I have recently installed new RAM on my son’s PC. The machine will no longer recognise the DVD or CD drive even when I reinstate the original RAM. Can anyone help

Recognized where?

BIOS? Windows?

Do the power lights come on boot?

Did you check that you didn't bump the plugs on either the drives or the motherboard?

Unplug / replug.

my brother installed the wrong ram on a system he did, and it fried a memory slot. when he did that, one of the IDE slots stopped working as well. you might want to check something didnt accidently fry from static electricity or bad parts or somethin. i doubt this is the case here, if it recognizes the ram, but if all else fails try puttin both the HD and 1 CD drive on one IDE channel and play around with it.

Thanks for the response guys; I obviously should just have left things alone because what is glaringly apparent is that I don’t have the first idea what you’re saying. My son and I both had Dell PCs, mine went belly up and it was cheaper to buy a replacement systems unit than to have it repaired. I came up with the idea that putting the RAM from my old PC into my son’s would be useful. When I did this (I was pretty careful about static) and turned on his machine it presented me with a message saying that the RAM had changed and that no drives could be found. I don’t think I interfered with any plugs or that I loosened anything.

Thanks

John

Try putting the old RAM back in and see if it works.

If it does the RAM you tried may not be compatible.

What are the exact Dell models?

Another possibility is to clear the CMOS.

How to do this depends on the Dell model ID.

http://support.dell.com/

Thanks again, I'll try Dell suport.