pc will not boot

[Chromed Shoes]

I have a dell inspiron 531 that will not boot up. Nothing ever shows up on the screen when I try to start the computer. Instead. I hear two consecutive beeps coming from the computer.

[Hoov]

My name is Hoov and I will be helping you with your problem. I am going to move this to the hardware board. This is a hardware issue and not a malware issue.

Are you comfortable working on the inside of your computer? Can you look inside and tell me how many sticks of memory you have?

[Chromed Shoes]

Memory modules? There are two of them

[Chromed Shoes]

Okay so I disconnected one of the memories and then reconnected them. I'm not exactly sure what had happened before but now it seems that windows boots just fine. At least for now... 

[Hoov]

Please download memtest86+ and burn it to a CD. The link is an ISO so you need to use \’Burn image to disk\’ and not just burn the file to a CD. Then reboot your computer and go into the Startup section (probably using F2 when the computer first starts, there should be a message telling you how, this is also called the BIOS) and set your computer to boot from the CDROM. Then put the CD in the drive and boot to it. Run the memory test several times, and then let me know what the results are.

[Chromed Shoes]

Hi Hoov,
Thanks for your help.
The tests completed okay. No errors were found. If you'd like, you may mark this topic as resolved.

[Hoov]

I would not call it resolved just yet. There is some maintenance that you can perform that should prevent this from happening in the future.

I am assuming you are comfortable messing with the inside of your computer. I would unseat all the expansion cards and memory cards and look at the contacts. Before handling the cards, turn off the computer and unplug it. Open the computer up and grab some bare metal part of the frame. This is to ground out any static buildup in your body. Now remove the cards. Make sure to handle them by the edges, and not by grabbing the top and bottom or the contacts on the knife edge connector.

Once you have the cards out, take a brand new pencil eraser and lightly rub it on the contacts. This will remove any oxidation on the contacts. When I say run the contacts lightly, it means don't put much pressure on it. It is possible to run the contacts right off the board. They do sell a contact cleaner pen at Radio Shack and Amazon.

Then put it all back together and boot it up.

[Chromed Shoes]

Okay I will make sure to clean the contacts.
When I disconnected the memory, I also cleaned the inside of my computer
with compressed air and cleared out any dust.
Could that have been the culprit?
Anyway, thanks again Hoov

[Hoov]

Absolutely. If the dust was bad enough it can definitely cause a problem. Several years back I had to replace a power supply on a local ladies computer. No one had ever told her about the dust issues and the dust got bad enough inside the power supply that after many intermittent problems (like yours) were ignored, it finally burst into flame. Luckily the fire was contained inside the power supply. All the user knew was the computer quit working.

One caution though. Compressed air. If you are using the canned duster bought at a store, make sure to keep the can upright. If you tip it over and the liquid is sprayed out, you can damage some of the components on the board. They will be quick frozen.

You should not be using a standard air compressor. The compressed air has to much water in it. A water separator does not remove enough water. An air dryer would work. If you do use an air compressor with an air dryer, make sure to keep the air pressure coming out of the air chuck fairly low. If you crank it up, you can blow components off the mother board.