 Decreasing Memory Failure?, need help please |
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 May 16 2007, 10:00 AM
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New Member  Group: Members Posts: 7 Joined: 13-May 07 Member No.: 130,652  |
i recently had a virus and decided to reformat my hard drive. the first few times my computer was booted and rebooted (after installing updates and whatnot), everything was fine. but now, when i boot my computer, it beeps and i get a black screen saying something to the sort: hardware failure: decreasing memory. your system memory has changed. when i go to system in the control panel, indeed it shows currently i have 796 MB of RAM when i have actually installed 1GB. i have never seen this error before. and before the reformat, my computer worked with this RAM just fine. im running a Dell Dimension 4550 Pentium 4 -2.52 mhz Windows XP SP2 dual RAM = 1.0GB any suggestions please? |
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May 16 2007, 11:07 AM
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arachibutyrophobia Group: BC Advisor Posts: 4,951 Joined: 4-March 05 From: Northern CA. Member No.: 13,532 |
How is this 1GB of RAM configured, 2x512MB, 4x256MB.
You could download Memtest 86 and run it to see what condition your RAM is in. -------------------- Lord, may we please have a little more chlorine in the gene pool?
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May 16 2007, 11:37 PM
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 7 Joined: 13-May 07 Member No.: 130,652 |
its 2 sticks of 512.
and i am not understanding how to install that memtest thing ? i will try to clean the sticks or something. but i really have no idea whats going on. |
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May 17 2007, 11:34 AM
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 Still visually handicapped, new avatar :0) Group: Moderator Posts: 14,703 Joined: 2-October 05 From: Southeastern CT, USA Member No.: 35,824 |
Memtest has instructions on their website on how to run the tests, please follow them for the best results.
Bascially, what you've got to do is: 1) download the memtest program that's designed for a CD 2) use an ISO burning application to properly burn the ISO format to the CD Here is a free one that I like: http://www.ntfs.com/iso-burning.htm 3) boot from the CD and let the test run. If it starts showing errors, you can stop the test. Errors indicate a likely failure of your memory. 4) you can switch the RAM modules around to see which one's have errors and which don't (running the test on each one). -------------------- - John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. ** |
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May 28 2007, 05:41 PM
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New Member Group: Members Posts: 10 Joined: 27-August 06 Member No.: 82,509 |
QUOTE(viruses suck @ May 16 2007, 11:37 PM)  its 2 sticks of 512. and i am not understanding how to install that memtest thing ? i will try to clean the sticks or something. but i really have no idea whats going on. Just download memtest86 and burn iso file to cd with MagicISO. http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-burnwin.htm |
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