What burning software are you using?

I think it`s more likely your haven`t burned it as an image file, or you did something wrong when you extracted Memtest.

Regards Howard

not only do i think you're right about that, but i hope you are. i will go over it again tomorrow. it's highly likely that i will try another disk. maybe it was a bad disk. i'll be back tomorrow hoping to run this memtest, and hopfully see that the memory in my computer is fine. thanks again and have a good night. Ed James

Ok mate, no problem.

You still haven`t said what burning software you use.

Regards Howard

howard,
the info you requested.
from help: presario PC 182A-ABA CD ROM drive (E) manufacturer (Standard) model ASUS CRW-4832AS Driver cdrom.sys Thursday, June 24, 2004 Supported Memory RAM capacity 256MB
from control panel>system: xp home edition version 2002 service pack 2 Intel(R) celeron(R) CPU 2.53GHz 248 MB of RAM.
from the sticker on the tower: presario SR1103WM Prod# PC182A

i have also spent a few hours going thru the control panel and my computer hoping to find anything that would explain why the computer is not reading the disk. in the meantime, it probably wouldn't hurt to try another disk. i will be keeping an eye out for you. thanks again, Ed James

a long time has passed and my computer expertise has improved significantly.
i solved my memtest problem. a poster suggested that there was a special way of burning the ISO to the disk. i received a tip to try this programme.

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

i recommend for anyone downloading this programme, and perhaps any other ISO burning programme, that temporarily disabling antivirus, antispyware, and firewall may be necessary. i always temporarily disable my AV and AS, but it would not download without disabling my firewall.

once i downloaded and installed isorecorder, i downloaded the memtest iso file and right clicked on it (the iso icon). the isorecorder automatically takes over the process. once a pop-up saying "burning or the iso file is complete" has been displayed, and the disk tray pops open. the successful, useable memtest disk is made and ready to use.

as was advised to me, without a specific iso burner, i could have burned and wasted 1000 disks, and tried each of them 1000 times and none of them would ever work.

once the useable disk is made, i reclosed the tray, and restarted the computer. after the "compaq" screen (my computer is a compaq), a blue screen with "memtest 86" in red appears with text that is definitely indicative of a memory test being done. the blue "memtest 86" screen appears almost immediately after the "compaq" screen. not even a half minute passes before the test takes place. when the memtest is running, you definitely know it.

thanks to howard for the many, many times he helped me.