Tag Archives: ram

more problems with windows 7 and sound

Computer Aid Posted on by

I sold a new PC to someone… and in the first few weeks, it had many problems, which were eventually traced back to some faulty RAM.

Well, about 8 months later, I need to revisit this PC, as sound isn’t working.

I look at all the control panel settings for sound, and it looks like windows 7 is no longer detecting the sound chip…

Its possible for the sound circuitry to fail, but unlikely, particularly on a good Intel motherboard (DG41RQ).

Anyway, rather than waste too much time, I decide to just plug in a new sound card, which worked perfectly.

I’m hoping this is the last I hear of this system, as it has caused me many wasted hours tracking down various problems associated with faulty RAM

windows 7 memory diagnostics tool works better than memtest86+

Computer Aid Posted on by

I had an incredible amount of problems with a new PC that I sold to a customer.

The PC used an intel DG41RQ motherboard, 4Gb RAM, and I installed Windows 7 64-bit.

Windows 7 installed without any problems, but while testing the PC, I would sometimes get an application error (eg internet explorer has stopped working, etc etc)… but it would be very infrequent, and after the error, the application would seem to just keep going as if nothing had happened.

So I quickly forgot it. But once the customer got it, she would often get error with thunderbird email (stopped working)… but worse than that, sometimes the PC would spontaneously restart, wouldn’t shut down, and sometimes would go into the “repair windows 7” screen… All very worrying for someone who purchased a brand new PC,and doesn’t know much about computers.

This would also not be good for my good reputation, unless I can fix the problem quickly.

I go back and run memtest86+ (just until it completes the block copy test), and it finds no problems.

Next, I update the BIOS. In the past, bios problems have often caused problems with new PCs.

After that I leave, asking the customer to keep an eye on things, and to let me know if the problem is still there.

A few days later, I’m told there are more problems.

I go out again, and I take a look at the windows event log.

I see it has a lot of weird errors. Some of the most severe are:

  • MSE oobe stopped: 0xc000000d
  • driver detected a controller error on deviceharddisk2dr2
  • Circular Kernel Context Logger failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035
  • bad pool caller (this was a blue screen of death!)

During all this I found a program called bluescreenview was great at analysing what past BSODs meant.

I downloaded, installed, and ran, seatools, as I had read some reports that the seagate st31500341as could sometimes be problematic.

I managed to run the short generic test, the short DST test, the long DST test, but the long generic test locked up about half way through…

At this stage, I took the PC back to the office for some longer-term tests.

I ran memtest86+ overnight (ie several passes), but no problems were reported.

I then tried the seatools long generic test, and I had to try twice, before it managed to complete its test successfully.

And now I’m stumped.

What could be causing all these windows 7 errors?

I also noticed some SQM client errors in the event log, which led me to disabling the “customer experience improvement program”… but that didn’t help either.

Other errors led me to disabling (it can’t be removed) .net 3.5

I then decided to try the windows repair facility (you get to it by pressing F8 while the PC is starting, then select “repair your computer”

I then noticed an option to perform a “windows memory diagnostic”.

I thought: at this stage, it can’t hurt.

The diagnostic forces the PC to restart into the stand-alone diagnostic tool.

Once the tool was running, I found it didn’t detect any memory errors (after a few passes).

However, I did notice I could press F1 to configure the memory diagnostic tool.

Within the configuration area, I selected the “extended test”, set the pass count to 0, then pressed F10 to restart the testing.

After many hours of testing, I found the tool displayed a status of:

hardware problems were detected

At last! Now I’m sure there is a hardware problem.

I send the PC back to the supplier (I didn’t want to waste any more time trying to pinpoint a possible motherboard or CPU fault).

After a few days, (and some pointers from myself), the supplier eventually found a RAM fault. They replaced the RAM, and the problem went away.

Once I got the system back, I ran my own test to confirm that everything was, indeed, OK… then I returned the PC to a very relieved customer.

In the end, I was quite surprised that the (extended) memory test that is built into windows 7,is actually better that memtest86+

Vista 64 RAM usage

Computer Aid Posted on by

I tried out Vista 64 for the first time recently. I setup a new PC for a customer wanting to run Adobe illustrator & photoshop CS4.

So without going over-the-top, I got aPC with an intel DP45SG motherboard, a 3Ghz Core 2 duo, 8GB DDR3 RAM, and an ATI 4670.

The installation went smoothly, as did installing AntiVIR, Adobe reader, Java

Java was interesting, as the website suggested I install both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions, because I was using a 32-bit browser on a 64-bit OS…

Huh?

