[justin.b.]

I have reformatted in the past, but that was a few years ago and I don't remember how. I haven't tried Memtest, how do I go about doing that? Sorry I'm computer incompetent. haha.

[Prizzbone]

No problem. try memtest first and lets check your ram. Memtest basicaly just sends random stuff to your ram and then checks to make sure that it comes back uncorrupted.
Go to
http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

and click on the link
Download - Memtest86 v3.4a ISO image (zip)

You will download it and then burn it to a cd (extract if first).
Then you will put just one stick of ram your first slot and reboot your comp with the disk in. It will start memtest before windows even boots up.
It runs nonstop, but it has I think 8 tests that it cycles through, about every 15-20 minutes. If your ram shows an error, it will display it in red, and tell you what test it failed, and alos what pass it failed on. You will want it to run for a while on each stick, but for now just run it on one. If you get an error right off, switch sticks. If no errors right off, let it run for a while, maybe even over night( some errors might not show until the ram has been warmed up after repeated use)

If you have a stick that works good, then we will reformat your HD, if you test all sticks and all show error, then we have some other stuff we can check.

[justin.b.]

Didn't work.I put the disk in, turned on the computer, It did the dell screen, and then it goes to an all black screen with

"strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility"

[Prizzbone]

Hmmm, weird... do you have another computer? If so, stick the disc in that computer and make sure that the disc is bootable, if it isn't, burn the disc again, if it is bootable, ensure that your BIOS settings are letting it boot from CD drive. It's hard to tell how to help without seeing what is happening.
Thinking about it more, you get the F1 - F2 question if you boot without the windows disc in, so it has to mean that your memtest disc is not getting booted off of, so it is trying to boot off your corrupted windows. Did you burn the file as an .iso? Let me know.

[justin.b.]

I have BIOS set to boot from the CD. I turned off boot from the hard drive. My laptop wouldn't do memtest either, but the BIOS is more than likely set up to boot from the hard drive first. I burned it to the CD as a .iso file. I'll Change the Bios on the laptop and try booting from the memtest disk again.

[ntlgnce]

Possibly the ram, or the jumper settings on the back of the hard drive? I had one that I had to get the jumpers just right. (I had two hard drives and one was set to master the other to slave, What worked was setting one of them to CS) also the CD drive may be set incorrectly as far as master or slave. Thats what has worked for me..

[Prizzbone]

Let me know if you get memtest to work, we want to check to make sure your ram won't throw errors so you can install windows without errors. Sorry you're having such a pain with it.

[justin.b.]

I still cant get it to work. I'm losing hope here, and you know your having problems when you cant even reformat the hard drive. hehe. I have no idea of what to do next, seeing as I have tried everything you guys have recommended.

Also, I am getting a "keyboard error" message when I try to go to the screen that would allow me to get to safe mode, which is making it even harder to get the computer working.

[ntlgnce]

Ok there is only a few things that could be causing the problem,
Ranked, from most logical first.

1 RAM, you dont have good ram or the wrong Mhz ram.
2 The jumper settings are wrong either on the back of the hard drive or the back of the CD drive.
3 The CD drive or Hard drive are bad.
4 The mother board or keyboard is bad( indicated by the keyboard error.
5 the battery on the mother board is dead( not sure if it would cause the problems you having)
Besides the list above of things to check, There is one more thing that I can think of.
Pulling the battery and power cord for 5 full mins. While you have the Battery out. Check the IDE's as There should be one for primary (for the hard drive) and one for secondary, (for the cd drive), Its marked on the board close to where the IDE's plug in. Make sure that the one going to the hard drive is in the primary, While your looking at it, make sure that the Red marks on the IDE are twards the 1 pin, (there numbered 1-38 or something. Alsomake sure that the hard drive is NOT plugged into the middle connector of the IDE cable. (It should be on the end connector). Look at the back of the hard drive and CD drive, (it may require unscrewing them and puling them out, (do it one at a time) Look at the back between the IDE and the power. (both plugs just pull straight out), There should be a few pins from 5 to 9, but no more, There should be a little black connecter thats connecting a few of the pins. Then on the back of the drive somewhere should say what the connectors are, MA, or CS, or SL. Which stands for Master, CableSelect, and Slave. Your hard drive should be set to MA, and on the primary IDE cable on the very end of the IDE cable. Then the CD drive, should be set to slave, and on the very end of the secondary IDE cable. (it could be on the middle of the Primary IDE cable as well, Ensure that all the connections are plugged in everywhere on the motherboard, push them in a little bit to make sure they are good and tight. Check to see that the ram is plugged in the correct way, Putting the ram in striaght down. Make sure your video card is plugged in all the way, If you have a flash drive or ITunes, anything USB, Unplug them. Once everything has been checked, try reformatting again.
You will get screens that say Time is not correct press F-1 yadda yadda, just keep moving through untill your done reformatting..

The most likely suspect is the RAM, If its not the jumpers, then its gotta be you ram, It does not appear to be the Hard drive.

Ram is very crutial that you get the exact Mhz of ram, Same voltage too. If you know what kind of Motherboard you have you can google it for the manual, If you dont know what kind of board it is, it should say in colored letters on the board close to the white slots. Like ASUS-989876 or something, (thats just one I made up). Get the manual and check to see that the ram it takes is the ram you have, ( You said the older ram you were not sure what the Mhz was, look for some numbers on the ram stick, and start googleing the ram #'s see if you can figure out what Mhz it is.. Other then that, you can mail me the computer instead of tossing it in the junk.. (refer to 1 - 5 above before tossing it in the junk). Most likely the ram..

[avisitor]

Some motherboards have problems with different amounts of RAM. That is, I have a laptop at home where the most I can have is 2 dimms of 512 each.

I strongly suggest running memtest86+ which can be download as a bootable CD image here: http://www.memtest.org/download/2.01...+-2.01.iso.zip

[justin.b.]

My owners manual says the memory should be either PC2700 (333MHz) or PC3200 (400-MHz) DDR SDRAM (non-ECC) and it cant be over 1 GB a slot.

The new Memory is PC3200, 400mHz and the box says its 2 GB, but I am assuming that its divided between the two cards, for 1 GB each? This would mean that the new memory is correct.

I think at this point I am going to need to take it to someone who actually knows what they are doing, and actually has the resources to check all of the individual components. It stinks, but I am running out of things to do, and some of the things I need to be doing I cant due to computer incompetence. (changing the jumper settings, checking the hard drive and CD drives to make sure that they work, etc.)

[avisitor]

Let me remind you to take it to your local computer store, not some over priced junky place like BestBuy where they have to send your computer to the middle of nowhere for two weeks before someone looks at it. A local PC shop will fix it in a much smaller window of time.

[ntlgnce]

Not sure but there may be a jumper on the board that would change the Mhz of the memory so the board can see it? (I know a few older boards that have this option.) Did you find a link to your manual? if so post it, I will look it over when I get off of work tonight. 7pm CST.