A Land Far Away

Hi there all--- gonna need a bit of help

So I shut down my Dell XPS L501x laptop this morning and head to work. When I try to boot it up later it just stays black.

It gives me 2 short beeps over and over again.

Here's what I've learned so far (from the internetz). 2 short beeps is Dell's "Your RAM is bad" warning.

So I took the back off and checked it out running some experiments. I have two slots that the RAM go into. Eventually I figure through testing that both RAM sticks work well but..... neither one works in RAM slot #1, only in #2.

So now I have to decide how to proceed. It looks like I had one 2GB RAM in one and a 4GB RAM in the other. Should I try to fix the thing the that the RAM plug into (the fact that I don't know what the name of that "thing" is tells you that I would probably be hiring out that job ) ? Should I just limp along with only the one slot? Should I buy a new RAM and put it in the one functional slot?

All help welcomed! Thanks!







EDIT: It seems that it only works with the 2GB Ram and only in the top slot.

use a can of compressed air, and clean all the contacts.

Also clean the fan. (It cant hurt)

Will do!

Well, the beeps just tell you what you've already observed-- something is wrong with your memory. You can try different combinations and such, but it might be that you've got a bad chip, a wrong chip, a bad circuit, got them plugged in in an unexpected order. Given what you've got in hand, best you can do is test the different combinations and see what starts up.

Air blasting FTW!

Seems to be working just fine now!

While you've got the can and the thing opened up, I'd be sure to blast any heatsinks you find. Typically the CPU and the video card are prone to getting clogged and causing overheating.

I had some RAM issues with the laptop I'm using now. Even a bit of oil from my fingerprints on the metal contacts on the RAM sticks prevented one from registering. Make sure there is no dust in there and that the metal contacts are free of oil or other debris. Finally, make sure they are fully seated/inserted and should be good to go. Glad you got it fixed!

I spoke too soon. When I got back tonight it was back to angry beeping.

Will troubleshoot in the am

Two new RAM sticks and good air blasting of everything I could reach with the little probe and all seems to be good as new!