Dell Inspiron 3500 laptop revisited

trying to get this old laptop up and running. but it just hangs and hangs and hang. i've reformatted, tried installing windows 98, tried installing windows 3.11 for workgroups. nothing. thee is an error message pooping up as soon as the laptop begins to boot up. it reads:

"AMOUNT OF SYSTEM MEMORY HAS CHANGED OR THE SUSPEND-TO-DISK FILE IS ABSENT. SEE "S-T-D" FILE IN ONLINE, USER'S GUIDE FOR INSTRUCTIONS. ERROR 0232. EXTENDED RAM FAILED AT OFFSET."

anyone know what that means... any way to fix it, or is this laptop dead?

 

RAM problem.
Have you altered the ram at all? ie. added more, changed modules?
How much RAM is currently installed? Dell site says 256 max.

Try resetting the bios/cmos (not sure if there's an easy way to do this on the inspiron).
Try reseating the ram.
If there is 2 modules try each module on it's own in each slot.

 

i want to say 192, but i'm not sure. my sister-in-law's ex-boyfriend did a number on this laptop and royally screwed it up.

I know there are 2 RAM cards. I'll try reseating them, maybe trying one at a time. not sure how to reset the bios. would that be in the bios setup?

thanks.

 

You can reset bios to defaults but what I really meant was removing the cmos battery to clear the cmos. Had a look for you and there isn't any jumpers or switches to reset it on that board so it means taking it apart, removing and then replacing the battery. As I said I don't know if it's accessable from the bottom cover or if you have to take the whole thing apart to do it.
I would check ram first and try with one module etc.
Then reset Bios to defaults. Write down settings before doing this. You do this from the BIOS screen. Usually a function key while in the BIOS screen.
Then try resetting the CMOS by removing the battery as a last resort.

Try those other things first and let us know how it goes.

 

will do. thanks!