Fixing an Old Dell

todpod

Golden Member
Nov 10, 2001
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Trying to piece together an old dell for my son, I put it together an fired it up, booted up but won't install Ubuntu, finally got XP to install. But after playing around trying to get Ubuntu to intll, I ran a memory test and discovered that I was getting memory errors running memtest from the ubuntu install disk. Then XP would reboot without warning. So I figure that have bad memory. Ok no big deal. Here is what Crucial says I need Linky .

Now the problem is I really don't want to spend a lot on this computer in hopes of getting it running, so what can I get away with as far as memory, ie PC2100. I am thinking if I can find 2 128 meg sticks on FS/FT then we may be in business. Not sure if memory is the only problem or not, but it is a 2.8ghz P4 so I hate to throw it out we could make a decent computer out of it if that is the only problem.

Thanks for the suggestions, Todd
 

Lanyap

Elite Member
Dec 23, 2000
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PC2100 should work. You need to check the motherboard for leaking capacitors. The GX270 model had lots of problems with leaking caps.

 

todpod

Golden Member
Nov 10, 2001
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So how do you check for leaky capcacitors. Is the CPU a Standard Socket 478 P4, that could be a possiblity as well moving to a new mb., Thanks Todd