inspiron 5150 memory read/write failure

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by sutekh, Jan 24, 2010.

  1. sutekh

    sutekh Private E-2

    Hello

    I have a Dell inspiron 5150 laptop which refuses to boot, giving me memory read write failures before it finishes the POST screen, then saying 'system memory has been changed' and freezing there. i have naturally tried running it with different RAM modules in different slots, having no affect even with new confirmed working RAM. my initial thought was that its a pretty much unfixable motherboard fault, but if anyone has any suggestions other than buy a new laptop i would be very interested to hear them

    thanks.
     
  2. scajjr

    scajjr Sergeant

    Try going into the BIOS when you first power it up (F2 key I believe) with the new ram. That may let the BIOS see and store the memory info. See if it boots normally after that.

    Sam
     
  3. sutekh

    sutekh Private E-2

    Well, most of the time it won't let me into the BIOS because the problem occurs during the POST. however I did manage to enter the BIOS and exit it with the new ram, on the next boot it did allow me to enter the OS, however it crashed soon after booting and the problem is still there. i have not been able to enter the BIOS since then.
     
  4. Rikky

    Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

    Next time you get it to boot into bios check what options your allowed to change regarding memory,laptops usually have few options regarding ram clock speed but you may get lucky,post what options are available in your next post,post the make and model of the memory your trying to install and include the ram timings on the side of the chips these look like 3-3-3-8,do the same with your old memory and specs of your laptop,which chipset your using,if your unsure post the make and model of your laptop and I'll have a look.

    Can you post some background regarding the problem,start with my laptop was working perfectly then it,or then I ect.

    In the mean time only use ONE stick of memory to try and enter bios or troubleshoot,try fail safe options in bios again if you can enter bios.

    Welcome to the forum.

    At a guess I'd say your old memory has died and your new memory is uncompatible.
     
  5. sutekh

    sutekh Private E-2

    being a dell bios there are no options regarding memory (or CPU) clock speeds, the memory i am trying to install is a 1 gig stick of PNY technologies SODIMMDDR 333 mghz, the old ram is 2x 256 sticks of proMOS technologies DDR-333mghz.

    The laptop had both sticks in when i first had it, the laptop then stopped booting (crash during windows xp boot). i took one stick of the ram out and it booted fine, i recovered all my data and then decided to leave it for a while.

    About a year later i decided to see if ubuntu would work on it, after i had installed ubuntu (9.04) it needed to reboot to finish setup (i am not new to linux, i use arch on my desktop and am pretty sure the issue does not lie here). i restarted it and it gave me the errors for the first time. as they are pretty obviously ram related i wondered if the other stick might be more willing to work, it wasn't.

    i then thought that both sticks must have become somehow corrupted, so asked a friend of mine if he had any DDR1 laptop ram lying around. he gave me another stick of 256 mhz, which the laptop totally failed to recognise (behaves as though no ram is installed at all if only that stick is in). i figured that the stick was either faulty as well or incompatible.

    a week ago a friend of my asked me to help him set up his new laptop. i asked if i could salvage the ram from his old one and he said yes, the ram was working before i pulled it out of that laptop. it still does not boot. it may be worth noting that the bios screen is often distorted, that occasionally the memory read write failures have the expecting and read values as the same and that sometimes the loading bar on the bios screen continues on a new line until the whole of the bottom of the screen is covered by it.

    the computer is a dell inspiron 5150 laptop with a Intel 852 PM chipset, which supports a 333Mhz system bus

    sorry for wall of text.
     
  6. Rikky

    Rikky Wile E. Coyote - One of a kind

    Well that laptop is 7 years old so you got a half decent run out of it,you've obviously tried enough combinations of different ram to get one that should work pointing toward a mobo failure.

    Unless you have an identical or similar laptop you can't start exchanging bits to troubleshoot,one thing to try would be removing the cmos battery for 10 secs then trying to boot or replacing the battery completely,one from a desktop will service until you can buy a new one they can start dying after 3 years let alone 7.

    Good luck,I'll read over the thread again tomorrow see if I can think of anything.
     
  7. sutekh

    sutekh Private E-2

    if you think i got a good run out of that laptop you should see my latitude CPx circa 1998, held together with duct tape, but still working as i am using it to type this post :).
    Unfortunately the CMOS battery on the inspiron 5150 is soldered to the motherboard, making it extremely difficult to replace. I am increasingly of the opinion that the motherboard or onboard graphics is toasted, as i first thought.
     

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