Suspected RAM failure. Please help.

[korrupt]

Ok, heres the deal. I wanted to buy some more RAM but wasnt sure of exact specs on RAM, so I took out RAM had a look at it and put it back. Turned computer on but it wouldnt boot. I could only get the start up beep by holding down the reset button. So after about 15 resets it finally worked. I talked on msn etc just fine but PC froze when I opened up soldier of fortune 2. I pressed reset and the same thing started to happen, i would get the beep code by holding down reset button. It would boot up untill the windows xp logo and loading screen and then the monitor would go black and after about 5seconds turn off. So pressed reset more times, turned off power, unplugged everything except monitor and power. No luck, i tried both "last known good configuration" and "start windows normally". I also checked if RAM was in properly and changed slots. Also checked if graphics card was plugged in properly and it was. So I figured I may as well try Safe mode and voila, it worked just fine. Reset pc again but same thing happened. Decided to go into safe mode with networking and here I am. I would really appreciate any help at all. I am just about to try SOF2 again and will let you know how it goes.

Regards,

Korrupt

 

[dazzer9535]

Ok I wouldnt of taken the RAM out of the slot to check what sort of RAM it is you could of used www.crucial.com to do that for you and also installed PC Wizard to find out what MoBo you have and then you could of found out for sure how much RAM it would of taken and what type.

I would be inclined to take out the RAM and with a can of compressed air blow out the solts and also any surrounding dust also gently brush dust away with a soft small artists brush (not to soft tho).

Then reseat the RAM also I hope you disconnected the PC whilst doing this and didnt walk across a fluffy carpet in your best silk pants or you could ofcourse ruin the Chip with a static discharge so an anti static wrist strap and pad would be a good idea, (if you click on PC Wizard its an .exe)

 

[korrupt]

thanks for your quik reply,

I was recomended by an IT professional to take out the ram to check it because according to her those diagnostic programs can be confusing to use.

I had concidered those things too, but its weird that it works 100% fine in safe mode but is absolutely screwed normal mode.

i dont have an anti static wrist band or pad, but i was assured by her that as long as i wasnt wearing silk and as you said walking across fluffy carpet, it would be fine. Yes, pc was turned off and disconnected.

What do you mean by "reseat the RAM"

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Regards,

Korrupt

PS: I am currently running memtest and so far it is at 1500% without any errors.

 

[Tedster]

have you gotten any BSODS?

 

[korrupt]

no, no problems at all untill now.

Regards,

Korrupt

 

[dazzer9535]

In meaning reseat the RAM I meant take it out of the slot then reinstall reseat is just shorter to type, well it was until I did this reply

Also PC Wizard is really quite simple to use all you would of had to do is click on the mainboard icon then crossed reference with the MoBo manufacturer.

Its very handy as Crucial gave me the correct type of RAM but said 1gig was maximum I then crossed referenced this with PC Wizard and my MoBo specs from Hewlett Packard and the max is 256 so Crucial got it wrong, but Crucial did get me the correct RAM to buy via their website.

Just a couple of screenshots

 

[korrupt]

Thank you so much for your indepth reply.

After running a memtest for about 5 hours with no errors i knew it wasnt RAM. Anyways, this morning I turned it on and it worked fine. I havnt yet tried SOF2 which is where it last stuffed up but will do that later.

Once again, thanks for the reply, I will use that prog from now on

Regards,

Korrupt