XP pc doctor says memory failed test

[dp]

Had a friend tell me he has a IBM T30. Doesn't wanna pay
any bucks for repairs so he asked me. Says he is certain
he has seen blue screen of deaths several times but he
says they are only up quickly and then they go
away/reboot.

Cannot give me any details from the text on the screen. I
have seen blue screen once but it didn't disappear until
after a reboot.

Hmmm...He is running Windows XP pro.

I ran the builtin program pc doctor and it came back with
this message for the memory test:

PC-Doctor Diagnostics For Windows Test Log
Testing started at 3:44:56 PM 12/11/2003
Memory Test: Patterns - **FAILED**
Pattern test failed: incorrect data at physical address
FFFFFFFFH (4294967295)
Wrote pattern 00000000H, read back pattern 00080000H
_EVENT:50_2
Testing completed at 3:45:15 PM 12/11/2003

Every other hardware test was aok!!!

I did a little research and found that blue screens are
usually caused by driver failures, hardware failures or
page faults. Does that seem right?
If in fact he is getting blue screens could
adding/replacing the ram resolve the issue? He has 128
megs and he has a fair amount of applications. Thanks in
advance.

 

[gezerglide]

Absolutely. Bad ram will cause blue screens everytime. You can try cleaning
the pins on it with alcohol and blow out the slot with canned air if you've
got it. Might work. If not, memory is pretty cheap these days.

 

[None Required]

Memory can definitely cause problems. In addition to the utility you used
this stand-alone memory tester is useful.
http://www.simmtester.com/page/products/doc/docinfo.asp

It makes a boot disk and you can run as many test loops as you care to. I've
caught a number of bad sticks with it. To narrow it down you might have to
remove/swap if you have several and run them individually.

Fritz

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

It could very well be defective RAM, but more information is
needed.

To get started troubleshooting the cause of his problems, we'll
need to learn what specific errors are occurring and being recorded by
WinXP.

To get the error message from the blue screen (a.k.a. the BSOD --
Blue Screen of Death), you'll need to turn off WinXP's automatic
reboot "feature:" Right-click My Computer > Properties > Advanced >
Startup and Recovery > Uncheck "Automatically restart." The next time
your PC crashes, you'll be left with a blue screen full of memory
addresses and other seeming gibberish. The top 2 or 3 lines of this
screen will contain information that can help solve your problem.
Carefully write down these lines and post the exact text back here.
Hopefully, one of us will be able to provide some insight.

Additionally, you should check your Event Logs to see if they can
shed any light on the matter, To do so, Right-click My Computer >
Manage > Event Viewer > System and Application. Record the specifics
of any red-flagged error messages and post the exact text back here.
Again, hopefully, one of us will be able to provide some insight.


Bruce Chambers

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