Sure enough, task manager shows all 32-bit processes with a “*32” at the end of the name… including ie7

I have a bit of a hunt around, and I see both ie7-32 and ie7-64 are installed… although ie7-32 is the default (apparently because many websites are not activex-64-aware… yet).

Other than that, the biggest surprise, is the RAM usage. Once started (with no other apps running, except for antivirus), task manager shows Vista-64 using anywhere between 1GB and 1.5GB… whereas I usually see vista 32 using 600 – 800Mb .

I’d heard that many 64-bit OSes can use up to twice the ram of the equivalent 32-bit OS, but I was still surprised.

Even so, that still leaves “only” 6.5Gb RAM for applications, which should make adobes CS4 apps really fly.

Hardware drivers are still the biggest issue with Vista 64. Luckily I didn’t need to install too many external devices… So my biggest problem was with a USB wireless adapter. Out of 4 cheap ebay adapters, only 1 actually had correct drivers (both on the CD and automatically downloaded from the net).

The customers printer installed flawlessly from the internet… I was pleasantly surprised.

So how is it? Its quick. I’m not equipped to do extensive benchmarks, but I didn’t notice any of the typical Vista delays when doing things like opening the control panel. The Vista “experience index” was 5.7 (based on the lowest score from the CPU).

So I can see that 64-bit is the way of the future… but only once 64-bit hardware drivers become commonplace.

Regular beep beep at computer startup

Computer Aid Posted on by

This happens quite a lot.

Almost as soon as the computer is switched on, it starts a slow regular beep beep sound.

Normally, the screen is blank, and there is no indication of what the problem might be.

This usually indicates a severe hardware problem, but from experience, I’ve found that about 3 out of 4 times, its just some dust that has caused a RAM module to lose contact on one of it pins (a RAM module can have 240 pins).

If just one pin doesn’t make good electrical contact, then the computer will usually fail to start.

For the technically minded, the solution is simple: open up the PC, and reseat the RAM module (ie take it out, clean it, and re-insert it. Remember to use anti-static precautions… a small static electricity spark can ruin the RAM.

For the not so technically minded, you might be able to get the PC going temporarily (while waiting for a technician to come and reseat the RAM).

To do this:

  • turn off the PC, and disconnect it from power.
  • Whack the computer case with your hand (either from the side, or from the top)
  • It might be tempting, but don’t hit too hard… I’m not responsible if you hit it hard enough to knock the PC over (or off your desk).

The reason this works is that you might dislodge the dust slightly (enough to get electrical contact again).

How about that! I never thought I’d be telling people to hit their computer if it doesn’t work 🙂

blue screen during windows startup

Computer Aid Posted on by

Another interesting problem with one of my own systems…

I was cloning a hard drive (as part of a customer upgrade), and after 1 hour of waiting, I started to suspect that something was wrong…

After all, cloning about 35gb of data from a 80gb drive to a 320gb drive shouldn’t take that long.

I decide to start windows normally, just to look at the contents of the 80gb drive.

Well, windows get part way through the startup, and then I see the familiar blue screen of death.

I didn’t look at the actual numbers, but I know a blue screen is caused by either a change in software/drivers (not in this case), or a hardware failure.

Since the most recent change was adding the 2 hard drives, I figured unplugging them should do the trick… nope.

Ok, try memtest86: no memory fault.

Change video cards: no change.

I pull out all the pci cards, and any disks I can. but now it gets difficult to make the problem happen. The blue screen only happens while I’m trying to start from my hard drive.

I can get to the bios.

I can boot bartpe from the cd, and i can run a few system tests… all with no problem.

The system even starts in safe mode correctly…

I then decide to start pulling out the RAM sticks. (I have 3 sticks of 512Mb).

After pulling the first one out,the system started normally!

After some swapping, I found the RAM was not faulty, but a particular socket was to blame… I wonder why memtest86 didn’t detect a problem…

Another strange yet frustrating problem.

Faulty recovery CD for a Sony Vaio PCG-9R2P (PCG-K7P6) ?

Computer Aid Posted on by

I normally expect a Vaio to be a nice, slim, ultraportable… but not this one!

It was big, heavy, wedge-shaped, and running an inefficient pentium4 as well!

Anyway, the customer said it suddenly stopped working correctly, so she decided to reinstall XP using the recovery CD.

The recovery would get part way through, and then say it had an error reading the disk…

I must say I’ve never seen a factory CD develop a fault before… but there is always a first time.

