Windows XP Professional Edition problems

***wolsty*** · 12-09-2003

My son has a problem with his PC. It's an Athlon XP 2000 with 256Mb memory and 40G hard drive. He's running Windows XP Professional Edition but it is an unstable set-up. After a few months of satisfactory performance, yesterday the system crashed. On cold or warm reboot it gives a blue screen error message 'physical memory dump completed' after which it usually automatically reboots. On occasion the system offers safe mode etc options, including 'last successful settings', but we cannot regain control of the pc. We've reformatted the hard drive twice and reinstalled the software, but the problem persists. My son suspects a fault in the RAM. Any suggestions?

***drag0nfly_69uk*** · 13-09-2003

2 other problems as well as suspected ram: over- heat cpu and dodgy hard drive. to see if it's over heat: leave the case open and try it. to see if it's the hard disk: install win98 or something similar and see if it crashes. good luck

***wolsty*** · 13-09-2003

@drag0nfly_69uk
Hard drive is new. Replaced when a similar problem occurred a few months ago. Overheated CPU makes sense - problem occurred just after son replaced case. We'll try running the pc with the case open as you suggest. Many thanks.

**rolfw** · 13-09-2003

I had a similar problem with an Athlon 1800+ wolsty, bought new fan and heatsink which only partially cured the problem. In the end I ran it at a lower core voltage and the problems went away, I now run the 1.4 processor as a 1.0Ghz without problems, not ideal but it works.

***wolsty*** · 18-09-2003

He substituted some RAM borrowed from his girlfriend. The pc seems to be stable now -even with the case on. Looks as if it was a faulty DIMM setup. Thanks for the suggestions.

Stephen · 20-09-2003

Have to agree that XP is very fussy when it comes to sub-standard RAM. Tried to install XP Pro on my newly built computer, using cheap PC133 RAM, and it refused to load certain files.

Looks like I'll have to put in better quality DDR RAM - fortunately the board takes both types.

**jimbo** · 20-09-2003

To be honest, Stephen I don't think there's much in it cost wise. In fact I have seen some DDR PC2100 RAM cheaper than PC133.

**rolfw** · 20-09-2003

You're right Jimbo, it was bound to get cheaper as the volumes went up, thye are probably making more DDR than standard now.

Stephen · 21-09-2003

It's not so much the cost as the quality. I had some non-branded PC133 RAM in stock, so I bought a board that would take it. I will be shopping for DDR now, and this time I won't buy the cheapest.

**rolfw** · 21-09-2003

Strangely enough my nephew in law (if there is such a thing

), has been having a problem over the past month and his problem has been the DDR RAM. It took him 48 hrs to believe me that it may be one of his 512MB RAM sticks and rather than take the side of the case off, he formatted the disk and reinstalled XP. Guess what, it immediately informed him of a bad memory stick.

**jimbo** · 22-09-2003

I bet you gave him some stick, Rolf

being the nice uncle you are.

**rolfw** · 22-09-2003

LOL, too bloody right Jimbo.

***wolsty*** · 23-09-2003

Son replaced memory stick. All is well.

steve2710 · 06-10-2003

Originally Posted by wolsty

Son replaced memory stick. All is well.

Glad the problem is now resolved. I had similar problems & found Memtest 86 a very good test tool, found via google. Saves lots of head scratching! I won't be buying no name ram again!

Steve

**rolfw** · 06-10-2003

Yes, it's one of those things Steve, most of the time you'll be OK, but is the small percentage risk worth taking?

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