RAM Problem?

Iconic

I was using an old Philips iQon computer (xp sp3) yesterday when it suddenly lost power completely.

When I now switch it on the power is there but it does not boot up.

I had a bit of trouble with it a few months ago and found out a stick of RAM was faulty. So I have been using the machine with only one stick(256mb).

I have checked all connections and they seem to be OK.

Do the symptoms above point to the other stick of RAM being faulty? I wouldn't mind paying £20 for some new RAM if I knew for certain that was the cause of the problem.

marrittm

if you want to test RAM try downloading memtest from here http://www.memtest.org/ if you want it to boot from disk then you will need the ISO download (all downloads are at bottom of page) you can then put the ISO on to disk and boot from start up. i use CDburnerXP for copying found here http://download.cnet.com/CDBurnerXP/3000-2646_4-10409086.html?!!!!!mncol this will tell you if you RAM is at fault.

cmatt360

Iconic wrote: »

I was using an old Philips iQon computer (xp sp3) yesterday when it suddenly lost power completely.

When I now switch it on the power is there but it does not boot up.

I had a bit of trouble with it a few months ago and found out a stick of RAM was faulty. So I have been using the machine with only one stick(256mb).

I have checked all connections and they seem to be OK.

Do the symptoms above point to the other stick of RAM being faulty? I wouldn't mind paying £20 for some new RAM if I knew for certain that was the cause of the problem.

does it beep at startup? I would reference this:

http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml

Which will be indicative of the fault.

Do try and reseat the ram in another slot however :beer:

marrittm

cmatt360 wrote: »

does it beep at startup? I would reference this:

http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml

Which will be indicative of the fault.

Do try and reseat the ram in another slot however :beer:

yes sorry should of suggested this before memtest my apologies i just presumed the poster would of already done this as he had same problem in past but your right to do this first if not already done.

Iconic

Many thanks for the replies.

There are no beeps when I switch it on although I can hear the fans working.

According to the link it therefore appears to be 'a Power supply or system board problem'

If the fans are working and the front light is on, can I assume it's not a power supply problem?

If it's the system board is it time to throw the computer away?

fwor

Iconic wrote: »

If the fans are working and the front light is on, can I assume it's not a power supply problem?

Not necessarily - it's possible for just one output to fail, so if the 12V rail remains functioning the fans may still run.

Before trying a PSU swap, have you tried clearing the CMOS memory? It's also possible that the BIOS config has corrupted, and doing that should cause fail-safe defaults to be loaded.

Iconic

fwor wrote: »

Not necessarily - it's possible for just one output to fail, so if the 12V rail remains functioning the fans may still run.

Before trying a PSU swap, have you tried clearing the CMOS memory? It's also possible that the BIOS config has corrupted, and doing that should cause fail-safe defaults to be loaded.

I have never tried clearing the CMOS memory before but found this using google http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/mbsys/cmosClearCMOS-c.html

The Insert and Delete options did not work but before removing the battery could you let me know about this.....
'Warning: Erasing the CMOS memory will cause you to lose all settings in the BIOS. Make sure that you only do this if it is absolutely necessary. Basically, you should only do this if you can't get into the BIOS setup program due to hardware problems or a lost password.'

It's looks like I have no alternative but what BIOS settings are used after clearing the memory?

fwor

That's quite an old article. The convention these days is usually to have a CR2032 lithium BIOS backup battery and a jumper to clear the memory, though there are exceptions.

On all of the motherboards I've worked on recently, the BIOS has a set of minimum default values that get loaded if the CMOS memory is found to be empty. Typically they run the PC at the lowest possible clock speed and least demanding memory timings so that it stands the best chance of booting - though it obviously won't run at full speed until the values have been tweaked.

Iconic

fwor wrote: »

That's quite an old article. The convention these days is usually to have a CR2032 lithium BIOS backup battery and a jumper to clear the memory, though there are exceptions.

On all of the motherboards I've worked on recently, the BIOS has a set of minimum default values that get loaded if the CMOS memory is found to be empty. Typically they run the PC at the lowest possible clock speed and least demanding memory timings so that it stands the best chance of booting - though it obviously won't run at full speed until the values have been tweaked.

I tried this and now the machine will not switch on:mad:

I will see if I can get a cheap second hand PSU and go from there.