RAM problem or something else?

Gavin78

To be honest I think I would do a wipe of the system and a fresh install and start from their with only the basics installed and see how it runs that way.

If no luck I wouldn't mess about with it I would just replace the whole tower unit

kwikbreaks

Gavin78 wrote: »

I wouldn't mess about with it I would just replace the whole tower unit

TBH I think I'd have reached that point already if it were mine. There are better secondhand machines than this on eBay for £50 delivered.

robatwork

You have to sort out the hardware issues before you think about looking at software or drivers.

Until you get a clean RAM test don't bother wasting time with anything in the OS. You just have to replace parts until the RAM problem is fixed.

You have obviously replaced the RAM, so now you are looking at CMOS battery, reflash the CMOS, replace motherboard (maybe an ebay identical one?), PSU.

Le_Kirk

If the RAM test (swapping different strips) didn't isolate a particular strand of RAM might it be the RAM socket? Worth isolating that as a possible?

kwikbreaks

robatwork wrote: »

. You just have to replace parts until the RAM problem is fixed.

If replacing the CMOS battery hasn't sorted it then that's just about as far as it's worth going on a machine that old. As I said above there are better ones on eBay for £50 delivered or one with a faster processor BIN for £8.99 and £8.25 post. Using the HDD and RAM from the broken machine in that would be a cheap way forward (at least as cheap as replacing the main board).

Cycrow

As all the ram chips are showing the same problem, even the new ones, its likely not a problem with the ram, but with motherboard or the cpu.

It could be an issue with the memory controller, which is in the cpu. You could try reseating the heatsink. Sometimes if the heatsink is on at a slight angle it can put too much pressure on part of the cpu that has the memory controller in, causing problems with ram.

if you get errors in memtest, then its nothing to do with the OS/software/drivers. As none of those would be running while in memtest

SnowTiger

windup wrote: »

The final sentence is clearly a cover all bases statement, like many others that can be found on the internet that are equally useless in providing a correct diagnosis, the penultimate sentence is where the op should be concentrating, after checking the state of the disk, cmos battery, and recreating the hibernation file.

full context : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/314063

Well, it seems like a hardware problem to me rather than being "caused by shoddy drivers or software" as you speculated earlier.