[scotty8825]

A friend of mine who owns a dell wanted to add 512MB DDR-Ram to his computer. He told me he went to comp usa and they told him the right ram to get. He said he went home and installed the ram stick, turn on his computer and he thinks it "fried" because he smelt a funny smell and heard a few weird noises. It seems to me that its obvious something went wrong lol.... but can adding ram fry computer because ive never heard of it, he says the computer will turn on but nothing comes up its only a blank screen. If it is impossible for ram to fry a computer what other problem might this be, he is bring his computer over tom to my house to see if i can get anything done to it, and i was thinking maybe of resetting the cmos only problem is ive never done that either way i think it would be worth a try so if any one could give some details with that or any other things i could try that would be great.

thanks

 

[pjlietz]

If he installed it upside down it could fry it. Also if his rig uses Rambus ram and they sold his DDR ram that would do it to. As for clearing the cmos just pull the little battery out on the mobo for a few seconds and reinstall it.

 

[Zipnogg]

Is your friend an experienced computer user?

When he brings it over, just make sure that the RAM is all the way in. And ask your friend if he made sure that the source of power (PSU) was completely cut off from electricity before he put the RAM in.

Anything is possible when messing with a computer equipment. Although it seems unlikely, accidents do happen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pjlietz If he installed it upside down it could fry it.

But the clips won't fit in if the RAM were upside down. No?

@scotty: About CMOS clearing. It's good to use the jumper (is there even a jumper on the prebuilt-computer mobo??), but for a prebuilt, I find it better to take out the battery and wait about 5 minutes before putting it back in.

 

[Orange]

I doubt it, does it turn on without it....if so go and download CPUz and check for what kind of ram he has, and see if it matched up with what he bought

it would be inder SPD and then in MaxBandwidth.....and the such as PC3200.....

and if not then disconnect to psu cable and wait about 10 sec. then connect it and restart the computer....

 

[pjlietz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zipnogg But the clips won't fit in if the RAM were upside down. No?

I've seen it happen with DDR and SD Ram, if you push it hard enough the clips will engage

Edit: Thanks Taeric.

 

[Zipnogg]

OH NOOOOO!!!!!!!!

 

[Lucid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pjlietz I've seen it happen with DDR and SD Ram, if you push it hard enough the clips will engage Edit: Thanks Taeric.

'

tyeah if yoiu have your trusty hammer around, thats about the only way ddr will fit in the SD slots and about the only way SD will fit in to DDR slots...

people should be able to count the spces o nthe ram chip, and use common sence" wait... that one has two spaces and this one in my hand has only one.... oh well may as well try anways,,,"... *Sigh*.