Adding memory is generally a fail safe operation so I usually let the after schoolers do so without assistance. All our computers are old, since they are all donated This one is or was a pentium 166 with 48mb ram which they were trying to upgrade to 64. This machine has operated with dependably over the past few years with an occasional "System memory failure, press F1" By using enter, the problem is sidestepped? However after they installed the new memory, all they can get when booting up is a sequence of a long beep, pause, long beep. We have checked all the connections. Removing the new memory and replacing it with the old does not cure the problem. With few funds, should we bother taking this to a real technician at 60=70 dollars per hour? Have they fried the motherboard? With too few pc's, we would like to salvage this if possible.

either clear/reset cmos from motherboard jumper or in BIOS.

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/index.html)

[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 05-10-2002).]

hello
dont goto a tech yet.with the ram chip out try blowing the slot out with air.if you got one of those computer vacume cleaning kits now would be a good time to try it out.im hopeing you only got some dirt in the slot.or grese off the old fongers on contact.if after those two things dont work try takeing the ram and puting it in and out a dozen times to try to clean contacts.alcahol and a toth brush on the ram if it looks discoloerd on its contacks.make sure rams going all the way down and being a 166 is the mother board horazontal?if so there prone to lost screws droping on them and shorting things out.and the inner metal cover if reinstald wrong can allso short things out.

and check back for other repllys.

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resistance is invigorateing lol

Also check to make sure that the proper type of memory is being used, golg on gold...if the slot has gold contacts then the memory stick should also be gold. If it has been run for a long time with a mismatch then there is nothing that can be done for it...replacing a slot would be much more costly than the machine is worth.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Sometimes during installation of memory, the video card and CPU got loose also its contacts. The video card and CPU have to be pressed again. Better off clean its contacts also.