DELL Dimension memory problems Help Appreciated

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by ukgatecrasher, Nov 1, 2007.

  1. ukgatecrasher

    ukgatecrasher Private E-2

    Hi everyone,

    I'm Shaun and from the UK. I have a problem with My Dell Dimension 9200 and would appreciate a little advice.

    Its a bit of a story so i'll start at the beggining.

    The PC came with XP installed and had 2x512mb pc2 4200 sticks of ram.

    Shortly after I bought it they started a promotion giving away Vista, unfortunatly I missed out but decided to buy it anyway. I bought the premium version and installed it and all was well.

    The PC booted up quickly and ran quite well for what i needed it for.

    After about 8 months or so the boot up seemd to take ages, leaving me with a blank screen for well over a minute before evenetually loading. I put up with this for a while but eventually decided to re format and re install Vista hoping it would solve the problem (the Vista update was also being a problem and was not updating for over a month).

    After the Re install there was no improvement with the boot up time but update was (and still is) working ok.

    At some point and Im not sure when this was, I seem to remember seeing a memory problem message in a pop up window but I didnt takle a lot of notice at the time.

    Recently a friend told me about a program called memtest, which I downloaded and ran. This program told me that there was problems with the memory, so i decided to splash out on some more memory.

    I checked the crucial site and found it was compatible with Up to DDR2 PC2 6400 memory. In the end I bought two 1gb sticks of OCZ PC2 6400 platinum revision 2 4-4-4-15 ram from Ebuyer (uk company).

    Now heres the problem. No matter which way round I put in the ram (there are 4 compatible slots) all I get is a blank screen. It does not even switch the monitor on.

    At one point when I tried one stick on its own I did get a message on the monitor which just said memory and had a flashing cursor after it but no keystrokes did anything.

    But now Whatever i try I get nothing whatsoever.

    When I put the old ram back in I can still boot up (although slowly).

    Sorry its a long post, but as I dont know a great deal about computers I thought it best to include everything just in case it was important.

    I would really appreciate any advice.

    Thanks, Shaun.
     
  2. ralph3124

    ralph3124 Private First Class

    In order to run, you're going to have to put the original memory in.

    Download a system identifier (go to download.com and look for SISANDRA-or something to that effect that will (free, of course) tell you what's installed in your DELL). You can also go to the DELL.com & run their program to tell you what's installed.
    What we're looking for is the motherboard identifier-who makes it & model #.
    Then, go to the motherboard's website & download the specs. What we're looking for here is the memory configuration. The slots may be only able to take 256k each for a total of 1G. By putting in 1G memory in each slot may not work because of their limitations-causing the problems you site.

    Hope this helps
     
  3. Cat_w_9_lives

    Cat_w_9_lives Major KittyCat

    Hi Shaun and Welcome to MG's,

    Your system does not support the OCZ memory you purchased.

    http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27823&highlight=dell+9200

    I have looked at other memory tools and comes down to same thing, not supported.
    Hopefully you can return and purchase one of the crucial recommended upgrades locally.

    Your pc will take 2x1GB, just not the OCZ

    "2 GB (2 x 1 GB) Memory Module Kit for Dell XPS 410 / Dimension 9200 Desktops"
    http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...9&category_id=4325&mfgpid=193392&chassisid=-1
     
  4. ukgatecrasher

    ukgatecrasher Private E-2

    Thanks for you quick response Ralph 3124 and Cat_w_9_lives.

    I had checked that it could take that size of memory but didn’t know that certain brands would not work on the Dell without turning up the voltage.

    As a double check I looked in the Bios and there is indeed nowhere that this can be adjusted.

    Returns are a bit ‘messy’ with ebuyer so I’ll stick em on Ebay, they were a good price so I shouldn’t take too much of a hit.

    Thanks again for taking the time to reply, and supplying the links !!!
     

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