I Bought a stick of memory for my friends PC, 256MB....her pc is a older dell which had 64MB of memory. It has the celerion procesor also.....Now....when she boots up she gets a vfat error...i dont know exactly the error......And I cant get in front of the pc to see it....she called me on the phone with all of this mess....anyway......what do I need to do???

Try reverting back to the original RAM (only). If it doesn't boot then I can only imagine that the memory isn't seated right or (less likely) some cable or other has got disturbed. If it does boot with the old RAM then the new RAM is the wrong spec for her machine in some way or other. Selecting RAM is something of a black art LOL. Derek.W

thanks for the reply Derek.....we tryed it with the old ram...still get the error...like i said, i'm not in front of her PC....not that would help,LOL...but i will try to get to her house and have a better look. If I cant get it going, how do i get it back to factory....like it was when she got it from dell?? and, can she do and upgrade to XP on that machine??

Probably best take it one step at a time. Something has clearly gone wrong which needs sorting out before any form of restore. Take a peek and make sure everything looks OK and that the original RAM is firmly in place. Collect the exact error message if you are still in trouble. I don't know if you've replaced RAM before but there is a definite "feel" when it properly seats into the socket. You don't have to push like mad but you do have to apply a firm and very definite even pressure once you are sure it is lined up properly. As for upgrades, any idea what the processor speed is? Derek.W

Forgive me labouring the point (one of my traits LOL) but oxide on RAM edge connectors and/or the socket can often play havok. You can get this when disturbing old RAM, or when inserting new RAM into a socket that has not been used for ages. Take the RAM in and out a few times because this often clears oxide. Another old trick is to get an ordinary pencil eraser and rub it over the RAM edge connectors to polish them up (blow any dust away afterwards). I could be on the wrong track here but if everything was working before the RAM was introduced then seating/edge connector trouble is the most likely culprit. Derek.W

reseat all cables & cards on motherboard, just in case were disturbed when putting ram in david

Once you eliminate the possibility of the memory not seated correctly, if you still get the VFAT error, go here; http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;139063