HELP ME! Nobodys even looking!

AMD Lover · April 27, 2015

Alright so I'm working on a Dell e520 for a aunt and diagnostic lights 3 & 4 are light which indicates RAM failure. So I went through one at a time and tried all four sticks separate, no luck. So I grabbed some old DDR2 from my school, tried all 4 sticks, no luck. Then I reset the CMOS, did nothing. So I changed the order of the RAM, I got a BIOS beep saying I had no RAM. Then it came on one time and said it failed to read the HDD, turned it off and it said the memory was dead again and wouldn't boot. It hasn't booted since and I know FOR A FACT that the HDD still works so is my motherboard bad? I'm pretty sure the RAM is still in working order.

Help!! Ideas?

Jlryan · April 27, 2015

Could you take a photo of the motherboard and upload it?

It's most likely a motherboard problem, I'm assuming (without seeing a photo) it could be that some electrolytic capacitors will have gone out of spec and *vented* or at least starting to bulge. This is a common problem with older motherboards, especially the one in the e520 with it almost being a 10 year old model.

*It's common practice to replace electrolytic capacitors at most every 10 years, as they dry up*

FaithPlatform · April 27, 2015

I would replace the motherboard, as Jlryan stated capacitors are most likely blown or bulging. If you're good soldering you could attempt to replace any capacitors that are looking bad.