Dell has been building machines that are more picky about RAM since Haswell with DDR3L, so you need to stick to using quality RAM in anything newer than Ivy Bridge if you aren’t working with original modules (usually Samsung or OEM Micron). I usually recommend Crucial (Micron) or Kington in the Dells since it seems to be the most compatible. They aren’t as picky as HP (the BIOS will reject modules with a RAM error at POST if the timing is inconsistent on Elite and Z), but Dell has clamped down on the tolerances with the newer computers. The days of throwing parts bin RAM are mostly over if it uses DDR3L or newer.
It sounds like you may have spilled something on the motherboard since you mentioned IPA - if you’ve already tried to repair it at the board level, then usually that means there’s serious damage somewhere that cannot be repaired. Might be time for a new motherboard or laptop; the board are expensive.
Look at it this way, especially on the RAM tolerances Dell has pushed on: I miss the days when you can get whatever is cheap on eBay as long as it works with 1.5V DDR3, but they had to do it because the voltage tolerance between DDR3 and DDR3L was reduced by .2V; DDR4 bumps that to .3V, so it was unavoidable. You can’t get away with accepting anything that’s in the slot when you went from 1.5V down to 1.2V! Even then, it was better to use good RAM, but it usually worked if you got it cheap and were okay with the genuine risk of a no POST error.
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crwdns2944067:04crwdne2944067:0
Hi,
Did you remove the battery from the laptop, before cleaning the motherboard, you didn't say?
With the battery connected, there is still power on the motherboard even though the laptop is turned off. Think of the laptop as being in an extremely low power state and not completely disconnected from the power. The Power On button is not a power isolating button. It is used to signal the user's intentions to the BIOS
Even IPA will conduct electricity when it is still wet and hasn't evaporated.
Why was it necessary to clean the motherboard?
crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0 jayeff crwdne2934271:0
@jayeff Yeah I'm asking the same question as you on the IPA cleaning. If it was dust, canned air would have been enough. If OP didn't understand how intolerant new Dells are, then they may have did a number on their laptop for no good reason.
Reason I mentioned the intolerance to "cheap" RAM on the new Dells is I abused how tolerant the old DDR2 boards are as a kid as a necessity (now cheapness), so I know how much is too much - the extreme tolerances like being able to put different modules ended with the stricter JDEC standards. I blame JDEC for Dell tightening the play levels more, rather than Dell getting mad at people for playing compatibility gambles (people abusing the compatibility tolerance without proper research/testing for many years did no favors either).
Even my D630 runs a mixed pair (Kingston top/SK Hynix bottom), but instead of whatever I could throw at it like I did back then, I matched as much as I can for a speed bump (matched 533>mixed 667, but I keep the original 533 RAM around just in case). I no longer recommending "abusing" how tolerant your board is due to how strict even the JDEC standard is - save that compatibility lottery for old machines you treat as "toys"! Dell went from "a module is a module, figure it out if it isn't too insanely off", to "we have to tighten up how far people can take this" within 1 GENERATION of machines (Ivy>Haswell).
crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0 Nick crwdne2934271:0
@jayeff i have one more laptop which is very old and i clean it with isopropyl ones in a few years. It is still working. My dell laptop i removed the cable, battery, all the stuffs and kept pressing on power button for one minute to drain out remaining current from motherboard and then opened it and took the motherboard apart to clean and wipe using a ear bud. I returned each part very slowly and carefully back to its place. And even though the motherboard doesn't respond. There is no signs of burn any where on board except this caps lock thing.
crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0 Pranov George crwdne2934271:0
@nick i added an extra ram to it since the model of the lap was very slow from begining.and i noticed some other things too.the laptop processor only comes with 2.2ghz speed.and after i added an extra 8gb ram and updated the drivers and windows important updates .the system became normal as any other laptops .note: (i did not install official graphics driver from dell instead installed the supported intel driver).which give me more fps during game play and more performance. Also, official driver accelerator of dell .after all installed when i opened task manager i found the speed of laptop is now 3.4ghz. i realise peoples complaint about dell being slow is because, they dont do windows updates and latest version of drivers.this is very important for dell laptops. My sony or hp laptop never needed such precisions to perform its best.
crwdns2934271:0crwdnd2934271:0 Pranov George crwdne2934271:0