Hello,

I tried upgrading my RAM and something didn't turn out quite right. I have a Dell Dimension 8400 and 2 memory sticks in it. I have the specs for them on the online manual at dell's official website.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8400/SM/specs.htm#wp1052308

I BOUGHT 2 1GB memory sticks and replaced my old 256MB ones as instructed by the online manual. After all is done, I boot up my computer and I get a black screen on my monitor. I checked out troubleshooting at kbytememory.com (the brand of the memory I bought) and it said the black screen comes from having the wrong type of memory. But it seems to me LIKE it's the right one.

Being kind of worried, I took out my 1GB RAMs and put back my 256MB ones, surprisingly, the screen went black again. Now I don't know what to do. The lights at the back of my desktop are all green.

Hopefully, those of you have upgraded RAM before can lend me a hand.
Greatly appreciated,
Wess.

if you were not grounded properly the static electricity could have fried your system!!! maybe one of the experts can help you more.What type of memory are the new ones ? ?
Did you make any changes in the BIOS ? ?hello
the (2)1GB memory is like giving a 2yrs old boy to carry a monitor.and it can cease the board .
what i know is that you can upgrade it but the memory is too much for the machine.
and i dont know the type of machine and its pentium. And it sometimes depends on the brand memory you put in the machine.and dont know other you made changes in the BIOS too. BUT try disssembling the macchine and assemble it again but if problem insist, change some of the devices with the same brand.
thanx.I did ground myself before the procedure, and the memory is 1GB DDR2 Non-ECC DIMM 533-MHz.

I don't know anything about BIOS, I read somewhere where I might have to restart my BIOS after installing a new upgrade but I don't really know where to go or how to to do it.

Thanks~If you dont see any image on the screen then I would suspect that the video card came unseated while you were inside the machine. Try taking it out and reseating it. While you are in there CHECK to make sure you have a tight connection on all of your cables.

Do you hear any beeps when the computer is booting up? Sometimes you have to use a small bit of force to get the RAM sticks to snap into the slots and lock into place. Are you sure that the memory is completely locked down? There should be two locking arms that snap up to let you know you have it in there right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiFIgSQOY7g

Have you tried a different monitor, just to rule that out as the culprit.

If your motherboard has onboard video and a video card, there will be two places on the back of your computer that the monitor will plug into. Are you sure you have the monitor plugged into the right port?

Wess before you suspect something horrible you should DLoad and consult your MBoard manual from Dell...Sadly, I do suspect something horrible, the manual does not appear to solve my problem.

In response to JJ, my monitor actually does start up. I see the Dell screen where it says F2 for System Setup and F12 for Boot Menu. I also see the Windows XP load but once I get to the login screen, that's when my monitor blacks out. I tried connecting the monitor to my laptop and it seems to work just fine.

I don't hear any beeps when I turn on my computer.

I also do believe it has onboard video because I have two cords that CONNECT my monitor to my desktop. One of them is blue and one white. Actually, I tried starting my computer up with only my blue cord plugged-in and i actually get to my login in screen. When I log in however, it freezes.OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO i think i found my problem.

"The computer boots but the screen is blank.
The most common reason for a blank screen is a dislodged card, memory not fully seated, or memory the computer doesn't support. Confirm that the memory is installed properly and that other components in the computer were not accidentally disconnected or dislodged while you installed memory.

Double-check that you have the right part number for the computer. If you have nonparity memory in a computer that requires error-checking memory, or SDRAM memory in a computer that supports only EDO, the screen may be blank at boot up."

I think i must've bumped something out of place because I definitely have the right RAM. Can anyone tell me how I am to know exactly what is out of place? Can I FIND the answer in my manual?If you can get an image on the screen then I would suspect it is a problem with your operating system.
When you start up press F2 to go into setup. Once there, just leave it alone for a while. Does the monitor stay on?
If it does then it is a problem with windows. Start the computer back up and tap F8 as it is booting. This will take you to the advanced startup menu. Choose Safe Mode and press enter. Can you get into windows now?
Oh cool, Windows starts up on safe mode. Thats a relief. But it still doesn't work when I don't go into safe mode.At the advanced startup screen, try the last known good configuration. If that doesn't work, go back into safe mode. Here you just want to try some simple things first. Do a disk cleanup, defrag and run checkdisk. The next thing I would try, if those dont work, is System Restore.