I take it to my office, and run some bart-pe utilities… but has problems booting the CD.

It gets part way through, and then just stops.

I figure: its time to do a RAM test.

And sure enough, it detects a fault in one of the two sticks of 256MB SODIMMS

Customer agrees to replace it with a 512MB stick… giving a total of 768 MB… but I only have 1 supplier who has the RAM in stock.

And of course, as soon as I get there, its sold out. He does have a 256Mb stick, and a 1024MB stick.

I try the 1024MB module, and it half works (it only shows 512MB)… A bit expensive… and more than I quoted the customer. I still don’t understand why laptop makers limit laptop RAM in this way!

I try the 256Mb module, and it works.

So I decide to go with 256MB, as the customer is no worse off, she gets a price discount, and she was happy with the laptops performance beforehand anyway.

I just found the model naming confusing for a while… I usually look for model numbers under most laptops, as thats where the real model number is.

But with this vaio, the number under the laptop (PCG-9R2P) gave very few google hits.

However, the number just above the keyboard (PCG-K7P6) gave me lots of results, and allowed me to track down the correct RAM module.

corrosion on sodimm ram

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer called, saying her packard bell laptop wouldn’t start.

I now feel like crying every time I hear the words “Packard Bell”… Its one of the most difficult brands to work with, due to the strange problems, and the near-impossible-to-find drivers.

Then I got to the laptop, it started normally.

I tried restarting it a few times… no problem.

At this point, the customer is annoyed at the laptop… as it wouldn’t start for a whole day.

I decide to look at the components underneath… just in case it stops working as soon as I leave.

I check re-insert the RAM (2 X 512MB SODIMMs), reinsert the wireless card, re-insert the hard drive, check the CPU/GPU cooling fan and heatsink… but it all looks normal.

I flip the laptop back around and start it one last time.

It doesn’t startup.

The cpu fan would spin, the leds would light up, but screen didn’t do anything. The HDD led was off, and after a few seconds, the cpu fan would stop.

So I take the laptop back to the office for a more thorough test… But it just wouldn’t start.

I adjust some of the underside components again, and it starts working again.

OK, I’m starting to suspect the RAM, So I run a memory test, but it finds nothing wrong. While the test is running, I give the sodimm a slight push, and the laptop froze.

started again, ran mem test… it worked fine, until I gave the ram a gentle push, and the ram test froze.

I take out the RAM and have a very careful look at it.

The gold contacts seemed slightly “worn”, and the colour is dull. I wipe the contacts & re-insert the RAM… and then couldn’t get pc to fail.

This had the potential of many return visits, with no clear solution, and lots of wasted time and money.

Sometimes its worth being “clean and tidy”.

old laptop RAM is difficult to find

Computer Aid Posted on by

This is a problem that doesn’t have a good answer.

Over the past 20 months, I have been asked a few times, to upgrade the RAM on a laptop.

The age of the laptops can vary from 1 to 6 years old… Yet I often find it difficult to get RAM that will work correctly (unless I do a lot of forum trawling, looking to see if laptop X will work with RAM Y).

A case in point is a Compaq laptop (maybe 3 years old)… It had a double sided DDR SODIMM ram card (PC2100, 266MHz)… nothing extraordinary.

I happened to have a single-sided 128Mb PC2100. I understand that the days of single-sided and double-sided RAM cards died with the older SDRAM standard… But I could be wrong.

I try the 128Mb RAM, and it works great.

The customer wants 512Mb RAM (I can’t find any 256MB RAM), so I get a used 512Mb SODIMM (double sided, PC2100). But when I try it, it just doesn’t work! (no other RAM: black screen, with other RAM: the 512 is not detected). I take it back to the supplier, and it tests OK.

As luck would have it, I’m looking at upgrading another laptop, and the memory works in that one. Phew!

I can only think of one main reason (and maybe a few related reasons) why the RAM didn’t work: the laptop is designed with a maximum allowed RAM (or RAM socket) size… which seems crazy to me… why artificially limit the expansion capabilities of a laptop?

And there have been countless times when I get what should be compatible RAM, and it doesn’t work (but works in a different laptop.

I’ve never had this much difficulty with ordinary PCs… so why are laptops so difficult?

getting the most out of 128Mb ram

Computer Aid Posted on by

A prior customer call saying his sons laptop seems to freeze & is basically unuseable.

Since I setup the wireless on this laptop previously, I know memory was a limitation, together with a lot of software starting while the pc started.

