[dancingdolphin]

Two days after the warranty on my Packard Bell Easynote M5 ran out, I was trying to shrink a dvd and burn a copy when the computer shut down without warnings or error messages. Since then, I reinstalled Windows XP Pro, and that's when things really got bad: not only did I still have the problem with dvd shrinking, but I found lots of drivers were missing (modem, vga, sound, and more). After downloading and installing all the drivers, I was back to square one: still had the dvd problem.

At that point, I wasn't sure what the problem was, so I purchased Error Killer, and it found a couple hundred errors that it claims to have fixed. Still have the dvd problem, but I was actually able to shrink a few before it shut down in the middle of one again. I timed it and the shut down occurs after roughly 15 minutes, don't know if that means anything.

Two days ago, I used Movie Maker to put together some of my photos and add some music, etc. All worked well, the project saved ok, then when I tried to burn to hard drive or cd, the computer shut down. I tried again and that's when I got the error message that said the virtual memory was low and the paging file size was being changed. Restarted the computer, opened Movie Maker, opened the saved project...as soon as it opened it shut down.

Tried reinstalling Movie Maker, but that didn't fix the problem.

I have looked at several "help"sites on the web, and have tried changing the size of the paging file. Also tried turning off auto restart in startup/recovery settings, and followed the advise on the box that came up (to restart computer and run computer management/services/ etc. We still have a problem...

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Click start

Right click My Computer

Click properties

Click advanced

Click settings for performance

Click advanced

Click change for virtual memory

Put the dot in system managed

Click set

Click OK

Reboot

[Retired Tech]

Click start

Right click My Computer

Click properties

Click advanced

Click settings for performance

Click advanced

Click change for virtual memory

Put the dot in system managed

Click set

Click OK

Reboot

[dancingdolphin]

Tried that...rebooted and opened movie maker, then opened saved project. soon as it was finished opening, the computer shut down. think i may have a ram failure, but not sure. not very good with windows xp

[Retired Tech]

Click this for a guide to using Memtest


Click this to download Memtest


Run it overnight if possible

Have you run disc clean up and disc defragmenter recently

[dancingdolphin]

Yes, have run both in the past couple days, but will run both again to make sure. will run memtest tonight and see what happens.

[dancingdolphin]

Ran disk cleanup and defrag, then memtest. First run through, memtest got to 46% then computer crashed. Second run only got to 14%, third run through crashed the computer as soon as it started the tests.

[Retired Tech]

How may sticks of RAM Memory are installed

[dancingdolphin]

Not sure how or where to find that information. However, since this problem started, I checked the basic info in my computer/properties and the amount of ram seems to have changed (gone done to 244). Just installed and ran a pc pitstop program called optimize and media player is now working but i still have the crash problem with dvd shrink.

link to the optimize program:
http://pcpitstop.com...re/optimize.asp

[Retired Tech]

Possibly 512 and the figure you have is available resources

Have you opened a PC case before

[dancingdolphin]

not sure how or where to find this info. however, i am sure that i had more ram before this mess started. now if i look in my computer/properties, i have only 244 meg of ram. i seem to have fixed the problem with movie maker, as it now works, but the system still crashes if i try to shrink a dvd.

[dancingdolphin]

yes, but that was back in the days of win 98 and it wasn't a laptop... i guess i feel reasonably comfortable with finding the ram. will give it a go and get back to you when i can.

[Retired Tech]

Most likely 512 and you have 244 available left after windows starts up

Have you looked on the manufacturer's site, some laptops can have a flap where the memory is, otherwise laptops are best left unopened

[dancingdolphin]

Opened up what I could get at but couldn't see ram. just hard drive, motherboard, etc. closed it up after that, as i would have to literally pull the whole thing to pieces to look further (i only opened the slots that were easily accessible, as the other sets of screws separate the case completely - or that's the way it looks.

[Retired Tech]

Unless the memory is stored under a seperate flap, you may want to consider getting a shop to look at it

[dancingdolphin]

OK, will do that. Thanks for all the assistance, it was great to chat with you and I learned a lot regardless of the outcome. The packard bell easynote lives on board our yacht, dancing dolphin, and we are currently doing maintenance work on her before our next trip. only going up the coast to follow the sun this year.

thanks again!!!!