kwu1993

Okay well, my Dell Inspiron 8600 notebook suddenly lost 256MB of RAM one day, but being the moron I am to computers, I didn't know how to fix it so I let the problem slide. Of course, my computer was noticably slower, but anyway, here's the main problem: The laptop would BSOD on me every few hours. After 2 weeks of that, the computer itself won't even start up.

The 3 lights turn on, Caps/Num/Scroll lock lights, they all turn on for about 2 seconds, then the Num lock light turns off and about 5 seconds later the entire laptop shuts down. It isn't the battery since I've tried removing the battery and using the AC adapter. Nothing I've tried works, I did try and take it apart but I'm scared to venture deeper into it since I'm pretty much oblivious to the parts.

Is this, in fact, a hard drive meltdown? Or is it a problem I can resolve by pressing some keys? If it is a meltdown, what would it cost to fix?

And, just as a side note, what about the sudden loss of RAM?

I'm pretty stupid when discussing computer hardware, so please, reply in the simplest terms, the simplest methods, and the simplest solutions.

TriggerFinger

hi,

start by replacing all of your RAM with known working modules.

make sure you get a good boot up/POST. make sure you can get into BIOS at least.

post back what you find out.