Might have some faulty RAM......

[hesnotthemessia]

Hi there Pete. Just noticed something strange when I was about to shut down my PC ready for bed....memory is only showing 1.5GB rather than 3GB!! I will check this out when I get up. The PC has been working great with the only problem being when selecting and dragging windows which seemed to be down to a faulty mouse (it has seen plenty of use and the buttons do feel sticky). So I bought a new mouse last week and everything seemed to be fine until the last couple of days when I have had to often repeatedly click on things to get them to work (such as having to repeatedly double click on folders to open them, constantly click on the Start Menu icon in the Toolbar for it to appear, constantly click on icons while on line for them to work) . Batteries are fine. Could this be tied in with the 1.5 GB of RAM dissapearing? What should I do if the RAM is faulty?

UPDATE:- Switched off the PC and restarted it again. System Properties still showed 1.5 GB of RAM. In Windows I started up Kaspersky, then enabled my USB port for the USB wireless transmitter in Device Manager (I always disable this when not in use) then started up the Zyxel Wiress Adapter Utility to connect to the router. I then got a BSOD wit the message "Page Fault in nonpaged area 0x00000050 (0xFE00FFFF x 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000).

Had to reset. Switched PC back on and it's now showing 3GB of RAM!!


Must get some sleep now. Any ideas or is this just one of those things that happens in computer land that I should just ignore?


Cheers


Nev.

[PeteG@Scan]

Hi Nev.

That's pretty bizzare it has to be said. I think we should try a few things here just to make sure.

Page faults normally refer to pysical memory issues are drivers that are trying to access it and failing due to poor code.

As yours physically disappeared it's going to be worth a check.

Download memtest from this address:

http://www.memtest.org/download/2.11...+-2.11.iso.zip

Unzip it and burn it as an image to a cd.

Don't burn it on as a file as that won't work. If you have nero you can "Open image" on it or use imgburn or deepburned both of which are free.

Doing that will then create a file structure on the cd and allow you to boot from it.

So reboot the machine and boot off cd.

If it won't boot from cd (during post it'll say "press any key to boot from cd if enabled) go into the bios and change the boot order so that the cd's first.

When the cd boots it goes stright to the client. You want to leave it for 10 passes (may take all night, so leave it running and goto bed/pub/etc) and see if any errors occur.

If you get the odd one try going to the bios and upping the memory voltage by 0.05 and it may stablize it (sometimes happens) but failing that we can do you an onsite to change it if it proves faulty in memtest.

If it proves fine but drops again, try taking the side off and removing the memory. Blow in the slots in case dust has got in and reinsert. If it happens again then let us know and we'll sort you an onsite if the's a reoccuring fault showing it's head.

Pete.

[hesnotthemessia]

Cheers for that Pete. When I just switched on the PC this afternoon it showed only 1.5Gb of RAM. I will give memtest a go overnight. I guess it is only worth using memtest if 3Gb of memory is shown in System Properties though. If it is only showing 1.5GB then only 1.5GB is availble and can be tested - it is the other 1.5GB that is faulty or has as a problem being recognised by the PC.

[PeteG@Scan]

Hi Nev,

That doesn't sound healthy does it.

If you forget about the memtest and p.m. me your details (name, address, orignal invoice number) then I'll have Sanjay contact you about sorting an onsite to come and see you at the start of next week.

[hesnotthemessia]

Just sent you the PM Pete.


Cheers


Nev.

[hesnotthemessia]

Windows XP SP3
Intel Core i7 CPU 975
Running at 3.20GHZ (not overclocked)
2x NVidea GeForce 8400 GS graphics cards 512MB PCIE
Motherboard Gigabyte EX58 UD4
Memory Corsair 3GB (3x1GB) DDR3 1600

MAudiophile 2496 Sound Card PCI
1xPowercore MKII PCI
1xMagma Chasis PCI card

Magma Chasis:-
4xUAD1
1XPowercore MKII
2xPowercore MKKI

A bit of an update on the situation......when I last mentioned that memory was back to showing 3GB this was because the PC hadn't actaully recognised my Magma Chasis as being connected after I had to reset it (due to the BSOD). I have my UAD1 cards in the chasis along with a couple of Powercores.

