Would adding ram cause pc to fail?

Hi everyone, I would really appreciate a little help.

I bought a new pc 2 weeks ago and everything was fine until today when I added a ram stick. Now my pc wont boot, I've taken out the stick but still nothing. My fan starts but there is no signal to my monitor or keyboard, I also can't open the DVD drive? I'm not PC savvy but what I have is below.

Thanks for your time.

Intel Pentium 4 631 3.0Ghz processor. 512Mb DDR2 memory. 80Gb hard drive. 16x DVD+/-RW dual layer drive. Integrated 2D/3D graphics.

Does your PC make any beeps when it boots?(as in the internal speaker)

You originally had a 512mb stick and then you added another 512? is that right?

Check all cables. What fan are you talking about? The power supply or the CPU fan?

Thanks aja,

No beeps at all, that's correct about the ram and I've checked all cables. The big fan inside (whatever that's called)

When you say no signal to your keyboard, you mean the lights won't come on?

You wouldn't by any chance have a spare power supply just lying around do you? (normal people have dust balls, overclockers have dusty powersupplies under their couches lol)

I think the PSU(powersupply) might be the suspect because you say that the dvd won't open. Does the light on the DVD drive flash at all when you switch it on?

Thanks aja,

No beeps at all, that's correct about the ram and I've checked all cables. The big fan inside (whatever that's called)

Click to expand...

Do you know how to reset a BIOS?

Pleasure Tony

There are no lights on the dvd drive, the keyboard lights flash momentarily but do not stay on and the monitor comes on for a second then shuts down to standby. I don't have a spare powersupply unfortunately.

Do you know how to reset your BIOS?

I don't know how to reset the BIOS but I would give it a go if you could point me in the right direction.

tonysoprano said:

There are no lights on the dvd drive, the keyboard lights flash momentarily but do not stay on and the monitor comes on for a second then shuts down to standby. I don't have a spare powersupply unfortunately.

Click to expand...

Does the monitor display anything? text or anything?

All the monitor says is 'NO SIGNAL IS BEING RECEIVED' and then it powers down

tonysoprano said:

I don't know how to reset the BIOS but I would give it a go if you could point me in the right direction.

Click to expand...

The bios chip is the little microchip that controls most of the hardware settings. It tells the computer what type of memory is installed etc.

When you added the extra memory stick it is possible that the BIOS adjusted the settings for the new stick, but this might have made problems in terms of compatibility for the old stick.

It is reset by draining all it's power. You have to switch the PC off and plug out the power cord from the back of the powersupply so that the PC does not get any power. Then, carefully, remove the battery from the motherboard. It looks like a large watch-type battery, and is in a plastic round holder flat against the motherboard. It is normally next to or below the hard drive cable connectors towards the bottom right corner of the motherboard, or sometimes it is located between the PCI slots on the left. There is a small metal clip that you have to push away from the battery so that you can manouvre it out. Leave the battery out and the power cable disconnected for a few minutes, the longer the better. Hold down the power button for a few seconds. After a while, put the battery back the right way around, reconnect the power cord and try to boot up.

Please note that this resets all your BIOS settings. So your date and time will be wrong. Also, if you have more than one hard drive, the order in which your PC selects devices to boot from may be rearranged, requiring you to go into the BIOS and select the correct boot device. Any trial software that you are using may expire immediately because of the date change that will occur.

LOL i forgot to ask, are the new and old memory sticks identical?

How to's are located here:

wikihow

and here:

trap17

The memory sticks aren't identical. Would that have caused such a catastrophe? I apologise again for my lack of knowledge!

tonysoprano said:

The memory sticks aren't identical. Would that have caused such a catastrophe? I apologise again for my lack of knowledge!

Click to expand...

Yeah, it is possible. Incompattible hardware can do all sorts of things.

It might be something else though, just keep that in mind.

LOL you are doing way better than I did when I started. I fiddled and fiddled until it went BOOM

Then I would know not to do that again...

Obviously it's under it's warranty but I can't contact them until tomorrow. I just don't want them to say it's invalid because of something I've done. I've just reset the BIOS like you said but it's still exactly the same.

Thanks very much aja for all your help, it was really good of you to lend your time. I'll get Zoostorm to replace it if I can.

Have a great day - tony

It's a pleasure!

I am really sorry that I could not help you...

Good luck!