desktop computer issues

[greenformula92]

Computer is a dell inspiron 546 and is about 3 years old

Problem: will not boot up, no display, power light continuously flashes and is giving beep codes. The code is a series of 4 short beeps over and over again.

Does anyone have an idea of what's going on or does someone know of a computer repair place that's reasonable, reliable and local to northern ocean county

[PolarBear]

You can download the manual from Dell and that should tell you what the beeping code is and what the failure should be.

**EDIT***
Did it for you
Four beeps — RAM Read/Write failure


Depending on your configuration its about $13-$20 per gig of RAM for that, depending what you buy or if you want
2 x 1GB
4 x 1GB
2 x 2GB
4 x 2GB
Those are the amounts you can add

[WildBillyT]

Before you buy anything, pull the sticks that are in there now and re-seat them.

[PolarBear]

Before you buy anything, pull the sticks that are in there now and re-seat them.

Good call, actually pull them out, then turn it on. Should beep twice to indicate no RAM. If it doesnt, then the motherboard is likely bad

[greenformula92]

the setup i have is 4 2GB RAM cards. and its full at that. I ordered it that way. I will try it when I get home and report back.

[PolarBear]

The 546 model said it had 4 DIMM slots, if you only h ave two you either have the lesser model number, or you got screwed

[greenformula92]

The 546 model said it had 4 DIMM slots, if you only h ave two you either have the lesser model number, or you got screwed

i have 4 slots. heres the deal. I removed all the cards and got the 2 beeps. then put them back in one by one. what i found is that whenever I put any memory in the two center slots I got 4 beeps. but if I use the two outside slots I am up and running. but it will use up the RAM quick since I am running windows 7 on only 4 GB on ram now instead of the 8 I have been. I am going to keep trying with the 2 center slots. Do I need to have both filled for it to work or can I fill just one slot and see what happens. I know if I put anything in the one it will give me the 4 beeps

[WildBillyT]

i have 4 slots. heres the deal. I removed all the cards and got the 2 beeps. then put them back in one by one. what i found is that whenever I put any memory in the two center slots I got 4 beeps. but if I use the two outside slots I am up and running. but it will use up the RAM quick since I am running windows 7 on only 4 GB on ram now instead of the 8 I have been. I am going to keep trying with the 2 center slots. Do I need to have both filled for it to work or can I fill just one slot and see what happens. I know if I put anything in the one it will give me the 4 beeps

If the outer slots work with all of the sticks (every combination of them) then your mobo is probably damaged.

If you can put higher capacity ram in it, try putting 2 4GB sticks in the outer slots.

[greenformula92]

Yeah that's what I was afraid of. Will it support 4gb sticks? Would it be worth it to replace the mobo and put 4 4gb sticks in it. The mobo is like 50 bucks off amazon for a direct replacement

[WildBillyT]

Yeah that's what I was afraid of. Will it support 4gb sticks? Would it be worth it to replace the mobo and put 4 4gb sticks in it. The mobo is like 50 bucks off amazon for a direct replacement

Neg on that, sorry. Can't use 4GB sticks.

[greenformula92]

well now all the sudden its working with all 4 in there, WTF!?

[WildBillyT]

well now all the sudden its working with all 4 in there, WTF!?

Could be a ton of stuff, from thermal failure to dusting to slight corrosion due to copper and humidity. Who knows.

[greenformula92]

Could be a ton of stuff, from thermal failure to dusting to slight corrosion due to copper and humidity. Who knows.

yeah it was working then it wasn't then it wou;dn't work with any of them in the 2nd slot then for the hell of it I snapped the 4th one in there and she fired right up like always. I'll leave the side off the case for now incase I have to mess with it again

[PolarBear]

Computers suck, don't try to understand it.

When it becomes unbearable I recommend trowing from a tall structure, or a hammer

[greenformula92]

Computers suck, don't try to understand it.

When it becomes unbearable I recommend trowing from a tall structure, or a hammer

I'll need to get all my music and pics off of it first. I can't lose that lol

[WildBillyT]

yeah it was working then it wasn't then it wou;dn't work with any of them in the 2nd slot then for the hell of it I snapped the 4th one in there and she fired right up like always. I'll leave the side off the case for now incase I have to mess with it again

Story of my life.

# of laptops I've had to cover in frozen peas to recover a crying college student's data, so far in 2013? 3

With more processing power comes more heat- just like with horsepower. Today's stuff runs so hot it can melt tabletops if you block the exhaust fan.


I would not count on it to last like this, but use it while you can. Get a nice name brand external HD and back up what's important.

[greenformula92]

just for the record this thing has a PSU fan, a case fan and a processor fan. and it was off for days when the issue occured

[WildBillyT]

Computers suck, don't try to understand it.

When it becomes unbearable I recommend trowing from a tall structure, or a hammer

One of my greatest days at work was when I had to "dispose" of a Dell Poweredge 2600 server. I took it all the way out to our empty dumpster, climbed up on some dirt next to it, lifted it up over my head with my arms extended and slammed it into the dumpster hard enough to accordion the case. When I got back in the building my ears were ringing, and people were asking if a transformer or something exploded outside because the windows all rattled.

I wish I took a picture. That thing got ****ed up.

[WildBillyT]

just for the record this thing has a PSU fan, a case fan and a processor fan. and it was off for days when the issue occured

Again, I'm just speculating.

But for the record, just because it has a fan doesn't mean it's spinning fast enough, or not stalling out.

[greenformula92]

One of my greatest days at work was when I had to "dispose" of a Dell Poweredge 2600 server. I took it all the way out to our empty dumpster, climbed up on some dirt next to it, lifted it up over my head with my arms extended and slammed it into the dumpster hard enough to accordion the case. When I got back in the building my ears were ringing, and people were asking if a transformer or something exploded outside because the windows all rattled.

I wish I took a picture. That thing got ****ed up.

Office Space much!!!

Again, I'm just speculating.

But for the record, just because it has a fan doesn't mean it's spinning fast enough, or not stalling out.

That is true. I will keep an eye on it

[NastyEllEssWon]

I'll need to get all my music and pics off of it first. I can't lose that lol



just save the hard drive. get a new computer. 3 year old dell isnt worth buying crap for :D you can always get an internal drive casing to run it as an external :D

[WildBillyT]

just save the hard drive. get a new computer. 3 year old dell isnt worth buying crap for :D you can always get an internal drive casing to run it as an external :D

Hard drive enclosure. One of the best repair tools you can get, too.

[NastyEllEssWon]

Hard drive enclosure. One of the best repair tools you can get, too.



just a side note, wondering what you meant by one of the best repair tools you can get?

[WildBillyT]

If the machine goes way south it is frequently the only way to recover data.

[NastyEllEssWon]

If the machine goes way south it is frequently the only way to recover data.



oh yeah deffo, i thought you knew something super secret they were able to do :D

[WildBillyT]

oh yeah deffo, i thought you knew something super secret they were able to do :D

Besides bypassing all security features of MS windows? :nick: