never fails with computers

[Russ Smith]

My desktop at home is several years old now runs XP and has been slowind down noticeably with some occasional memory errors that had me concerned. Had to keep reseating the memory. There were 2 open slots for more RAM but the RAM in there has this metal cover over it that obscures the part #. I ran this program from Crucial.com that analyzes your system and then ordered the memory it said I needed off Compusa(cheaper and I had a discount). The memory I ordered had no picture and of course, it arrived and was not the correct memory.

So I sent it back last night pulled the memory and was able to get the metal frame off to get the part # and ordered 2 more sticks to fill the 2 empty slots. Put the memory back in system worked fine.

Get home last night, turn on PC, 3 long beeps and then no picture, turn it off and on same thing. Reseat the stick I'd pulled out that morning, seemed to be in just fine but did that several times, each reboot 3 boots. Fired up the laptop checked online and discovered the 3 beeps means, of course, memory error. Won't start with just one stick, tried reversing the slots etc.

So apparently the stick I pulled out to get the part # off failed. I suspect it was failing already and me pulling it just sped up the demise. So I had to order 1 more stick last night which I should get tomorrow.

Girlfriend is quite nervous now afraid the computer is dying, we have 3 backups of all our vacation pics and stuff she's worried about, 2 external drives plus the 2nd internal HD on the system. I'm not worried I'm sure when the new memory arrives it will fire right up but just never fails if I'd gotten the right part # from the Crucial program I'd already have the correct memory in there.

Oh well eventually should be much quicker with twice the RAM in it.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Wow. Never had any issues with Crucial.

 

[Russ Smith]

Wow. Never had any issues with Crucial.

Yeah an IT friend recommended I use that to get the memory info and ironically enough the memory I got from Comp USA is made by... Crucial.

It has the exact same part # and description as what Crucial said i needed, but it wasn't even the right size(way too short).

I'm fairly certain that in getting the metal frame off the old memory stick I probably zapped it or something it kind of is stuck on and I probably touched something when prying it off that damaged the memory. It worked when I first rebooted but probably the bootup, power down and then boot up again later finished it off.

My dad gave me the computer years ago so I had no idea what memory was in it and it was so long ago he didn't either and had no record of it(he built the computer didn't buy it off the shelf).

 

[FArting]

Why don't you upgrade to Windows 7?

 

[Russ Smith]

Why don't you upgrade to Windows 7?

technically I probably can but when i ran the free program to check it said I had several software packages that wouldn't work with Win 7 the biggest one being Photoshop Elements that my girlfriend uses quite often.

It ended up very odd. I got the new memory, right size, but it still wouldn't boot. Before I panicked and sent it back I took the old memory to my local computer store and am now kicking myself I didn't do that sooner. I had used Belarc to get a good printout of what my computer had(since I didn't build it) and using that he discovered my mother board could take 2GB memory not just 1 so for 35 bucks each I got 2 sticks of that. I'd paid 32 each for the 1GB that wouldn't boot. He said something might be wrong with the sockets becaues the system should have booted with just one of the old sticks but wouldn't.

So I booted with the new 2GB and it worked fine. XP says I have 3GB memory but Belarc says 4. Then I turned it off, put in the 2 new 1GB sticks in slots 2 and 4, rebooted and again works. XP still says 3, Belarc now says 6 so end result is it appears I have tripled my ram.

Have one more stick coming today I have to send back so I'll have to eat some shipping charges. In the end if I'd just gone to the computer store first instead of ordering it online. I would have probably bought 4 sticks of 2gb so I'd have 8 GB now.

 

[Chaz]

technically I probably can but when i ran the free program to check it said I had several software packages that wouldn't work with Win 7 the biggest one being Photoshop Elements that my girlfriend uses quite often.

It ended up very odd. I got the new memory, right size, but it still wouldn't boot. Before I panicked and sent it back I took the old memory to my local computer store and am now kicking myself I didn't do that sooner. I had used Belarc to get a good printout of what my computer had(since I didn't build it) and using that he discovered my mother board could take 2GB memory not just 1 so for 35 bucks each I got 2 sticks of that. I'd paid 32 each for the 1GB that wouldn't boot. He said something might be wrong with the sockets becaues the system should have booted with just one of the old sticks but wouldn't.

So I booted with the new 2GB and it worked fine. XP says I have 3GB memory but Belarc says 4. Then I turned it off, put in the 2 new 1GB sticks in slots 2 and 4, rebooted and again works. XP still says 3, Belarc now says 6 so end result is it appears I have tripled my ram.

