Dimension 9150 Memory Problem

Pat Conover wrote:
"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
...
Pat Conover wrote:
"Ben Myers" wrote in message
...
On 4/7/2010 11:30 PM, Christopher Muto wrote:
Pat Conover wrote:
"Christopher Muto" wrote in message
t...
Pat Conover wrote:
"William R. Walsh" wrote in message
...

Hi!

Any suggestions?
Just on a whim...unplug the system completely from power. Wait for
the
light on the motherboard to go out. Then look inside and see if
there
is dust or something in the memory slots.

I had a Dimension E521 that had been running for *months* decide
that
it was going to drop off into never-never land. Powered it up again
and the LEDs said "memory error".

Took out the memory modules. Reseated them and it was the same
thing.
Blew the (small amount of) dust out and reseated the modules--and
it's
been fine ever since.

William
Will give that a go. William, nice video by the way, throwing the
old Dell into the dishwasher! I would not have believed it unless I
saw it and knew you from the group.

Thanks, Pat Conover
i have two suggestions for you to try. one is to power down the
computer, unplug the power cord, then press and hold the power button
as to quickly discharge the residual power from the system (indicated
by the flea light on the motherboard being lit). next removed the
coin battery from the motherboard and leave it out for 15 minutes.
reinstall the battery and then power up to see if all behaves
normally once again. this was a solution for the same problem that
plagued the dimension 5150 and so i not so surprised to hear about it
happing to a 9150 that is of the same vintage. my second suggestion
is for you to try the other two memory module sockets. this computer
has a total of four memory sockets. they are color coded for
installing memory in like pairs. it sound like you have already
learned that you really don't have to have memory installed in like
pairs, singles work fine (though technically a little slower). there
is also no requirement to use one pair of sockets or the other. so
try the second pair of memory sockets and see if that helps... but i
would hazard to guess that pulling (and later replacing) the coin
battery from the motherboard will fix the problem so try that first.
let us know how it works out.
Chris, never thought about the CR battery. I have had many computers
over the years and never had to replace the CR batteries, but have
read about replacing them on this group. The manual said the memory
had to be in the 1st bank of two and wouldn't work without any memory
in the 1st bank. But that doesn't mean it won't....

A new CR battery would be a very cheap fix. Thanks to both you and
William for the help. I will post back with or without the solution.

Thanks, Pat
i doubt you will need a replacement battery, you just need to
temporarily remove it to completely clear the system memory. i think
the
board is just plain confused about what is installed in the memory
sockets and that is why it stalls... try removing it as described and
report back. it may be all that is required to solve the problem.
Well, the "confusion" could be caused by CMOS getting messed up by a
CR2032 battery running out of juice. Maybe not. Maybe so. Don't rule
it out. And a change of battery may be right for a system now around 3
or 4 years old. Inexpensive, and can't hurt... Ben Myers
Chris and Ben, I pulled the battery last night, waited a while,
reinstalled and the machine booted to a confused BIOS. BIOS reported low
system power/voltage. I reset the clock and other settings and booted to
the desktop. Proceeded to update AVG and crashed to the BSOD. Pulled
the battery again and will get a new CR2032. Will any battery brand do
okay? Any to avoid, like the OEM no-name one. First CMOS battery I ever
had go bad! Thanks for the tips, a $5 battery is much cheaper and less
headaches than new memory in this economy.

Thanks, Pat
this is a bit perplexing. removing the battery should clear the system
cmos memory and possibly resolve the problem with it failing to properly
recognize the memory.... but having pulled it it should either boot
cleanly or complain about the battery and tell you to enter the bios to
update lost settings... it should not cause a bsod after the system boots
up sucessfully. so i am thinking something deeper is going on with this
system. but to answer your question any battery will do. radio shack has
them (over priced but fresh) and even target/kmart/wallmart has them (at
the camera/electronics counter). you can order a dozen no name ones on
ebay from china for the price of one at radio shack and though they many
not be the freshest they seem to work. if you get the bsod again note
what module is reported as the cause of the problem and note the status of
the led diagnostic lights when it happens.

