Member Avatar for no_clue

I replaced the ram with another 256mb. The computer starts up, but it shows nothing on the monitor. the light on the monitor stays yellow instead of green (when everything worked fine and while i was on the computer the light was green). I could actually see the smoke and smell it. I also saw on the ram where it had been burnt and I could see the black spot where the lil golden squares or whatever blew. Well anyways If anyone can help me out I would appriciate it.
I have a new computer now , but I want to try and fix this one so I can add more stuff to it, and upgrade it.


I bought it sometime in 2002...

Its a desk top compaq presario 5000 windows xp home edition
256 mb ram
cd-rw drive
40 Gb hd
2.1 ghz


plz help. Thank you.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by chrisbliss18

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Member Avatar for alc6379

Have you tried another stick of RAM in the system? You could have had a bad contact, or something, or maybe the RAM was installed incorrectly. If not that, you could be looking at a bad motherboard, or perhaps even a bad powersupply that's putting too much voltage to the RAM.

Member Avatar for no_clue

Have you tried another stick of RAM in the system? You could have had a bad contact, or something, or maybe the RAM was installed incorrectly. If not that, you could be looking at a bad motherboard, or perhaps even a bad powersupply that's putting too much voltage to the RAM.

I know that one of the slots for a ram does not work because it burned out, the other one seems to be fine, and thats where I have put anther stick of RAM in, a new stick. I have tried two new sticks and still same problem, maybe it is the motherboard. The motherboards arent too expansive are they ?

Member Avatar for chrisbliss18

It's quite likely that the memory bus got damaged when the RAM chip blew. This means that you will need to get a new motherboard. Depending on what type of motherboard that you are wanting, typical prices range from $50-$150.

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