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Thread ID: 60792	2005-08-13 05:59:00	Tech help!! Bad RAM ??	Strommer (42)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
380690	2005-08-13 05:59:00	Last week we installed new RAM, then had problems that resulted in a reformat. Some of you will remember us on this thread (pressf1.pcworld.co.nz), and to recap, here is what was stated back then: <<Today I went over to my friend's house and he roped me into putting new RAM into his PC. Fine - no problems - installed OK and the system recognized the new 512 Mb, giving a total of 768 Mb. His PC is WinXP Home, 2 GHz. OK, so far so good, booted up fine and ran a few programs. But then we ran Nortons System Works. Win Doc found a few errors, nothing major. Still all OK. Nortons Disk Doctor would not scan unless it was scheduled to start after booting, so this was done. The box was ticked to "automatically repair errors". After scanning Norton's instructed us to reboot. Now the problem arose... instead of WinXP starting, it stalls in the DOS type text and keeps rebooting. So, I hit F8 to get the Safe Mode option but the arrows (up down right left) on the keyboard do not work at all so we cannot select Safe Mode. I thought it was a faulty keyboard but it works fine on my PC. We hit the reset button a few times and also the on off button, but zilch. What to do...??? Thanks. ....from Steve and Wayne, perplexed...>> After trying lots of fixes, yesterday I did a reformat on my friend's PC and all went well. Today I installed various programs and drivers. Each time I did an installation, I made a System Checkpoint and rebooted. All was fine, but when I was simply clicking on a zip file, the PC shut down and restarted, booting to Windows but with a MS Error Message (with the option to send the message to MS, which I declined); a few seconds later the system froze, so I reset / rebooted.... did this a few times and managed to get into System Restore via Safe Mode and went back to earlier Checkpoints. Seemed to work, but no.... Cr*p, S***!, Windows would not boot up and stay. Finally there was a light blue screen suggesting that any new hardware should be removed... Ah ha ! So, it seems that the 512 of new RAM was faulty. We removed it, but could not get into Windows and were directed to install the WinXP CD and go into the Recovery Console because there was a Windows file missing (cannot recall details), and here is where we got stuck: Have a look at the screen shot here (i8.photobucket.com) ... What do we do now?? Not sure what command to put in. Questions: Would faulty RAM cause system crashes? When we removed the (apparently) faulty RAM, why were there still problems? Thanks - Steve and Wayne, exasperated and hacked off...! PS His PC is from PB Technologies and has been A-OK for 2 years since he got it new. I have dealt with PB for a few years and find them very good. However, the 512 stick of RAM has a sticker with "Warranty Void" and two circles inked out under 2002 and 2003. It seems to us that the RAM is not new, but second hand. Could this be the case?	Strommer (42)
380691	2005-08-13 09:49:00	Have a look at the screen shot here (i8.photobucket.com) ... What do we do now?? Not sure what command to put in. Questions: Would faulty RAM cause system crashes? When we removed the (apparently) faulty RAM, why were there still problems? Thanks - Steve and Wayne, exasperated and hacked off...! PS His PC is from PB Technologies and has been A-OK for 2 years since he got it new. I have dealt with PB for a few years and find them very good. However, the 512 stick of RAM has a sticker with "Warranty Void" and two circles inked out under 2002 and 2003. It seems to us that the RAM is not new, but second hand. Could this be the case? Forget that screen - you are at the recovery console where if your type HELP it shows you a list of commands that you could run. Forget it. Yes, the ram sounds dodgy to me! Take it back, complain and get a NEW piece. Then see how windows gets on.	pctek (84)
380692	2005-08-13 10:00:00	Forget that screen - you are at the recovery console where if your type HELP it shows you a list of commands that you could run. Forget it. Yes, the ram sounds dodgy to me! Take it back, complain and get a NEW piece. Then see how windows gets on. thanks - will ring my friend and tell him. But I wonder why the PC did not return to normal after we removed the suspicious RAM? Seems weird to me.	Strommer (42)
380693	2005-08-13 10:28:00	.... But I wonder why the PC did not return to normal after we removed the suspicious RAM? Seems weird to me. Most probably because if the RAM is slightly faulty, it corrupted files during OS installation, so even putting good RAM back, you may still have dodgy system files. I had exactly the same symptoms a year or two ago with Windows 98 and a 512MB stick of dodgy generic ram.	Terry Porritt (14)
380694	2005-08-13 22:43:00	Thanks Terry. Any other comments from resident experts are welcome. Yeegads, not looking forward to doing a second reformat and reinstalling all those programs and bits. :eek:	Strommer (42)
380695	2005-08-13 23:13:00	It could be worthwhile running system file checker to see if any system files need replacing. This is done by inserting the XP install CD and running the command: sfc /scannow from the 'Run' box or command line. I'm not sure what the procedure is though if SP2 is installed, I haven't actually used this tool in anger :stare:	Terry Porritt (14)
380696	2005-08-14 06:13:00	It may be that the two sticks just don't like each other. So like I had to once, decide which stick to keep. The decision wasn't very hard.	mikebartnz (21)
380697	2005-08-14 09:17:00	I"m niether a resident nor a non-resident expert Steve L but in my experience comps are such complex machines that you never really know what might go wrong. :p	mark c (247)
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