Chris, I had recently replaced the C drive with a new 250GB Sata drive, the
old one failed the Dell diagnostics. I had reinstalled XP Home, chipsets
first, video, then other drivers, seemed to be working okay for about a
month. Then this issue came up. It did tell me to enter BIOS and reset the
settings that were lost. It had previously booted once before about a week
ago, ran for a couple of hours and then BSOD and shut windows down.

I thought the battery was the culprit so I didn't write down the faults or
led lights. I will get a new battery and post back with any BSOD and
faults.

Thanks, Pat


i think that getting a new battery is the right thing to do followed by
running diagnostics. not sure if the bsod error is an unreated issue or
not. sounds like your reinstalled the system properly but could have a
bad driver in the mix. it is also possible that windows became
corrupted along with the memory problems and the simple fix for that
would be to use windows system restore to rest the machine back to a
point in time prior to the first bsod.
start-acessories-systemtools-systemrestore.

On 4/8/2010 9:47 AM, Pat Conover wrote:
"Ben wrote in message
...
On 4/7/2010 11:30 PM, Christopher Muto wrote:
Pat Conover wrote:
"Christopher wrote in message
t...
Pat Conover wrote:
"William R. wrote in message
...

Hi!

Any suggestions?
Just on a whim...unplug the system completely from power. Wait for
the
light on the motherboard to go out. Then look inside and see if there
is dust or something in the memory slots.

I had a Dimension E521 that had been running for *months* decide that
it was going to drop off into never-never land. Powered it up again
and the LEDs said "memory error".

Took out the memory modules. Reseated them and it was the same thing.
Blew the (small amount of) dust out and reseated the modules--and
it's
been fine ever since.

William
Will give that a go. William, nice video by the way, throwing the
old Dell into the dishwasher! I would not have believed it unless I
saw it and knew you from the group.

Thanks, Pat Conover
i have two suggestions for you to try. one is to power down the
computer, unplug the power cord, then press and hold the power button
as to quickly discharge the residual power from the system (indicated
by the flea light on the motherboard being lit). next removed the
coin battery from the motherboard and leave it out for 15 minutes.
reinstall the battery and then power up to see if all behaves
normally once again. this was a solution for the same problem that
plagued the dimension 5150 and so i not so surprised to hear about it
happing to a 9150 that is of the same vintage. my second suggestion
is for you to try the other two memory module sockets. this computer
has a total of four memory sockets. they are color coded for
installing memory in like pairs. it sound like you have already
learned that you really don't have to have memory installed in like
pairs, singles work fine (though technically a little slower). there
is also no requirement to use one pair of sockets or the other. so
try the second pair of memory sockets and see if that helps... but i
would hazard to guess that pulling (and later replacing) the coin
battery from the motherboard will fix the problem so try that first.
let us know how it works out.

Chris, never thought about the CR battery. I have had many computers
over the years and never had to replace the CR batteries, but have
read about replacing them on this group. The manual said the memory
had to be in the 1st bank of two and wouldn't work without any memory
in the 1st bank. But that doesn't mean it won't....

A new CR battery would be a very cheap fix. Thanks to both you and
William for the help. I will post back with or without the solution.

Thanks, Pat

i doubt you will need a replacement battery, you just need to
temporarily remove it to completely clear the system memory. i think the
board is just plain confused about what is installed in the memory
sockets and that is why it stalls... try removing it as described and
report back. it may be all that is required to solve the problem.

Well, the "confusion" could be caused by CMOS getting messed up by a
CR2032 battery running out of juice. Maybe not. Maybe so. Don't rule it
out. And a change of battery may be right for a system now around 3 or 4
years old. Inexpensive, and can't hurt... Ben Myers

Chris and Ben, I pulled the battery last night, waited a while, reinstalled
and the machine booted to a confused BIOS. BIOS reported low system
power/voltage. I reset the clock and other settings and booted to the
desktop. Proceeded to update AVG and crashed to the BSOD. Pulled the
battery again and will get a new CR2032. Will any battery brand do okay?
Any to avoid, like the OEM no-name one. First CMOS battery I ever had go
bad! Thanks for the tips, a $5 battery is much cheaper and less headaches
than new memory in this economy.

