Hi, I have Dell Dimension E521 that I bought Jan 2007. Have been running smoothly until 2 months ago. About 2 months ago, I called Dell to buy a printer. After that, the sales person talked me into buying 4 x 1GB RAM (Corsair, XMS2, DDR2). The computer was ok for couple of weeks, then I installed the Dell printer V505. A week later I started to notice some problems.
First, it was Internet Explorer hanging, but I thought it’s just IE
Then, after the welcome screen, the icons failed to show up (so it’s just showing the blue screen, standard color for WIndows XP). First few times, after hard reboot (or unpligging the power), it’s ok.
Finally, on Jun 23 (or so), it just refused to turn on ever (after the welcome screen). Tried diagnostic, nothing. Went to the computer shop, they managed to revive it (after uninstalling ZonaAlarm).
I then reformated the entire HD, reinstalled XP, all the drivers, installed ONLY the necessary software (NO ZoneAlarm). LASTED ONLY 3-4 days before IE not working. Tried to go to previous Restore Point, made the problem worse. Another blue screen (after the welcome screen).
Yesterday try the Repair XP (using disk from Dell when I bought the system), complete failure, just stop mid installation (screen: Restore Point, OK button, nothing happened when hit). Yanked the power.
Now, I’m at loss? What is the cause of the sudden problem? The printer? Or the gigantic memory I installed?
How do I find out if the BIOS can handle that large? Can I return the memory if that’s the problem? Remember I did not plan to buy it, I was basically talked into buyin one.
Please help. I’m running out of ideas how to fix this computer (also running to time)
Thank you in advance!
