My Dell Inspirion laptop is giving me fits. It won't stay on anymore (reboots itself or locks up) and when it is booting it doesn't get through starting windows before blue screening and restarting on me.

Someone told me they think it might be a memory issue, but I am not certain.

Does this sound like a memory problem to the tech talk experts? How hard is it to change laptop memory? Is it the sort of thing I can do myself or is there someone on here who knows how to do it?

Thanks in advance!

8/25/2007 2:01:52 PM

i'll do it for $50 + price of ram

8/25/2007 2:21:06 PM

I could look at it for $20 an hour after 8PM.

8/25/2007 2:21:11 PM

(apologies to people offering to do it for money)
it's really not hard to change laptop memory... just remove the bottom panel and you should be able to flip up the previous stick and install the new stuff without too much hassle..

but being timid about it is understandable, and getting someone more experienced (or with more delicate hands) to muck around inside your laptop can sometimes be preferred...

8/25/2007 2:35:52 PM

do you know what the error is that you're getting on the blue screen? If it's blue screening and restarting automatically, you can change it if you can get back in windows. Right click on My Computer-> Properties -> Advanced -> Settings under Startup & Recovery -> uncheck automatically restart.

[Edited on August 25, 2007 at 4:33 PM. Reason : ]

8/25/2007 4:28:33 PM

Just throwing it out there, but mine did the same thing a few weeks ago, except about 95% of the time on boot up it would blue screen too fast to see what the error was and restart, and couldn't get it into safe mode. After figuring out there's only a 2 second window (that isnt broadcast or displayed to me) to hit the f8 button during my startup, it worked fine on that. So I started in safe mode, ran adaware and spybot, which cleared a few infections and that seemed to have fixed it. So basically have you ran some up-to-date anti-virus programs?

8/26/2007 12:56:28 AM

That problem is generally either failing memory or a failing hard drive ... if you're near campus and a student send me a PM and I'll help when I get some time Mon or Tues. You'll still have to purchase whatever parts are the problem, but I can test using software and/or spare parts to determine the problem quickly.

(Not to undercut everyone, but I like to help out students if it's feasible ... especially after once seeing the line of them waiting in front of Best Buy's Geek Squad desk, that made me sick.)

[Edited on August 26, 2007 at 1:20 AM. Reason : .]

8/26/2007 1:02:48 AM

Update for anyone that's interested:

Sure enough, the Inspiron 5100 was having wonderful phantom style issues with locking up ... used a few different memory testing apps and got mixed results. There are actually two differently branded sticks of 256MB PC2100 in the laptop, yet only 128MB is being reported ... upon further testing and instabilities, I'm fairly sure the RAM is the primary issue. I showed her which RAM to buy from NewEgg and how to install it.

I also decided to check the processor cooling system since the laptop was feeling hot and the processor was not reporting in at full speed in my diagnostics. Upon inspection, the exhaust fins were 100% clogged, which explains why the processor was underclocking--to prevent itself from frying. I cleared out the wall of dust and cleaned/re-applied the processor and heatsink connection with AS5 thermal paste. Now the fan no longer runs at full speed, plus the processor operates at full power. This also means the laptop won't be ridiculously hot anymore.

Fwiw, the laptop was free of any active virus or spyware.

8/27/2007 9:36:33 PM

^ Very nice work. I was impressed by how knowledgeable gs7 is...if you ever have any computer problems I recommend going to him.

8/27/2007 9:43:43 PM