My goodness, how long was he in the house to charge that much Jane? Perhaps over time you should ask around for recommendations on someone with a slightly lower standard of living.

At least Dell came to the rescue and got you up and running again.

wow Jane expensive for sure, I know the techs that do in home work are more expensive, seems a little high though.
I knew the mouse had to be involved, some of them do let you select different "channels/frequency" if you will, so that you do not have them interfere with each other or other wireless devices.
I was just reading about how dangerous those types of wireless devices are becoming, the bad guys have created devices that will get right into that wireless signal and can do some damage. Much like how they would do the drive by for wireless router connections now they have them for other pc wireless devices. I am no longer using a wireless mouse or keyboard on my main pc, still carry a little one with my netbook at times.
Kit attacks Microsoft keyboards (and a whole lot more)
Electromagnetic Scanners Can Detect What YouÂre Typing Right Now

Wow, that is amazing about 'hacking' a mouse. Maybe I should rethink using the keyboard and mouse. I just hate all the wires.

The going rate in my area is $190.00 per hour. He was at my place for about 1/2hr. I was stunned when he told me what the charge was. I had asked him about putting some memory in an old desktop (8yrs old) and he said it wouldn't be worth the service call. He would have to charge the $190.00. I decided to 'bite the bullet' and order the memory on line and put it in myself. I can get 1G for $49.95. Never did it before, but the machine is so old I'm not too worried about killing it.

Jane

I'm curious as to why you didn't call Dell tech support in the first place since your computer was under warranty.

I too ended up with a new motherboard in my Dell after it was about 4 1/2 years old....free and had it and installed the day after talking to tech support.

Sue

Jane once the RAM arrives just Google 'install ram' without the quotes and you will find Youtube videos showing you how easy it really is. You have done tougher stuff than that so it should be a simple task for you.

Be cool remove the power cord and rest your bare hand or arm on the metal frame to protect the parts as you work and you will do just fine. You go girl!

memory install is quite easy you can do it! If you worry about the static charge just stop by any electronics store and pick up a wrist band. It has a clip that clips on to the metal of the case and straps around your wrist to you are safely grounded and can not damage the pc with a static charge. They are very cheap.
You should be able to look up your model of the pc and probably find pictures of the inside of it and where the memory is exactly.

Owbist, you are too funny! Glad you have so much faith in me. I watched the Dell tech take apart the computer. He laid it on a chair, popped off the side and started pulling things out. I watched him and commented about static electricity and he pointed to his wrist. I saw a colored band. He worked so fast I was amazed. Just slapped everything back in and left.

I'll order the memory and you can bet I'll be posting. I will look at the UTube video first.

Chemocurl, I called the tech because I thought it was a wireless problem I couldn't solve. My pages would stop loading and my wireless adapter kept shutting off. It never occurred to me that it was a computer problem. I thought I changed a setting which had everything messed up. I would not have called Dell except that the first tech told me he thought the problem seemed to be the motherboard.

Jane

Installing memory is indeed simple if you do the right prework. Make sure you order the right type of memory. Machines differ. The type should be specified in your manual, but googling your machine model and "memory type" should get you there. Also, most machines come with 2 memory slots, and the chips in use are usually matched pairs. If you currently have 1GB of memory, chances are you have 2, 500MB chips installed. So, if you are upgrading to 2GB, you will need 2, 1GB chips. Lastly, if this is a 32 bit machine, it can't address more than 4GB of memory, so ordering more than that is a waste of money.

I like to use belarc to make sure what is in the machine and what it can hold and exactly what kind of memory it uses.

Here is a link that might be useful: belarc

Thanks sofapud and Ravencajun. The computer only has 512 memory. It has two slots available. I ran a Crucial scan and it said I could add memory up to 4GB total. I won't do that but I was going to add two 512MB sticks which will bring me to 1.5GB. That's plenty for that old machine. It will cost $45.98 for the two sticks.

I think its worth a shot.

Jane

Woah Jane. Unless I am mistaken the quote of '2 slots available' means just that, you have a total of 2 slots. You already have one populated leaving you just one. Check before making the purchase then you might consider one stick of 1 gig. Doing this you should remove the original and place the new, larger stick in the first slot and the 512 in the second one.

Yes, I agree with owbist on the two slots. Jane, I know you can do it. I've done it twice for myself, and twice for friends of mine. If this 70+ year old great granny can do it, I know you can!

Thanks for the 'heads-up Grandms, this 61 yr old is going to give it a shot. Too darn expensive to hire someone to do it. Grandms, how did you ground yourself? These things make me very nervous.

Owbist, the scan shows 4 slots. Two with 256MB each, two empty. I'm assuming I could put two sticks of 512 in each of the empty slots? I'll leave the 256's. When the $200.00 tech was here, I showed him the Crucial scan and he took a look inside the machine. He saw 2 empty slots. He did say one was not easy to get to. He also said it really needed to be cleaned. At that time he thought I was going to hire him. After paying his bill, I changed my mind.

Jane

Maybe I should just take out the 256's and replace those with 512 each and not try to reach the empty slots.

Jane

Check your manual Jane, you have 2 slots each for two different configurations of RAM. Probably/possible 2 for DDR or DDR1 and the other two for DDR2

When DDR came out there was only the first one so no point in calling it DDR1, however on the arrival of DDR2 and now DDR3 some saw the need to add the 1 to the original.

Jane, I just make sure some part of my anatomy is touching the metal part of the case. LOL! Usually an elbow or wrist.

Now I'm totally confused. The computer is about 8 yrs old. The Crucial scan says.
Your Dell Dimension 4600 specifications

256MB DDRPC2700 - 256 MB DDR PC2700

Empty Empty

Each memory slot can hold DDR PC2700 DDR PC3200 with a maximum of 1GB per slot

Maximum Memory Capacity - 4096MB
Currently Installed Memory - 512
Available Memory Slots - 2
Total Memory Slots: 4
Dual Channel Support: Yes
CPU Manufacturer - GenuineIntel
CPU Family: Intel (R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz Model 2, Stepping 9
CPU Speed 2992 MHZ

Our suggested upgrades
1.5 GB Total

512MB current memory
256 256

1GB New Memory added
512MB 512MB
Total: 1.5 GB
US $45.98

What do you think?

Thanks,
Jane

How much would it cost to get 2 GB? It might not be a lot more to get 2-1 GB chips than it is to get 2-512 MB chips. I'd go that route, if the difference isn't too great.

Ah, sorry to confuse you Jane. The older computers do have 4 similar slots as yours appears to have but then they changed to two pairs so people had an option of what to install and memory sticks got larger also.

I buy my memory from newegg.com which is so much cheaper. I usually get the kingston brand.
I agree it would likely not be much more to get the 2 1 gig sticks and that would really be where you want to be memory wise.
Here is a link to a newegg search for the DDR PC3200 memory
DDR PC3200
you only want to look at the ones listed for desktop NOT laptop.
at the top of that search page you can also look at the related search for the DDR PC2700 your pc can take either I usually go with the 3200.

Here is one from buy.com
Results

sofaspud - funny username :)

Really clever for couch potato! :)