Win 7 Won't Start After Adding RAM

Lurch · Post by **Lurch** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 6:07 pm

Hi,

Can someone tell me why? I've been running my Dell Optiplex GX620 with Win XP Pro and 2 GB of RAM. I had 2 GB in another of the same Dell with Win 7, and it was sluggish so I bought 8 GB of RAM and it came in today, but it will not start. It just says "Windows is Starting" but it doesn't start. PC setup says I now have the 8 GB of RAM.

It also can only detect one of my hard drives, they are both SATA drives, I think. I have Pentium D Dual Core 2.8 Ghz in both.

I tried to get it to repair Windows but that too seemed to stall and do nothing so I shut it down and went back to my Win XP Pro Dell PC.

I think it said that I have changed the hardware or software. I have no Win 7 CD.
Thanks in advance for any help with getting this thing to run.

Lurch · Post by **Lurch** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 6:58 pm

PS - It always seemed to take a long time to start. I expected it to start quickly with the 8 GB of RAM but it seems to refuse to start at all. I waited at least 5 minutes each to either start or repair Win 7.

RaisinCain · Post by **RaisinCain** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:08 pm

That's because that model only support 4GB of RAM total.

Lurch · Post by **Lurch** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 8:13 pm

RaisinCain wrote:That's because that model only support 4GB of RAM total.

The Optiplex GX620 takes up to 8 GB of RAM [4 sticks of 2 GB each DDR2.] My PC already says I have that much RAM, it's just that Win 7 won't start now.

I'm wondering if it needed more time to configure itself or something. I didn't expect it to take that long.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 8:40 pm

seems as though 4GB max is correct.........

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/s ... fspecs.htm

nwrickert · Post by **nwrickert** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 8:41 pm

I suggest booting to a recent "Ultimate Boot CD" and running memory tests.

Lurch · Post by **Lurch** » Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:56 pm

nwrickert wrote:I suggest booting to a recent "Ultimate Boot CD" and running memory tests.

Can you explain what that is?

The guy that sells PCs and sold me these PCs told me 8 GB would run in it and make Win 7 run really nice. Then I agreed to buy 8 GB of RAM from him but it turned out to be "server heat sink RAM" and it wouldn't fit. I still have that RAM and I don't know how to get rid of it or how to find any part numbers on it.

Win 7 did not seem to run good on 3 GB of RAM. It was too sluggish for me. I have Win XP Pro on this with 3.5 GB of RAM [has 4 GB but only seems to realize 3.5 GB], and it runs plenty fast for me. What ever I run, I want it to be fast. Now I'm really confused.

Lurch · Post by **Lurch** » Tue Nov 20, 2012 2:21 pm

I heard it will work if I have a 64 bit OS. How do I know if my Win XP Pro is 32 or 64 bit?

The guy that sold me the PC seems to be mad at me. He will not call back. Now I have a Pentium D dual core PC with Win 7 that I don't know what to do with. If I get fed up enough with them I may donate them to charity.

Lurch · Post by **Lurch** » Tue Nov 20, 2012 9:57 pm

I got the UBCD download, and started to download it, but it was showing all kinds of junk I don't want like shopping deals, etc., so I declined and removed it. Got a link to a good download of UBCD?

nwrickert · Post by **nwrickert** » Tue Nov 20, 2012 11:01 pm

Lurch wrote:Can you explain what that is?

Do a google search for "ultimate boot CD". That will take you to a site where you can download the iso file. Burn that to a CD.

When you boot it, there are many options. Among those options are some memory tests, which are always useful if having memory woes.

nwrickert · Post by **nwrickert** » Tue Nov 20, 2012 11:06 pm

Lurch wrote:Got a link to a good download of UBCD?

I normally go to "http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/" and click on the download link.

Yes, I guess there is some advertising on that site. I run "noscript" and perhaps that's why the advertising doesn't get in the way.

RaisinCain · Post by **RaisinCain** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 5:09 am

Some people just don't listen.

Lurch · Post by **Lurch** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:55 am

RaisinCain wrote:Some people just don't listen.

The guy that sold me the Win 7 PC has sold and serviced Dell PCs for years. He's the one that suggested to me to upgrade it to 8 GB of RAM. Maybe this PC has a 64 bit OS or an upgraded motherboard that will enable it to run 8 GB of RAM. It's also possible that he goofed up.

Lurch · Post by **Lurch** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:56 am

nwrickert wrote:I normally go to "http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/" and click on the download link.

Yes, I guess there is some advertising on that site. I run "noscript" and perhaps that's why the advertising doesn't get in the way.

OK thanks, I'll work on it.

Lurch · Post by **Lurch** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:34 pm

I installed UBCD to my hard drive, thinking I might be able to run it from there. Then I tried to copy my Win XP Pro CD to my HD and come to find out, it's a blank CD. The seller of the PC did it again, he gave me a CD that I thought was XP Pro but there isn't anything on it so I guess that idea is out. Any idea where I can get an XP Pro CD? The more I try to get into this the further away I seem to get from it. Maybe I just better run my XP Pro PC and forget about Win 7.

RaisinCain · Post by **RaisinCain** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:21 pm

Lurch wrote:The guy that sold me the Win 7 PC has sold and serviced Dell PCs for years. He's the one that suggested to me to upgrade it to 8 GB of RAM. Maybe this PC has a 64 bit OS or an upgraded motherboard that will enable it to run 8 GB of RAM. It's also possible that he goofed up.

For the love. That model will only accept 4GB of RAM. Did he mention that there was an upgraded mobo?

RaisinCain · Post by **RaisinCain** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:22 pm

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/s ... fspecs.htm

Lurch · Post by **Lurch** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 6:41 pm

I got a copy of Win XP Pro boot CD and built a UBCD but my Win XP PC won't boot to it. I changed the BIOS, did everything I could. I have floppy drive and I'd make a bootable floppy if I could.

Does UBCD have to be ran only when booted?

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:29 pm

Lurch wrote:I got a copy of Win XP Pro boot CD and built a UBCD but my Win XP PC won't boot to it. I changed the BIOS, did everything I could. I have floppy drive and I'd make a bootable floppy if I could.

Does UBCD have to be ran only when booted?

yes, set the BIOS to boot to CD, place boot CD in drive. turn on PC and then follow the on screen prompts to run the the bootCD

look through the menu for diagnostic tools or whatever to run a memory test program

Lurch · Post by **Lurch** » Wed Nov 21, 2012 10:18 pm

I unchecked all the drives except the onboard CD drive and it still would not restart and boot to it. I got the same message on a black screen :

"Selected boot device not available
f1 to retry boot
f2 for setup"

After I unchecked all but the CD drive, it said "No boot device available
f1 to retry
f2 for setup
-------------------------------

I found out that this Win 7 Dell PC has 64 bit OS, so that means it will run 8 GB of RAM, but I don't know how yet. I'm on that PC now, after I removed 4 GB of the RAM and I have 4 GB in it now. I'm not too crazy about Win 7. I might sell the PC with the 4 GB of RAM and go back to my Win XP Dell with 4 GB of RAM. They both are dual core Pentium D.