[Rolan]

Ok, I have an emachines T1140 Desktop PC. Anyway, I turned on my computer just the other day and It started giving me errors, saying that the memory could not be 'read'. Then these errors kept occurring. Then the next day my system32 file was corrupted so windows would not load. I then formatted my computer, reinstalled windows and checked the disk for errors. None were found. This computer, by the way, has never touched the internet.(and at this rate probably never will)

When I rebooted everything seemed fine, I installed game, started to play it, then my game closed and I got one of those standard windows must close this application thingys. I rebooted my computer, then when everything had loaded a message popped up saying that the video card was having an error. And that's about where I am right now. Considering whether I should buy a new motherboard, or get new ram, or neither.


thx all

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Welcome to G2G Rolan

this sounds very typical of a RAM failure to me. If I were you, I would download memtest from this link :
http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Select the pre-compiled package for floppy (DOS-Win). Once downloaded, extract the files (make sure you have a new floppy disk inserted) & double click the 'install.bat' file. This will create a bootable floppy disk containing memtest.

You can then boot from the disk (this may require you to change the boot priority order in the bios first) & run memtest.
Note, running memtest often takes a long time so be prepared to let it run overnight.

Let me know what happens.

NB, if you have more than one stick of ram in the system, you should remove all except one stick before running memtest. If the remaining stick passes, then remove it & add a different one until you locate the faulty stick.

[Samm]

Welcome to G2G Rolan

this sounds very typical of a RAM failure to me. If I were you, I would download memtest from this link :
http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Select the pre-compiled package for floppy (DOS-Win). Once downloaded, extract the files (make sure you have a new floppy disk inserted) & double click the 'install.bat' file. This will create a bootable floppy disk containing memtest.

You can then boot from the disk (this may require you to change the boot priority order in the bios first) & run memtest.
Note, running memtest often takes a long time so be prepared to let it run overnight.

Let me know what happens.

NB, if you have more than one stick of ram in the system, you should remove all except one stick before running memtest. If the remaining stick passes, then remove it & add a different one until you locate the faulty stick.

[Kemasa]

Testing the memory is a good first step.

Another possible problem is the power supply. Without good power, nothing will work right. You might also want to check the fans to make sure that everything is working since a cooked computer will have problems. Clean all the vents and inside the machine.

[Rolan]

Ok so I downloaded that ram check thing, and its been running for around 27 hours, repeating the same tests over and over again. So, I don't think its going to finish the whole process. I'm not sure if this means my ram is corrupt or what, I imagine it does. Anyway, I look forward to your replies

[Samm]

That behaviour for memtest is normal - it will keeping runnng in loops. Sorry, I should have warned you about that!

Do you have more than one stick of ram in the system & if so, did you test the other sticks as well?

[Rolan]

Ok, so I stopped the memtest and I got these error results:
Test0:0
Test1: 1477
Test2:
Test3:
Test4:
Test5:24189
Test6:22835
Test7:
Test8:26037
Test9:0
Test10:0

This is the error report.

There is only one stick of RAM.

I take it my RAM is done then?

thx

[Doby]

Yep with that many errors its bad

[Samm]

Doby's right, your ram is almost certainly toast. If you want to be absolutely certain though, move the ram to a different slot & run memtest again. If you still get the errors, then it's definately the ram. If you don't get errors this time, then it could be the ram slot instead.