Hello,
My packard bell PC (2.6Ghz pentium4, 512MB RAM DDR, bought during 2004 from New Zealand) is not powering up since last night when I tried to upgrade the memory from 512MB to 1.5GB.
New 1GB memory could fit in the spare slot but as soon as I powered it up, I smelled something burning so I removed new memory leaving the OLD one as is.
After that I got the message that "primary/secondary slaves not FOUND", "S.M.A.R.T. disabled"
since then the machine doesn't start at all. When I push the power button, it checks for DVD drive and after that nothing happens (fan keep on running though).
Have I managed to burn the memory and slots as well!!! Is there anything I can do to fix this or the machine is now garbage!!!!!
Please help.
Thx.Motherboard is shot.... I'd look for new system given that Packard Bells are usually not a universal case and trying to install a new motherboard may lead to further problems..sorry!

First time I heard of SMOKING Ram with attempted upgrade since the good old days of pinned memory 20+ years ago in which the 4k or 16K memory chip could be inserted backwards 180 degrees out putting pin 1 in the opposite corner of the socket.

Was an expensive mistake then too ... first system I smoked was a TRS-80 Model 1 trying to mod it from an article in TRS 80 Magazine to make it faster... didnt work out so well for a 10 year old, radio shack parts, and a soldering iron... we all learn the hard way at one time or another. Boy I dont miss Cassette Loading with Tape Recorder... Maybe some others here have had the fun of punch cards before magnetic media (off subject so I will end that )..again sorry for your loss!