memory problem..

If it were me, and I knew that I hadn't done anything wrong, I'd be figuring on who besides me is replacing what. I guarantee you though if you're not sure of yourself a good tech'll see you coming from a mile away.

edit oops said your not you're<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by knewton on 08/28/02 07:02 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

You probably should take apart the system and test each part individually to see what works and what doesn't. If an item doesn't work then it was probably fried during the process of your ram installation...

The same as with any static sensitive devices (=all computer parts, except the CPU cooler ). Static electricity is a killer, but its really not so common anymore. Nowadays most cmos devices has protection diodes that gives a limited protection. Years ago when the first cmos devices was manufactured, you practically only had to look at the thingy before it was fried. (I especially think about the first FET and MOSFET devices). Anyway, Im an electronics engineer, and handle chips frequently. And in the past ten years or so I can only think of a few instances where static electricity actually fried a component (At one occation this was in a room with the most horrible carpet, and I was wearing just the right shoes to make massive static buildup possible).
Anyway, my point is that unless you somehow managed to build up a significant amount of static electricity, its probably not what caused the fault. I believe something else caused the fault, especially because you mention it started to smoke. I find it hard to believe that a component damaged by ESD is so fried that it starts to smoke when power is reapplied.

The only thing I can think of is that something must have happened to the power supply. To make a component smoke requires relatively much power (compared to its normal consumption) Did you do ANYthing else than move one RAM stick and insert another?. What power supply is the system using. Is it the old AT type with two connectors that actually can be swapped, if you dont notice the small ineffective key? Did you accidentially drop something into the system?

Dust accumulation in a free slot could have caused the electric failure. I usually clean a slot (be it PCI, Memory or else) with compressed air before inserting a new card/module, even if the slot was used (eg, when I replace an AGP card with another, I clean the slot upon removing the old card).
I'm not saying that this is the case in your instance, but maybe.


<font color=red>If you feel like going to work today, just lie down and it'll go away.</font color=red>