Thanks, Pat



Any brand of CR2032 is OK. You can find them at Walmart for cheap...
Ben Myers

"Ben Myers" wrote in message
...
On 4/8/2010 9:47 AM, Pat Conover wrote:
"Ben wrote in message
...
On 4/7/2010 11:30 PM, Christopher Muto wrote:
Pat Conover wrote:
"Christopher wrote in message
t...
Pat Conover wrote:
"William R. wrote in message
...

Hi!

Any suggestions?
Just on a whim...unplug the system completely from power. Wait for
the
light on the motherboard to go out. Then look inside and see if
there
is dust or something in the memory slots.

I had a Dimension E521 that had been running for *months* decide
that
it was going to drop off into never-never land. Powered it up again
and the LEDs said "memory error".

Took out the memory modules. Reseated them and it was the same
thing.
Blew the (small amount of) dust out and reseated the modules--and
it's
been fine ever since.

William
Will give that a go. William, nice video by the way, throwing the
old Dell into the dishwasher! I would not have believed it unless I
saw it and knew you from the group.

Thanks, Pat Conover
i have two suggestions for you to try. one is to power down the
computer, unplug the power cord, then press and hold the power button
as to quickly discharge the residual power from the system (indicated
by the flea light on the motherboard being lit). next removed the
coin battery from the motherboard and leave it out for 15 minutes.
reinstall the battery and then power up to see if all behaves
normally once again. this was a solution for the same problem that
plagued the dimension 5150 and so i not so surprised to hear about it
happing to a 9150 that is of the same vintage. my second suggestion
is for you to try the other two memory module sockets. this computer
has a total of four memory sockets. they are color coded for
installing memory in like pairs. it sound like you have already
learned that you really don't have to have memory installed in like
pairs, singles work fine (though technically a little slower). there
is also no requirement to use one pair of sockets or the other. so
try the second pair of memory sockets and see if that helps... but i
would hazard to guess that pulling (and later replacing) the coin
battery from the motherboard will fix the problem so try that first.
let us know how it works out.

Chris, never thought about the CR battery. I have had many computers
over the years and never had to replace the CR batteries, but have
read about replacing them on this group. The manual said the memory
had to be in the 1st bank of two and wouldn't work without any memory
in the 1st bank. But that doesn't mean it won't....

A new CR battery would be a very cheap fix. Thanks to both you and
William for the help. I will post back with or without the solution.

Thanks, Pat

i doubt you will need a replacement battery, you just need to
temporarily remove it to completely clear the system memory. i think
the
board is just plain confused about what is installed in the memory
sockets and that is why it stalls... try removing it as described and
report back. it may be all that is required to solve the problem.

Well, the "confusion" could be caused by CMOS getting messed up by a
CR2032 battery running out of juice. Maybe not. Maybe so. Don't rule
it
out. And a change of battery may be right for a system now around 3 or
4
years old. Inexpensive, and can't hurt... Ben Myers

Chris and Ben, I pulled the battery last night, waited a while,
reinstalled
and the machine booted to a confused BIOS. BIOS reported low system
power/voltage. I reset the clock and other settings and booted to the
desktop. Proceeded to update AVG and crashed to the BSOD. Pulled the
battery again and will get a new CR2032. Will any battery brand do okay?
Any to avoid, like the OEM no-name one. First CMOS battery I ever had go
bad! Thanks for the tips, a $5 battery is much cheaper and less
headaches
than new memory in this economy.

Thanks, Pat



Any brand of CR2032 is OK. You can find them at Walmart for cheap... Ben
Myers

Sorry for the late update to this thread. Anyway, I replaced the CMOS
battery and booted into the BIOS, reset everything, don't know how I missed
the message saying the BIOS battery had failed way...back in 2006, booted to
the desktop, so far so good. Then the machine crashed, but no BSOD this
time, maybe its getting better So I removed both memory sticks and blew
the slots out with air, as suggested by William, tried one stick and then
another and so far it is running fine. I also found that it will run with
one stick in any of the four slots. Ran the Dell diagnostics on everything
and all passed. So far its been running about a week, with no problems. I
never heard of dust on the memory slots causing such problems, and still
don't know if that was the cause. But all of my other machines do have all
slots filled, so no open slots for dust to get in.

Thanks to Chris and William for the help, you too Ben! Pat