My girlfriend was planning to install additional memory on her 5 years old laptop. She opened the back, and gently took off the existing 2GB RAM to check if there are any empty slots behind. She put back the RAM module exactly in the same way it was before but the computer doesn't boot anymore. As far as I understood, she cannot even get to the BIOS screen. I asked her to make sure that RAM module is really in place(In my experience sometimes even though retainer clips 'click' the module is not placed in place properly). She double checked everything and no success.
So I have couple of questions regarding this:
- What could cause this, is it possible to damage the RAM
by touching it? - She had PC2-4200 2 GB DDR2-SDRAM(533 MHz). Is it
possible to buy DDR2-800 SO-DIMM RAM and use it? Are laptop memories
backward compatible? - Do you think she should take the laptop to a shop and buy memory form there or should she order online and install herself?(the latter option is about 15-30$ cheaper)
Best Answer
Yes, you can damage RAM by touching it, typically static electricity.
I would check the motherboard to see what RAM it reads.
Take it to a shop if you're not confident - this way, they can put one of their 'sample' RAM sticks in to test it before you spend the money (if the fault is else where).
From my experience, having no RAM should not cause the entire thing to not boot - it sounds like something may be shorting, or the fault is else where. Does it beep at all (and I assume it has power etc)