Dell Inspiron 3700 DIMM_B Failure

[GaryNemo]

Maybe someone out here has a good idea for me. My Dell Laptop is about 3.1 years old, just out of warrantee. Dell has been very good upgrading my battery, fixed the Xircom card once, and recently replaced the keyboard.

This latest problem: at first I thought Windows just blew the registry, like the idiot that it is. But no. I have reinstalled Windows, advanced thru several theories, and finally ran the Diag CDROM that came with the computer. Memory errors in "DIMM_B on the System board" . So that's why I thought so many different things were the problem - the memory errors were making misc programs behave crazy.

I'm calling Dell now to see what they say. They will want me to ship it back to them, which I'll do. But I wonder, anyone out there think this might be a simple fix I can do myself? I could PM you my 800 number, or ICQ 168387304, or whatever.

 

[ainwood]

Gary,

If it IS a memory problem, then you could just install a new memory chip - they're pretty cheap. Problem is in trying to do that inside a laptop - I'd imagine that that might be a bit tricky....

 

[GaryNemo]

Ainwood, how nice to hear from you out here!

Dell Tech Support was excellent this time. They had me remove the DIMM_B card (w 2 chips, 32MB I guess) and now it works. So I just need to buy a new memory card. In the meantime, by reinstalling Windows, I've made more work for myself, oh well.

Last month, they wasted 10 days of my life fixing the keyboard, so this time I tried to fix it myself. Made it harder on myself, but that's how I learn. They say, Experience is a Hard teacher. It gives the Test first, the Lesson after.

What are you doing posting here? We need you to plan the attack on the Vikings. We've got Legendary City Celebrating nicely for you. Anyway, we'll discuss Democ Game over there.

 

[ainwood]

Originally posted by GaryNemo
What are you doing posting here? We need you to plan the attack on the Vikings. We've got Legendary City Celebrating nicely for you. Anyway, we'll discuss Democ Game over there.

Ummm..... Nothing......

 

[Jayne]

I have an almost 3 year old Toshiba one. Doesn't give me much problems... just Explorer crashing a couple of times a week on start up, and it can't always be bothered to shut down properly either! Once it starts giving me major problems, I may upgrade it to a DVD one anyway.

 

[StevieP]

Originally posted by GaryNemo
Last month, they wasted 10 days of my life fixing the keyboard, so this time I tried to fix it myself.

Err...Why didn't you just plug in an external keyboard?

Oh well. You've fixed it now. Good going GaryNemo.

 

[GaryNemo]

StevieP,
An external keyboard wouldn't be worth the trouble. I carry it back and forth. It's my offsite harddisk backup, has total backup of all files (including Civ2 Democracy posts!), & odd software such as Office & Excel 2000. Other than billing, I don't use it for any real work. Anyway, the Dell Indian Tech Support was atrocious. Today, they were good - helped me to remove DIMM_B.

I bought my new memory from www.crucial.com , which I have used before and is terrific. The Dell websites are useless.

Dell is great, btw. I own 4 of them, and they all still work, although the Win 3.1 Laptop is obsolete. I'm using my Micron right now - good, but their support is lacking. My ancient Compaq's all still work. I have one computer configured with each distinct set of Bill Gates' bugs. Two ancient BrandX Laptops are completely scrap. I also have BrandX DOS computers that work. But Dell is easy, someone I can always call.

Chatting with a German friend a few years ago, she was thinking of getting her first PC. I asked, maybe there is a store in town? She said, "Well, when we Germans buy quality, we buy Dell!" I then confessed I usually buy Dell myself.