domacadin

ok so i am running vista 32 home premium. i recently upgraded from 2 1GB sticks of ddr2 (ps2) ram to two 2 GB (ps2) ram. one stick was DOA. after inserting the old ones back the computer will not load past the dell screen. as soon as the vista loading screen comes up it flashes a blue screen with white righting for maybe half a second and then it restarts. after it restarts it does then same thing except i get to another page that tells me that windows has failed to start. now being a novice i panicked so I started doing all sorts of things i flashed the cmos and bios i unplugged and let sit for about 20 min and tired to turn it on, i tried loading from previous points what where working fine. In the end i wound up doing a factory reset of the HD so now its wiped and only has the OS and what it came with from Dell when i bought it. did i totally screw over my computer?

jcgriff2

Using the Dell recovery DVDs would leave you exactly where you are now - the way the system was when 1st taken out of the box and first booted-up.

Start installing programs, use the system and see how it responds.

jcgriff2

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domacadin

ya i tried it and im still getting the same problem it wont boot past the Dell loading screen, once it hits the vista one it flashes the blue screen and does that whole thing all over again. is this a mother board problem or some sort of corruption to the HD it self?

samanderson

Solution: 1 might your mother board does not support this ram mhz. Try to change another ram.

domacadin

i put back in the old (original) ram though and it still would not work

dai

try a cmos reset and make sure the ram is seated

cmos reset
turn the computer off
remove the power lead from the back
take the side off
remove the cmos battery
move the cmos jumper from pins 1 and 2 to pin 2 and 3 and the back to pins 1 and 2
reinsert the battery
put the side on
replug in the power lead
boot the computer

there can be 2 solder points you touch with a screwdriver
2 pins you touch with a screwdriver or use a jumper
a cmos clear switch or button
there will be a diagram and instructions in your manual

domacadin

i tried what you suggested Dai and it did not work. still have the same problem

dai

tap f8 when booting and try
last known good configuration

domacadin

tried that to same problem. could it be a dead HD or some thing broke on mother board?

dai

see if you can boot from the vista dvd to the install screen and on the bottom left click on repair

dell restore disks used to be the full windows disk with a dell logo don't know if they still are