I'm trying to help a friend fix her computer - I'm not a techie, but I've had some success fixing others in the past with the help of smarter people available online at places like this 
When you turn the computer on you get the Dell screen showing BIOS revision 12 and a bar that starts out lit about 3/4" across and never progresses. There are normal startup sounds. The power light is green and stays green. I read somewhere to hold down the Fn key while turning on the computer and that results in a Diagnostic Boot Selected message in the upper right of the screen and the cap and scroll lock lights flashing - I thought that meant bad ram, but they don't flash if I don't use the Fn key when starting so, that's confusing.
I've figured out the battery is bad, I get flashing orange light 4x followed by green when it and the ac cord are both active and when I checked the battery indicator it lit up all 5 leds showing more than 60% bad cells. I've removed and reinstalled the battery, ram and hd. I've removed and reinstalled the ram in every conceivable combination with the results appearing as if Dimm A is no longer functioning. I've also removed and reinstalled the modem, and I've replaced the watch style battery on the motherboard.
Any help would be MUCH appreciated.
Note: I've also now tried verified working RAM from another computer with the same results. Also tried starting it up without the dvd drive and the hard drive as well - no change.
When you turn the computer on you get the Dell screen showing BIOS revision 12 and a bar that starts out lit about 3/4" across and never progresses. There are normal startup sounds. The power light is green and stays green. I read somewhere to hold down the Fn key while turning on the computer and that results in a Diagnostic Boot Selected message in the upper right of the screen and the cap and scroll lock lights flashing - I thought that meant bad ram, but they don't flash if I don't use the Fn key when starting so, that's confusing.
I've figured out the battery is bad, I get flashing orange light 4x followed by green when it and the ac cord are both active and when I checked the battery indicator it lit up all 5 leds showing more than 60% bad cells. I've removed and reinstalled the battery, ram and hd. I've removed and reinstalled the ram in every conceivable combination with the results appearing as if Dimm A is no longer functioning. I've also removed and reinstalled the modem, and I've replaced the watch style battery on the motherboard.
Any help would be MUCH appreciated.
Note: I've also now tried verified working RAM from another computer with the same results. Also tried starting it up without the dvd drive and the hard drive as well - no change.
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