[carbuncle]

Hi

I have an Athlon 2000 machine, I bought two sticks of 512mb SD Ram and fitted to make 1GB.

Everything worked fine for about 12 months when my machine started showing BSOD and I thought it was memory related due to the info in the BSOD. It seemed to happen when i was trying to play DVD movies more than anything.

I unplugged one stick and it ran fine with no problems, i unplugged that stick and put the other back in (presuming that was the dodgy stick and my machine would no longer run) to check it for sure but it ran as well as the other stick did?

This happened a while ago and i have been running the machine with one stick installed but thought id give it another go, installed the second stick again, no problems with booting up, 1GB is recognised, open up the Everest software to get an overview of the machine and both sticks recognised no worries there.

Put a DVD in to play and the machine crashed again, took the stick out and no problem playing the same DVD.

I have a feeling there is nothing wrong with the sticks, so is it a XP setting that has been changed perhaps which needs to be altered back?

Any help greatly appreciated.

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Are these a matched set of RAM, ie same manufacturer and part number? You could test the memory using memtest 86. Get it at http://www.memtest.org/

[austin_o]

Are these a matched set of RAM, ie same manufacturer and part number? You could test the memory using memtest 86. Get it at http://www.memtest.org/

[carbuncle]

Hi Austin thanks for the quick reply

According to Everest they come out as the same memory set and they were working fine for ages before the problems arose, do you think it could be the memory slot on the motherboard that has packed in? although it doesn't issue any problems when booting up or running normal programs.

[ultimateslacker2]

That RAM stick is probably dead.

You can run memtest86 on it if you would like.

Do you have a floppy drive?

[carbuncle]

Hi Yield

Not a working floppy drive no, the strange thing about that stick is that is works fine when on its own in place of the one i have now? which made me suspect possible problems with the actual slot in the motherboard?

[Samm]

Hi Carbuncle

I think you could be right about the ram socket being the problem, as opposed to either of the 2 sticks.
You could try running a single stick of ram in the second socket (i.e the socket that the second stick would normally be in when running 2 sticks). If you get problems then, you'll know it's the socket causing them.

[ultimateslacker2]

Well just to make sure,
Use the working memory stick as Samm said in the other socket(broken one) to see if it's the socket.

Than if it is, try using the (suspected bad stick) in the good slot just to be sure your suspected bad ram stick is not faulty too.


-Yield22

[carbuncle]

Thanks for the replys guys and gals

Put the stick in the other slot and booted up or rather it wouldn't boot up just kept beeping.

So looks like the problems solved for now thanks.

Quick question though? can a memory slot be repaired or is it offically finished.

[Samm]

You could check the slot for any obvious damage or foreign objects but on the whole, it's not repairable or not worth repairing.