ATI Video Card suddenly works

[maverick791]

Hello..

I have an ATI Radeon 7000 VE dual display video card (32MB) in my
system. For years I've had problems with this card in my computer..the
display would become garbled, the monitor would consistently "lose
signal" with the graphics card, only to gain it a couple of seconds
later. The problem seemed to be resolved a few years ago when I booted
off of my smaller 2GB HD with Win XP already installed, instead of
booting on my larger 40gb. Now the problem reappeared about a month
ago.

Another strange thing happened more recently when Windows XP could not
copy files to my hard drive during installation, even when I replaced
it with a newer 200GB HD. So I investigated further...I replaced my
256 MB DDR Micron memory with some 256 MB DDR Kingston and all my
problems appear to be solved.

My question is could my bad Micron memory have been causing my graphics
card to malfunction? I bought a new card to replace it, but if it
turns out that memory is the culprit, I might sell that new graphics
card.

Andy

 

[First of One]

The video card driver and motherboard chipset drivers reside in system RAM,
as do all the Windows graphics elements like icons and wallpapers. Bad RAM
(or *badly-seated* RAM) can definitely cause garbled video or signal loss.

Normally, Micron RAM is supposed to be reliable. Are these Micron/Crucial
branded sticks, or just generic sticks with Micron chips?

 

[maverick791]

It seems like it's Micron RAM (it has a sticker with an upper case M on
it). I bought it in 2001 thinking it would have a lifetime warranty on
it, that's what I remember them saying. I called Micron/Crucial last
week and they say it only applies to memory with Crucial stickers on
them. I got suckered with bad memory, pretty much from the start
(memory was properly seated...I've been having these problems for many
years).

 

[JB]

It seems like it's Micron RAM (it has a sticker with an upper case M on
it). I bought it in 2001 thinking it would have a lifetime warranty on
it, that's what I remember them saying. I called Micron/Crucial last
week and they say it only applies to memory with Crucial stickers on
them. I got suckered with bad memory, pretty much from the start
(memory was properly seated...I've been having these problems for many
years).

PMFJI. I did not see the earlier messages on this subject so maybe this has
been covered. You need to assure that the memory latency and speed settings
are correct in the BIOS or your memory will not perform reliably even if
it's good.

If they are set correctly, you might want to try setting them slower and see
if the problem persists.