a working motherboard and CPU to get the beeps.

And like said before, it's almost certain to be a RAM or video card problem.

ok thanks for the help ill, take the new ram back to the store in the morning when its open and do a bit of complaining hehe

Do NOT remove the battery, especially if you're unfamiliar with the BIOS. Doing so will reset the BIOS to it's default settings & default settings are NOT optimal. You would then have to access the BIOS & correct them again.

Your problem is related to the RAM or the video card. If you touched nothing else, those are the two components you should be concerned with.

clive_pearce,

You do not have to "leave it out for half an hour". This is a common misconception that I see repeated all the time...some people say several miuntes, some say 1/2 hr, some say several hours, some say 24 hrs. That's ridiculous. The BIOS will reset in a matter of seconds once the battery is removed, provided the power cord is unplugged. And you neglected to say that the power cord MUST be unplugged.

"take the new ram back to the store in the morning when its open and do a bit of complaining"

Did you get the system to work with the old RAM?

jam, I guess you are right, he doesn't have to leave the battery out for half an hour. I assumed, he wouldn't open up the pc with the mains lead plugged in.
I had a problem once when I put in some extra memory, it seemed to die. I put the original ram back in, & no beeps nothing. After consulting this forum, it was suggested I remove the battery. This cured the problem.
I agree with you, there is no point going back to the shop, if the original ram doesn't work.

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ok well luckily i didnt want to go resetting anything so i havnt touched the battery yet, and no i havnt managed to get the old ram working again

"i havnt managed to get the old ram working again"

Then the problem probably isn't the new RAM, unless you bought the wrong type of RAM & attempted to install it (for example, DDR2 in a DDR1 slot), or you installed it backwards.

yea ddr1 is definatly what is it and definatly in the right place

Let me see if I have this straight... After you found out that the new chip didn't work, you put the old one back in and now the old one doesn't work either? It doesn't make sense that a new chip would make an old chip not work anymore. Do either one of your chips work in another computer that you can try? That way, you can try to isolate the problem to one or more of the chips. If both chips function fine in another computer, AND the video card is seated and working properly (you could always test boot the pc with a different gfx card if you're not sure), AND the cmos was cleared, that kind of narrows things down to your slots, DDR1/DDR2 compatibility, and if that's correct...

I can't imagine that a memory chip would harm a mobo or mobo slot - I've never heard of that. But we need to isolate the problem to either one of the chips, or even the mobo (which, I know, would be strange, but not completely outside the realm of possiblility.)

I would find a way to test the chips outside of that computer to verify that they are both 100% working (memtest86). Then we can go from there.

unfortunatly i dont have another computer to test the chips on but i was speaking to a friend and he has told me that he can run a full health check on the system for me to see what the problem is but he reckons the problem is the slots

You can run memtest86 from a bootable cd, like ubcd4win.

Or download from here, http://www.memtest86.com/

I don't believe putting in incompatible ram, will destroy the motherboard.

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well i cant really do either since the screen is black and doesnt change so i wount be able to see anything

If after testing, you find that the ram & video card are ok.
I would still think removing the battery can't do any harm.
The next step I suppose would be to try the motherboard, but before you spend money on one, if you suspect the motherboard, it can't break it any more.
Setting the bios is not that difficult, the time would be wrong, but there is probably a default or optimum settings in the bios.
Yesterday I played with my bios, the computer beeped & there was no display. I removed the battery & got it working again.
Whatever you decide, good luck & post back if you have any luck.

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ok thanks but whats this BIOS you keep talking about, is it going to change anything major inside the computer?
*as in files etc*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS

Basically, before the computer starts to load the software from the hard disk, there is a Basic Input/Output System.
This has the basic hardware configuration. It has settings for what memory, optical drives hard disk you have. Changing this should not change or alter any files on the hard disk.
By removing the battery, (take anti static precautions) the BIOS will go back to the original values. So the date & time will change. You have to navigate through the setup using only the keyboard, the mouse will not work.
If you get to the stage where you can see the screen, it will be better than what you have now.
Don't worry about changing any settings until you have windows up & running, you can always change the BIOS later.
If, this works, you will see a message something like press delete key to enter setup. This will appear, a couple of seconds after you turn the pc on.
The key to press will depend on your pc.
But, if after removing the battery, you see the message, ignore it, & hopefully, windows will load from the hard disk.
Good luck.

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