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Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
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OT question re XP and RAM
Hello group. Pardon the off-topic question, but I trust the great advice
given by these ME experts (most of whom have probably upgraded to XP anyway). My questions. Have an older Dell Dimension 4300, P4, 1.6 MHz. Upgraded the ME to XP Home, and downloaded SP2. Everything worked fine after reloading some programs, etc. Took the two sticks of PC133 256 SDRAM and replaced them with two no-name PC133 512 sticks purchased on eBay from a highly rated seller. With the two 512s, the PC randomly crashed -- flashed a blue-screen with white error message, then immediately rebooted, usually when a key was pressed to launch a new program. (Fans are clean, etc.) The problem appeared to be a display driver issue. I: 1) Deleted old display driver(s) and installed an updated one from nVidia Web site. 2) Removed one of the 512 sticks and went back to the original 256 stick -- now have 768MB. PC is running just perfectly. Could the new RAM have fueled the reboot problems? If so, why did the driver problem not show up until I swapped the RAM? Did I need to change some settings after upping the memory to 1024? Or maybe one of the 512 sticks is bad (system info showed that 1024 was installed.). Next step is to swap the 512 sticks to see if one is faulty. Any other advice appreciated. Joe Starin |
#3
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OT question re XP and RAM
Thank you, Mike. Exactly the advice I was looking for. I'll check both
sticks one at a time. Didn't think the display driver issue and RAM upgrade were linked in any way. Joe "Mike M" wrote in message ... Try running the PC with first just one of the new stick and then the other. The amount of RAM should not cause display problems. You shouldn't need to change any settings after increasing your RAM unless you want to manually configure the size of the swap file. XP doesn't have the same problems as Win 9x systems when installed RAM exceeds 512MB where the system runs out of upper memory address space and the user needs to limit vcache. You might also want to check your RAM by using a product such as Simmtester's free DocMem (http://www.simmtester.com/PAGE/products/doc/docinfo.asp). Again, do this a stick at a time. -- Mike Maltby Joe Starin wrote: Hello group. Pardon the off-topic question, but I trust the great advice given by these ME experts (most of whom have probably upgraded to XP anyway). My questions. Have an older Dell Dimension 4300, P4, 1.6 MHz. Upgraded the ME to XP Home, and downloaded SP2. Everything worked fine after reloading some programs, etc. Took the two sticks of PC133 256 SDRAM and replaced them with two no-name PC133 512 sticks purchased on eBay from a highly rated seller. With the two 512s, the PC randomly crashed -- flashed a blue-screen with white error message, then immediately rebooted, usually when a key was pressed to launch a new program. (Fans are clean, etc.) The problem appeared to be a display driver issue. I: 1) Deleted old display driver(s) and installed an updated one from nVidia Web site. 2) Removed one of the 512 sticks and went back to the original 256 stick -- now have 768MB. PC is running just perfectly. Could the new RAM have fueled the reboot problems? If so, why did the driver problem not show up until I swapped the RAM? Did I need to change some settings after upping the memory to 1024? Or maybe one of the 512 sticks is bad (system info showed that 1024 was installed.). Next step is to swap the 512 sticks to see if one is faulty. Any other advice appreciated. Joe Starin |
#4
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OT question re XP and RAM
Please post back with any update as it is always interesting to know the
cause of this sort of problem. Cheers, -- Mike Maltby Joe Starin wrote: Thank you, Mike. Exactly the advice I was looking for. I'll check both sticks one at a time. Didn't think the display driver issue and RAM upgrade were linked in any way. Joe |
#5
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OT question re XP and RAM
I will swap, test and post back. Which leads to a final question: After an
ME to XP upgrade, could an outdated or incorrect video driver cause random crashes/reboots? Joe "Mike M" wrote in message ... Please post back with any update as it is always interesting to know the cause of this sort of problem. Cheers, -- Mike Maltby Joe Starin wrote: Thank you, Mike. Exactly the advice I was looking for. I'll check both sticks one at a time. Didn't think the display driver issue and RAM upgrade were linked in any way. Joe |
#6
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OT question re XP and RAM
Joe Starin wrote:
I will swap, test and post back. Which leads to a final question: After an ME to XP upgrade, could an outdated or incorrect video driver cause random crashes/reboots? Joe I wouldn't expect the Win Me video driver to still be in use following the upgrade but it wouldn't be a bad idea to visit the video card/chip manufacturer's web site and download and install the latest XP compatible driver for your video subsystem. -- Mike Maltby |
#7
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OT question re XP and RAM
One of the beautiful things about an upgrade from 9x/Me to XP is that all
previously-used system components (including drivers) are discarded during the upgrade. -- Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups * for the benefit of all. Private mail is usually not replied to. * My website, such as it is ... http://rgharper.mvps.org/ * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm "Joe Starin" wrote in message news I will swap, test and post back. Which leads to a final question: After an ME to XP upgrade, could an outdated or incorrect video driver cause random crashes/reboots? Joe "Mike M" wrote in message ... Please post back with any update as it is always interesting to know the cause of this sort of problem. Cheers, -- Mike Maltby Joe Starin wrote: Thank you, Mike. Exactly the advice I was looking for. I'll check both sticks one at a time. Didn't think the display driver issue and RAM upgrade were linked in any way. Joe |
#8
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OT question re XP and RAM
Thanks for all the input, everyone. "Tested" both new sticks of 512
