My friend has an old computer with 3 memory slots, and only one memory card, an Apacer 512MB UNB PC2700 CL2.5 The problem is:
- Starting the computer by using slot 1 and 2 "rarely" work (fans spin, but no display and no "ok beep sound"). They worked, sometimes (passing POST and display working)
- Slot 3 always work, I can pass POST but impossible to load windows, not even in safe mode, the screen freeze while loading the files.
- Memtest86+ load thousands of errors in test #1, the kind of "Expected: ff, actual: 00"
- Using a windows dvd to boot give an error at "line 1773 of arcdisp.c" which is typically a ram issue, according to microsoft.
- Using a ubuntu cd fail with error: boot loader file not found, another typical ram issue, according to ubuntu
- Sometimes just after the beep of POST, BIOS hang forever instead of displaying "512MB ram ok"
This is how I concluded that ram is the problem, but having only one memory card I cannot test another one to determine if the problem is the card itself or the motherboard. Please don't tell me that buying a decent computer would be better, I know this, but it's not mine and I have a chance to learn to dicern a ram or motherboard issue.
So, it is the ram or the motherboard?
Thank you!