Have one more stick coming today I have to send back so I'll have to eat some shipping charges. In the end if I'd just gone to the computer store first instead of ordering it online. I would have probably bought 4 sticks of 2gb so I'd have 8 GB now.

Keep in mind XP and other 32 bit Operating Systems will only address about 3.5 GB of ram. The hardware may be there but there is a limit to how much XP will use.

For the OS to see and use the additional ram you will need a 64 bit version of Windows 7. There is a 64 bit XP but I wouldn't suggest anyone use that at this point.

 

[Covert Rain]

Also keep in mind that you can run older software in compatibility mode. I have not had any issues with that using older programs.

 

[Russ Smith]

Keep in mind XP and other 32 bit Operating Systems will only address about 3.5 GB of ram. The hardware may be there but there is a limit to how much XP will use.

For the OS to see and use the additional ram you will need a 64 bit version of Windows 7. There is a 64 bit XP but I wouldn't suggest anyone use that at this point.

how can I keep that in mind when I didn't know it.



Thanks, I guess at this point I'll just keep what I have so I have some backup memory just in case.

Eventually I'll just upgrade to a new computer but with Win 8 coming out soon wonder if now's a good time to do that?

 

[Chaz]

Yes, I keep hearing that we should wait for Windows 8 and ivy bridge hardware later this year but I don't know how much I would agree with that.

I am not one to upgrade to the latest when it first comes out anyway. When it comes to Microsoft windows in particular I prefer to wait for the first service pack before I trust it in anything other than a test environment.

New software/hardware also means the existing inventory will be discounted once the latest stuff is available.

 

[Russ Smith]

Yes, I keep hearing that we should wait for Windows 8 and ivy bridge hardware later this year but I don't know how much I would agree with that.

I am not one to upgrade to the latest when it first comes out anyway. When it comes to Microsoft windows in particular I prefer to wait for the first service pack before I trust it in anything other than a test environment.

New software/hardware also means the existing inventory will be discounted once the latest stuff is available.

Exactly that's actually what I meant. Wait until Win 8 is out then buy a new system with Win 7.

I'm in no hurry to upgrade the current system is fine for what we do with it and my GF's laptop is win 7 just a few months old so that's fine for us.

But if I could get a discounted win 7 system later this year would be tempted.

 

[BillsCarnage]

technically I probably can but when i ran the free program to check it said I had several software packages that wouldn't work with Win 7 the biggest one being Photoshop Elements that my girlfriend uses quite often.

Elements works just fine on Win7. But it depends on how old your version of Elements is, i guess.

It ended up very odd. I got the new memory, right size, but it still wouldn't boot. Before I panicked and sent it back I took the old memory to my local computer store and am now kicking myself I didn't do that sooner. I had used Belarc to get a good printout of what my computer had(since I didn't build it) and using that he discovered my mother board could take 2GB memory not just 1 so for 35 bucks each I got 2 sticks of that. I'd paid 32 each for the 1GB that wouldn't boot. He said something might be wrong with the sockets becaues the system should have booted with just one of the old sticks but wouldn't.

Socket would have been my guess from your first post. Ram is pretty tough and can with stand a lot of flexing - at least in my experience ;-)

So I booted with the new 2GB and it worked fine. XP says I have 3GB memory but Belarc says 4. Then I turned it off, put in the 2 new 1GB sticks in slots 2 and 4, rebooted and again works. XP still says 3, Belarc now says 6 so end result is it appears I have tripled my ram.

Have one more stick coming today I have to send back so I'll have to eat some shipping charges. In the end if I'd just gone to the computer store first instead of ordering it online. I would have probably bought 4 sticks of 2gb so I'd have 8 GB now.

As already mentioned, XP 32bit only recognizes 3.5gb of ram.

 

[BillsCarnage]

Yes, I keep hearing that we should wait for Windows 8 and ivy bridge hardware later this year but I don't know how much I would agree with that.

Win8 is going to be a huge culture shock for most ppl. I've been running the preview for few weeks now and IMO Win8 will be the Vista 2.0 in terms of user frustration on the desktop. For tablets and phones it'll probably be great, but on desktops I really think ppl are going to not like it.

Win7 is the new XP
Win8 will be the new Vista on desktops.

I am not one to upgrade to the latest when it first comes out anyway. When it comes to Microsoft windows in particular I prefer to wait for the first service pack before I trust it in anything other than a test environment.

Win7 is solid, even from initial release. MS put it through a lot of beta testing.. Over a year, i think.

New software/hardware also means the existing inventory will be discounted once the latest stuff is available.

