Curious problem with DIMMs - Please can anyone help?

[Peter]

Please can someone help me with a DIMM problem?
(Perhaps it is me that is dim)

The system:-

Jetway S447 motherboard with Pentium 1.6GHz Processor.
2 Internal HDs (160Gb & 120Gb).
Bootable XP Pro, my normal working partition.
Bootable Win98-SE, largely games for grandson!
Bootable, Changes between XP and 98, for program evaluation Etc.

Boot manager, Boot Magic.
Backup imaging, Drive Image 7, normally run from floppies.

For two or three months I have experienced unexplained shut-downs and,
very curious this, text files created with PFE under 98 sometimes
changing to gobbledegook when viewed under XP with the same program.

Conversely, folders created under XP sometimes have gobbledegook names
when viewed under 98. (Programmers File Editor is an old friend that I
have used for years and trust completely).

All else seems to be OK so I have just looked at memory.

Now for the thing about which I would really like to have some
guidance.

My motherboard has three slots for DIMMS. To operate with two DIMMs
they
have to occupy slots 1 & 3. I have 2 x 256Mb DIMMS.

Running MemTest-86 with both DIMMs in position I had error messages
indicating localised memory failure.

Running with either DIMM in slot 1 no errors were signalled.

Running with either DIMM in slot 3 no errors were signalled.

In fact my last test with just one DIMM in position was for 3
hours.

I am hoping that this fiddling with the DIMMs will have cleared the
faults. However, since they have been intermittent I cannot be sure
for some time. Also, of course, I have "Lost" 256Mb of storage.

Please, can someone offer constructive comments on the gobbledegook
fault and the indication of memory faults when two DIMMS are plugged
in?

Thank you very much!

Peter

 

[NotMe]

It 'might' have been the bad DIMM slot causing the problem.
Another shot in the dark would be the difference in handling long filenames
in 98 vs XP.
I don't have an XP/98 dual boot system to know.
The two I do have are XP/ME and I haven't seen the problem described on that
system.
BTW: ME really zips on a P4 2.8Ghz/1GB DDR

 

[Lil' Dave]

Fastest Pentium made was 233 MHz. Subsequent versions were II, III, and IV.

DI 7.0 can only be run in the XP environment for backup, and off the CD to
restore the boot partition. There is no provision for DI 7.0 to run from
floppies.
If you're speaking of the accompanying DI2002/6.0 on the DI 7.0 install CD,
and you're backing up an XP NTFS boot partition with DI2002, you're in for a
big surprise if you ever try to restore such an image with the DI2002 boot
floppies.

DIMM is dual inline memory modules. Crucial.com says your motherboard has
following:
a.. 184-pin DIMM Banking: 3 (3 banks of 1)
a.. Chipset: SiS 645 (XP4)
a.. DDR SDRAM Frequencies: PC1600, PC2100, and PC2700
a.. Error Detection Support: Non-ECC only
a.. Graphics Support: AGP 4X
a.. Max Unbuffered DDR SDRAM: 3072MB
a.. Module Types Supported: Unbuffered only
a.. Supported DRAM Types: DDR SDRAM only
a.. USB Support: 1.x Compliant

If the memory modules are not IDENTICAL including manufacturer, but within
the specs above, I would concern myself with shared banking if applicable to
that motherboard. The 256 MB size are particularly susceptible to this. If
they are identical, possibly, may be sensing improper timing of the modules
at the bios level. If more than a couple of years old, try removing the
DIMMs, cleaning the DIMM contacts with a pencil eraser, then follow with
alcohol swabbing.

Have you attempted using the 2nd DIMM slot, while using the 1st at the same
time?

 

[... et al.]

Please can someone help me with a DIMM problem?
(Perhaps it is me that is dim)

The system:-

Jetway S447 motherboard with Pentium 1.6GHz Processor.
2 Internal HDs (160Gb & 120Gb).
Bootable XP Pro, my normal working partition.
Bootable Win98-SE, largely games for grandson!
Bootable, Changes between XP and 98, for program evaluation Etc.

Boot manager, Boot Magic.
Backup imaging, Drive Image 7, normally run from floppies.

For two or three months I have experienced unexplained shut-downs and,
very curious this, text files created with PFE under 98 sometimes
changing to gobbledegook when viewed under XP with the same program.

Conversely, folders created under XP sometimes have gobbledegook names
when viewed under 98. (Programmers File Editor is an old friend that I
have used for years and trust completely).

All else seems to be OK so I have just looked at memory.

I wonder if the 160 GB HDD has something to do with the gobbledegook'd
names. Did you add that or start saving files to a volume on that bigger
HDD the last couple of months perhaps?

I have a volume that goes past the ca 128/137 GB limit that Win98 can
handle. I save files under (48-bit enabled) WinXP on that volume and if
i look at their filenames from Win98SE they are, if you want, gobbledegook.