Resolved Blank screen, won't boot.

Hi guys,
I have been working on a Dell Inspiron 1520. When you hit the power button you can hear the hard drive start and that's it, nothing on screen, within a minute it powers down and you can hear the hard drive stop.

I tried to boot with emergency disc but no go. Followed the Dell troubleshooter which got to the point of removing the memory module, hit the power and it booted. Still got some issues with file corruption but I know how to fix that, it's running the laptop without a memory module that has baffled me.

I always thought that a PC could not operate without a memory stick connected. We live and learn, I guess this laptop is just using virtual memory to operate?

Is it possible for most PC's to run without a memory stick?

Can a memory stick malfunction to a point where it will cause a blank screen and stop the PC booting? Or could this be due to the corruption on the hard drive as well. The PC now boots every time, albeit slow without a memory module.

Just a bit of information on this would be great

 

OMG Who would have thought there was another dimm under the keyboard (guess I should have read the manual), I've just learned another big lesson.

Many thanks PeteC, so I was right in my original assumption that a PC will not run without memory inserted?

And, can a faulty memory module, alone, stop the PC from booting and showing just a blank screen?

Just running a surface scan on HD and its showing three groups of LBA errors, 4793347/8/9, 6393221/2, 33168558/9/0. Thats at 88% so might be some more, are these bad sectors repairable with formattiing or...?

 

If you need to replace the Memory: 1st remove the battery. I would replace both Modules. According to Dell you have to install them in this order first the bottom module then the module under the keyboard. Asked the dell tech why in that order his reply, "cause that's just the way it is ".

 

Yup, got that Ij50, thankyou. Don't think the order you fit them in matters but the manual does say that if you are only using one module to fit it in slot A which is under the keyboard.

 

OK, thank you very much for the advise