separately. Added just one 512 for a week. No problems. Then removed it, swapped it with the other 512 for a week. No problems. Put both in. No problems. My freezing/rebooting problem seemed to go away about the time I updated the video driver to Nvidia's latest and/or when I installed SP2. Upgrading from ME to XP really does take some time and effort. And, on my machine, XP (and other tasks running at startup) consumes about 330MB of RAM, so the extra memory was essential. Joe Starin "Richard G. Harper" wrote in message ... One of the beautiful things about an upgrade from 9x/Me to XP is that all previously-used system components (including drivers) are discarded during the upgrade. -- Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups * for the benefit of all. Private mail is usually not replied to. * My website, such as it is ... http://rgharper.mvps.org/ * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm "Joe Starin" wrote in message news I will swap, test and post back. Which leads to a final question: After an ME to XP upgrade, could an outdated or incorrect video driver cause random crashes/reboots? Joe "Mike M" wrote in message ... Please post back with any update as it is always interesting to know the cause of this sort of problem. Cheers, -- Mike Maltby Joe Starin wrote: Thank you, Mike. Exactly the advice I was looking for. I'll check both sticks one at a time. Didn't think the display driver issue and RAM upgrade were linked in any way. Joe |
#9
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OT question re XP and RAM
Actually, I still have the same crash + immediate reboot problem. Popped up
twice yesterday, but not once before that in the past week and a half. How's that for random? RAM (two new 512 sticks in two slots) is being tested as we speak and shows no errors after two passes. I've also posted this issue to the windowsxp/general newsgroup since no-one might be following this older thread anymore. I'm going to try another display driver, since some have had a bad experience with the most-current nVidia display driver that I now have installed. Joe Starin "Joe Starin" wrote in message et... Thanks for all the input, everyone. "Tested" both new sticks of 512 separately. Added just one 512 for a week. No problems. Then removed it, swapped it with the other 512 for a week. No problems. Put both in. No problems. My freezing/rebooting problem seemed to go away about the time I updated the video driver to Nvidia's latest and/or when I installed SP2. Upgrading from ME to XP really does take some time and effort. And, on my machine, XP (and other tasks running at startup) consumes about 330MB of RAM, so the extra memory was essential. Joe Starin "Richard G. Harper" wrote in message ... One of the beautiful things about an upgrade from 9x/Me to XP is that all previously-used system components (including drivers) are discarded during the upgrade. -- Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups * for the benefit of all. Private mail is usually not replied to. * My website, such as it is ... http://rgharper.mvps.org/ * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm "Joe Starin" wrote in message news I will swap, test and post back. Which leads to a final question: After an ME to XP upgrade, could an outdated or incorrect video driver cause random crashes/reboots? Joe "Mike M" wrote in message ... Please post back with any update as it is always interesting to know the cause of this sort of problem. Cheers, -- Mike Maltby Joe Starin wrote: Thank you, Mike. Exactly the advice I was looking for. I'll check both sticks one at a time. Didn't think the display driver issue and RAM upgrade were linked in any way. Joe |
#10
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OT question re XP and RAM
Joe,
Presumably you've re-tried Mike M's original suggestion and confirmed that it also crashes with just ONE RAM stick installed? Another useful test would be to eliminate your Windows OS's - including drivers (and HDD) bearing in mind that it *might* still be a heat related issue :- Boot using a WinMe Windows Startup (floppy) Disk and let it continue to the DOS Help page. Leave it running for several hours - if necessary overnight - and see if it still reboots. Scroll at least one page - and then again occasionally just to confirm that it hasn't 'locked-up'. You'll know if it re-booted as - assuming you've scrolled the Help page - it'll re-boot back to page 1 of the Help pages. If so, then it's a problem with your PC and not with your OS's. Mart "Joe Starin" wrote in message et... Actually, I still have the same crash + immediate reboot problem. Popped up twice yesterday, but not once before that in the past week and a half. How's that for random? RAM (two new 512 sticks in two slots) is being tested as we speak and shows no errors after two passes. I've also posted this issue to the windowsxp/general newsgroup since no-one might be following this older thread anymore. I'm going to try another display driver, since some have had a bad experience with the most-current nVidia display driver that I now have installed. Joe Starin "Joe Starin" wrote in message et... Thanks for all the input, everyone. "Tested" both new sticks of 512 separately. Added just one 512 for a week. No problems. Then removed it, swapped it with the other 512 for a week. No problems. Put both in. No problems. My freezing/rebooting problem seemed to go away about the time I updated the video driver to Nvidia's latest and/or when I installed SP2. Upgrading from ME to XP really does take some time and effort. And, on my machine, XP (and other tasks running at startup) consumes about 330MB of RAM, so the extra memory was essential. Joe Starin "Richard G. Harper" wrote in message ... One of the beautiful things about an upgrade from 9x/Me to XP is that all previously-used system components (including drivers) are discarded during the upgrade. -- Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups * for the benefit of all. Private mail is usually not replied to. * My website, such as it is ... http://rgharper.mvps.org/ * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm "Joe Starin" wrote in message news I will swap, test and post back. Which leads to a final question: After an ME to XP upgrade, could an outdated or incorrect video driver cause random crashes/reboots? Joe "Mike M" wrote in message ... Please post back with any update as it is always interesting to know the cause of this sort of problem. Cheers, -- Mike Maltby Joe Starin wrote: Thank you, Mike. Exactly the advice I was looking for. I'll check both sticks one at a time. Didn't think the display driver issue and RAM upgrade were linked in any way. Joe |
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