My compaq laptop just beeps at me and won't boot after I tried adding more memory

If the fan runs and you see lights that's a good thing. It means the laptop is getting power and trying to boot. Now do you hear the hard drive turning? When you press the Power Button do you hear the CD drive click once and notice that the light on the cd drive door turns on for a second or two? These are all good signs of the laptop trying to boot. When you press the power button did you hear any beeps or notice that the lights blink continuously such as 1 long beep and 2 short beeps. The lights and blinks tells the technician what is wrong. When you press the power button do you see anything on the LCD Screen as it goes thru the boot process?

Try removing the battery and the power cord from the laptop. Then press and hold the power button for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, plug only the power cord in and press the power button to reboot. If it boots that means you had a static buildup which is normal in computers. By hold the power button you released the static. If it boots you can put the battery back in. If it does not boot and if the lights are blinking or you hear beeps you might have a bad memory chip. Unplug the laptop and turn it over to remove the screws tht house the memory chips. Remove one of the memory chips and set it aside. Now try to boot your laptop. If it does not boot, move the memory chip to the other slot and try rebooting. If it boots place an x on the memory chip that you have set aside. If it does not boot remove that chip and put the memory chip you have set aside in the laptop and repeat the process of moving in into each memory slot and trying to boot. If you get it to boot with one memory chip, place the other chip in the available slot (make sure it has an x mark on it so that you will know which one might be bad), then try rebooting. If it fails, that chip is bad. If it does not boot for either chip then more than likely you have a motherboard issue.

3 Beeps is usually a RAM issue. Try re-seating your RAM in their slots and rebooting.

In case you have AMI BIOS, it is a computer RAM (memory) related issue.You can remove added memory, reseat memory, swap memory location or try memory from other computer

your harddisk problem.. reinstall your windows.
first remove your hardisk and make backup copy.

remove the memory ... try again ...

there is the possibility your memory was not seated correctly and/or it is not the correct memory.

remove it to get going again ...

256 is a strange number ...

please go to www.4allmemory.com and have them scan your computer. They will make recommendations based on that scan. Compare what you got with their recommendation.

Truth is a journey not a destination

Thanks for using fixya.com

Hi four short beep codes generally means faulty ram in the first position. If the old RAM was working fine, then try using it in the other slot and see what happens. You may have damaged a pin installing the RAM, if it works in the other slot, remove it and inspect the damaged slot with a magnifying glass and see if you can spot a bent or missing pin.

Let me know how you make out,

Chris

Hi there.
The continuous beeping means that there is a problem with the memory, take the system memory out and clean the brass contacts, then reseat the memory and try to boot the PC up again.
The memory is located behind a panel underneath the laptop like this >>>>>> .

Good luck and thanks for using FixYa!!

1-3-3-1 Autosize DRAM

It is a memory problem.
Have you added new memory?
How many sticks of memory does your laptop have?
If it has 2, take one out and try to boot the unit. If it does not work, switch the memory and boot again.

If I could be of further assistance, let me know. If this helps or solves the issue, please rate it.
Thanks, Joe


I’m happy to assist further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/joe_8b8c2cd6ce148309

most likely the ram needs to be reseatedor replaced.

5 Beeps
CPU or motherboard problem