If I remove all my UAD1 cards from the Magma chasis that I use then the RAM goes back upto 3GB. Removing my Powercores makes no difference. With one UAD1 removed the RAM goes to 2.25GB. If I then remove one graphics card the RAM goes to 2.5GB.

I have used a free utilty called CPU-Z (which is fantastic by the way). CPU-Z runs in Windows. If I have a UAD1 card installed, Task Manager and System Properties will show 2.25GB of RAM installed. CPU-Z shows that 3GB is installed.

I have searched for answers and found some info but none of it really makes any sense to me . I kind of understand about Windows needing to map the address of stuff like memory, BIOS, graphic cards memory, etc but I haven't installed anything (apart from the wireless mouse) or made any changes to the computer setup (BIOS/Windows settings) in the last couple of months .

I regularly go into System Properties Device\Manager to disable unused USB slots when doing music on the PC and so I am sure I woud have noticed the missing RAM within a day or two of it happening. The last thing I installed was a wireless mouse about a week ago. I have had no problems using the PC. I uninstalled the wireless mouse and the UAD1s. Went back to using my old mouse. Reinstalled the UAD1s using the previous software version as I had only recently updated to the latest software. But still the same problem!

So why am I getting this problem now?

[PeteG@Scan]

Hi Nev,

Seen your posts on SOS & KVR. It does seem like the sound cards are being shadowed into ram, but it's odd it's not happened before. The's been updates in the last service pack that messes about with how memory allocation is displayed but it should affect how it acturly allocates. On top of that it went back to you with the SP2 on so it shouldn't be cropping up now.

The 3Gb switch may work in this case. It doesn't always help but I can't see it hurting in this instance.

Try this:

To Set the /3GB Startup Switch in Windows Server 2003

1.

Right-click My Computer and select Properties. The System Properties dialog box will appear.
2.

Click the Advanced tab.
3.

In the Startup and Recovery area, click Settings. The Startup and Recovery dialog box will appear.
4.

In the System startup area, click Edit. This will open the Windows boot.ini file in Notepad.
5.

In the [Operating Systems] section, add the following switches to the end of the startup line that includes the /fastdetect switch: /3GB
6.

Save the changes and close Notepad.
7.

Click OK two times to close the open dialog boxes, and then restart the computer for the change to take effect.


Sanjay was going to book you the onsite today, but i'm not sure if it's worthwhile whilst we're still trouble shooting. The whole ram shadowing thing makes sense and would be a software allocation issue, but I also don't understand why your only seeing it now and not previously.

[hesnotthemessia]

hi there Pete The PC came back with SP3 on it (as it had when I originally got it).

All I can think of about why this RAM issue appeared when I was about to close down my PC early Saturday was that perhaps I had downloaded a Windows Update which featured this new way of showing the amount of available RAM in Windows. and then I noticed System Properties showing that my RAM was less than 3GB.

I thought - infact I am pretty sure - I had Automatic Updates switched off and basically had it set so that I had to manually check for updates myself - I didn't want Windows deciding to look for updates and asking me if I wanted to download them in the middle of a music session.

So I was suprised to see the Windows Update shield appear on Saturday to inform me that new updates had been installed and that I needed to restart the PC for them to take effect. Now I am sure this message appeared Saturday afternoon after I had noticed System Properties showing that my RAM was less than 3GB that morning.

But, if this update was installed previous to me noticing System Properties showing that my RAM was less than 3GB, then that would explain everything. I can see, in Add or Remove Programs, that updates were installed on Staurday 19/9/09 and then previous to that on 25/07/09.

My head hurts!!

I will leave my system as it is - I have no less RAM top play with and it has been working fine for me.

[PeteG@Scan]

SP3 did indeed change how the system reported memory in the system propertys screen. It's entirely possible that they've modfied it further to take into ram allocation to physical hardware as well. Another customer contacted us over the weekend asking why his machine was showing less memory than he was use too (he's got a pair of 1GB gfx cards in there) so the could well have been an update as they would both make sense if this was the case.

I think I agree through. If it's not acturly broke it's not worth fixing!