To a certain degree yes, but that will probably be on lower end hardware.

 

[O]

Russ are you sure it is the memory?
I have an older desktop and every time it won't boot up it's usually CPU fan related.
Every couple of years I have to change it out.

 

[Russ Smith]

Russ are you sure it is the memory?
I have an older desktop and every time it won't boot up it's usually CPU fan related.
Every couple of years I have to change it out.

Yea it was the memory as soon as I put in the 2 new sticks from the store it booted. I googled the error codes for my board and 3 long beeps means memory. Since I was told about the limit on XP and RAM I just pulled out the 1GB set so I just have 4 of RAM which is still twice as much as before.

From reading I'm not sure I want to upgrade to either 64 bit XP(hard to find) or Win 7. I like win 7, but I think it sounds like a major pain you can't just upgrade you have to do a clean install so backup system, clean install then reinstall programs. Then you have to update all the drivers etc.

I think at that point I'll just buy a new Win 7 machine, copy over the important files etc and keep the old one as a spare.

And that probably won't be until next year I'm in no hurry now.

 

[Chaz]

Yea it was the memory as soon as I put in the 2 new sticks from the store it booted. I googled the error codes for my board and 3 long beeps means memory. Since I was told about the limit on XP and RAM I just pulled out the 1GB set so I just have 4 of RAM which is still twice as much as before.

From reading I'm not sure I want to upgrade to either 64 bit XP(hard to find) or Win 7. I like win 7, but I think it sounds like a major pain you can't just upgrade you have to do a clean install so backup system, clean install then reinstall programs. Then you have to update all the drivers etc.

I think at that point I'll just buy a new Win 7 machine, copy over the important files etc and keep the old one as a spare.

And that probably won't be until next year I'm in no hurry now.

That upgrade/install of win 7 or XP64 not any more of a hassle than a new computer and files transfer.

If it helps the easiest way is to install a new hard drive and install the new os to that.
Then you can still boot to the old xp install if you want.

 

[Chaz]

Win7 is solid, even from initial release. MS put it through a lot of beta testing.. Over a year, i think.

Vista was the beta testing.

 

[Russ Smith]

That upgrade/install of win 7 or XP64 not any more of a hassle than a new computer and files transfer.

If it helps the easiest way is to install a new hard drive and install the new os to that.
Then you can still boot to the old xp install if you want.

You're probably right. What I read was that the problem with the OS upgrade is that you have to then do a lot of driver updating because there's not really one reliable central place to go to and get all the drivers. MS offers suggestions but says to be really sure, you should go to the individual companies that make your hardware and download from them.

Just seems a lot easier to me to get a new computer when win 7 gets discounted and then download easy transfer on the XP system and copy over what I really need.

But we'll see, I'm not in any hurry. Thanks for the suggestions and advice though definitely helped me especially knowing the RAM limit of XP.

 

[BigRedRage]

i have vista and hate it but need to buy windows 7 so havent done it yet. Computer is good enough to do so.

 

[Chaz]

Yea. If you can run vista you can run win7.




Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[BillsCarnage]

Win8 is going to be a huge culture shock for most ppl. I've been running the preview for few weeks now and IMO Win8 will be the Vista 2.0 in terms of user frustration on the desktop. For tablets and phones it'll probably be great, but on desktops I really think ppl are going to not like it.

I'm going to recant on this. I've been running the RP version for a few weeks now in a virtual box and I'm really liking Win8.

There's still going to be an adjustment curve with Metro, but once your apps are installed it's actually quite slick.

 

[Russ Smith]

Interesting conclusion to all this we wound up having to create a new laptop for the user his windows got so hopelessly screwed up it wouldn't allow us to login anymore.

But, he started having the same issues with his new laptop and we were forced to figure out did Easy Transfer copy over whatever file had corrupted windows, or was it something else. I'd already told him I think there's an issue with his USB hub because the computer booted when not plugged in to it. My boss did a little more investigating late last night and determined the entire problem was the USB hub. It wasn't working correctly so not only did all the USB devices stop working because of the hub, it was stopping the system from loading and the system kept trying to repair itself as a result and wound up hosing windows to the point we had to reinstall it.

And it was going to do the exact same thing to the new laptop if he kept using that hub. Pretty crazy, repair knew something was wrong it said bad driver and that a installed file or driver stopped it from starting up, it just couldn't tell us what it really was, the USB hub.

Pretty crazy, Lenovo's system update program is what ultimately broke the laptop it apparently updated the bios and the drivers(that's what it's supposed to do) but after runnign it, we couldn't log in, even as an admin.