Memory question

[BillW]

I'm running XP SP2. On my older PC, I added 256mb of memory to bring the
total to 512mb. Everything runs fine except when the power option has
powered off the monitor. Upon resumption, the monitor will refresh, but the
system will respond badly - screen will refresh and go blank or the next
application that is run will have problems with display. Last night when my
scheduled spyware scan program ran, it would have run while the monitor was
off and it aborted with a critical error reported by the operating system.
At all other times the system runs without incident. I would like to
continue using the memory and am willing to just turn off the power option
on the monitor if that fixes the problem. Are these symptoms an indicator
of some other problem such as an operating system setting or should I just
uninstall the memory? This seems like an obvious question, but I'd like to
explore options other than just writing-off the memory. Thanks for your
help.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I'm running XP SP2. On my older PC, I added 256mb of memory to bring the
total to 512mb. Everything runs fine except when the power option has
powered off the monitor. Upon resumption, the monitor will refresh, but
the system will respond badly - screen will refresh and go blank or the
next application that is run will have problems with display. Last night
when my scheduled spyware scan program ran, it would have run while the
monitor was off and it aborted with a critical error reported by the
operating system. At all other times the system runs without incident. I
would like to continue using the memory and am willing to just turn off
the power option on the monitor if that fixes the problem. Are these
symptoms an indicator of some other problem such as an operating system
setting or should I just uninstall the memory? This seems like an obvious
question, but I'd like to explore options other than just writing-off the
memory. Thanks for your help.

Check your event logs.

 

[Guest]

Why haven't you tried turning off the power option before posting your
message to see what happens?

I would turn it off and use the Wizmo utility from:

http://www.grc.com/wizmo/wizmo.htm

to turn the monitor off from a programmed icon in the Quick Launch bar.

Eric,
PC Buyer Beware!
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/

 

[Bill Starbuck]

This looks like a hardware issue to me. You should be talking to
someone who knows about hardware.

However, I would start by opening up the computer, removing both the
new memory chip and the video card, and cleaning their contacts with a
pencil eraser. Then I would reinsert the video card (not the memory
chip) and restart the system and verify that it works properly without
the memory card. Next, I would reinsert memory and find out whether
the system again acts badly.

Bill Starbuck (MVP)

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

If it didn't happen before the memory was added, then look to a glitch
caused by a memory mismatch, maybe.. are both memory modules of 'identical'
type?..