OT - Symptoms of bad memory (RAM)

[traceyp]

Hi everyone,

I'm sure that some folk on this forum have suffered from bad memory (no, not that memory -although mine's bad enough). I'm talking here about RAM.

I've been having some problems just recently which makes me wonder whether I may have some grot RAM. My PC seems to slow down in a big way and crash for no apparent reason more so than it always has done. Can someone give me some idea of the symptoms of RAM failure?

I'm generally able to work out what has gone wrong and put it right myself to the extent of replacing motherboards. However, memory is another matter.

Any help would be most appreciated. Many thanks.

Tracey

[traceyp]

Hi everyone,

I'm sure that some folk on this forum have suffered from bad memory (no, not that memory -although mine's bad enough). I'm talking here about RAM.

I've been having some problems just recently which makes me wonder whether I may have some grot RAM. My PC seems to slow down in a big way and crash for no apparent reason more so than it always has done. Can someone give me some idea of the symptoms of RAM failure?

I'm generally able to work out what has gone wrong and put it right myself to the extent of replacing motherboards. However, memory is another matter.

Any help would be most appreciated. Many thanks.

Tracey

[Soquili]

Hi Tracey,

Some PCs have a memory diagnostic in their BIOS. Have you checked to see if you PC has one?

If it doesn't, you could download a shareware memory diagnostic from GoldMemory. I haven't tried it yet, just found and downloaded it myself.

There is also a commercial memory diagnotic available from Ultra-X. I couldn't find a demo or a price on their website.

Soquili

[davezub]

I've used this utility a lot at work and is very reliable:

DocMemory

Forgot - it's free!

Dave Zubrowski

Xara FAQ

[This message was edited by David Zubrowski on December 30, 2002 at 19:32.]

[Gaussian]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by David Zubrowski:
I've used this utility a lot at work and is very reliable:
Forgot - it's free!
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Only for a limited time David [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

One program that's really free and is used by me and most of my IT buddies;

http://www.memtest86.com/

[gwpriester]

If you hard drive is getting full this could be a problem as well. Applications will use hard drive space to store temporary information and if the scratch disc area the application is using is not large enough, problems can arise.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


The Xara Xone

[davezub]

Gaussian,

I also use memtest, but found it is a little "geeky" for some people.

Yeah the limited time offer has been there for about a year [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Like Gary says, check the drive and everything else. I sometimes use Sandra's Benchmarks/Diags While not great, they will show some problems. I think the standard version is still free.

Dave Zubrowski

Xara FAQ

[traceyp]

Hi everyone

Thanks very much for your replies. However, one thing I do know is that my hard disks are fine as I am always checking the amount of space available and have only recently used Partition Magic to suitably redistribute free space around all the partitions I've got. In addition I rarely go more than a couple of weeks without defragmenting my partitions, getting rid of trashed files, temp files etc. I will, however, check out some of the memory utilities mentioned and report back. If my RAM is OK then I'm going to have to think of something else - like a new PC that I can't afford. Currently I have a PIII 450MHz with 256Mb RAM but on the other hand I haven't upgraded any of the programs I use for ages, possibly a couple of years, so that shouldn't affect the way my PC operates. Ah well, its always one thing or another isn't it!

Tracey

[David Bethel]

1st thing I'd try is take out the ram chip, clean the socket and reseat the chip. Especially on a machine 2 yrs old or older.

My experience has been, the smaller the contact the more likely the problem

A lot depends on the environment, air quality, dust etc. -David

[davezub]

traceyp,

Some more detailed information may help:

1. OS, SP Level
2. Motherboard, CPU, RAM (Amount/Make), Power supplie, etc...
3. Video Adapter
4. Resident Programs (Virus Scanning, Stuff in the tray, etc...

When you indicate crash, can you be more specific (Blue Screen, Error Message, Hang, etc...)?

Dave Zubrowski

Xara FAQ