I take it home & disable all the startup rubbish (skype, norton IS, gator / gain). Its still quite slow (it now takes 5 minutes to start, instead of 15 minutes).

I run ewido & I find a mywebsearch infection. Once removed, I uninstall norton IS & install antivir instead. I also install & run winpatrol & spywareBlaster, but things are still slow… I cleanout the 2 windows temporary folders (why does windows xp have 2 different temporary folders? one is a system-level temp, the other is a user-level temp).

I also clean-out the IE temporary folder… many people try to do this, but what most don’t realise, is that there is a bug in IE, which means that the temp IE folder accumulates “lost fragments”, which never get cleared by the ordinary “delete temporary internet files & delete cookies” buttons in internet options. This is where a tools like cachesentry is invaluable.

To save every last scrap of memory, I also look carefully at the windows services… there are many unnecessary services that are started, which can take up a lot of memory. So I disable what I can… its a bit of a balancing act, as disabling too much will remove utilities that the customer might find useful.

I finally get xp fully started, with a memory “footprint” (ie a commit charge) of about 90 – 100 meg. I have been able to go as low as 45-50 meg, but many tools stop working when all the services are killed off.

I do a disk defrag.

The pc still takes about 2 – 3 minutes to start… unusually long, but I cannot see what else could cause the slow startup times (without delving into registry tweaking… which I don’t want to do on a customer computer).

Customer is not prepared to pay for extra memory, so he gets the computerback in the “Computer Aid” tuned state… antivir takes a reasonable amount of memory, but that cannot be helped, since the pc will be on broadband internet, and it was already infected with spyware).

strange boot problem (beeping due to dust on ram sockets)

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer calls me: He has just returned home from 3 weeks of holidays, and his computer is no longer working. He needs it for work, so I go see him the very next day.

While booting the desktop PC, what looks like a disk error appears before windows can start (ie at the bios level) The PC will sometimes get past this error & windows waits at the startup screen for over 10 minutes before generating an obscure error message.

I suspect there is a problem with the disk caddy system, so I try to connect the disks directly to the IDE cable.

The problem persists even after a direct connet to the HDD… But things seem a little better… Windows sometimes starts normally but while doing a disk check, the system suddenly reboots

I start suspecting a few “difficult to diagnose” problems (motherboard, power supply).

While looking inside the case, I notice that the CPU fan blows air directly onto one of the memory sticks… the memory & the socket its plugged into has a layer of dust, so I take out the memory, give the memory & socket a clean, then put the memory back, restart the computer & the system POST gives a continuous beeeep.

Aha! now here is a more solid problem! I take out the suspect memory & the system boots just fine. I take out the good memory & put the suspect memory in its original socket: lots of beeeeping again. I place the suspect memory into a different socket: It works perfectly.

So the memory is fine, but the socket is suspect (either faulty, or its not possible to remove all the dust). Either way, the customer is happy to leave the running system as is. He’s glad to be able to get back to work (having lost a mornings work).

Half height / low profile graphics card

Computer Aid Posted on by

I got a call that seemed very straightforward: Cannot play World of Warcraft because the graphics card is not powerful enough.

So I thought it would be just a matter of getting an off-the-shelf graphics card, and I’d be finished in an hour or two.

Although this was just a 2 year old PC, fairly quick pentium 4, once I opened it up, somethings didn’t look right:

– The height allowed for the card was much less than expected… I’ve not seen that before, but then I don’t keep up with everything on the PC front.

– The slot for the graphics card looked odd: It seemed like an AGP slot, but I haven’t seen any PCI-e slots yet, so it might have been one of those… it didn’t have any of those “spacer” lugs that stop you from inserting the card the wrong way around (they do something similar with RAM sticks).

So after asking at a local store (was told: sorry, we don’t stock those ones anymore, nobody buys them), I go back to the customer & ask to take some pictures of the AGP/PCI-E slot, so I can do some research.

I eventually find out it is an AGP slot, but it doesn’t look like other AGP slots I’ve seen. I also read about how the different 1X, 2X, 4X 8X, etc AGP speeds actually also mean different voltages on slot pins, so I have to be careful about what I buy.

I eventually buy something not too new (I wasn’t sure about the AGP 8X cards, they might not have coped well in this PC), a geforce2 mx100 card with 64MB ram and a half height backplate.

Despite being unsure of wether it would work, I walked in, the card slipped in with no difficulties, the PC fired up ok, & the game started correctly. phew!