Faulty RAM/Socket on Dell laptop

[marclar1104]

So my old Dell Inspiron 5100 has been acting sluggish and I couldn't figure out why. Eventually I found out my computer was only reading 256mb of RAM (should be 512). I wanted to figure if either one of the sticks or the actual socket had gone bad. My fear though was starting up the laptop with the working stick removed in my guessing game. Kinda a n00b question but would there be any detrimental effects to starting up a laptop with 0 RAM or would it just not start? Thanks for any help.

Marc

 

[bf2gameplaya]

Are you asking two questions disguised as one?

1) Can I start the unit with no ram sticks in place
2) Can I start the unit with a faulty ram stick in place

As it stands now, you are starting the unit with a potentially faulty stick and nothing worse than it not reporting the RAM has occured. So it is safe to extrapolate that if you start the unit with no sticks in it it will likely CATCH ON FIRE WITH THE HEAT OF A THOUSAND SUNS AND MELT YOUR INQUISITIVE SELF.

I hope it's under warranty.

 

[Zorg]

No need to be a prick.

No it will not damage your machine, it will just fail POST (Power On Self Test).