Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
1 Rookie
•
4 Posts
0
47857
December 15th, 2001 13:00
POST error/RAM failure?
Anyone come across this one?
Got a big ol' BSD on my *new* 4300 (XP) and had to reboot. During POST, a couple of new lines appear on the monitor, with memory addresses stating something to the effect that "Memory size is different" and "Memory size is reduced". It then goes to the boot menu, and regardless of what option I select (network, no network, previous config, etc.) I get the same BSD and the system hangs. Now this blue screen deals with the ACPI.SYS file address FDFED25A base now being at FDFC9000 - hmmm....RAM problem?
Ok, so now I get into the BIOS, and when I use setup to see how much RAM is installed, it shows 64MB, and it should be 256MB. When I checked the log entry, it shows that, lo and behold, a "memory size different" & "memory size decreased" error entry for the time that my computer crashed and burned.
After wading thru DELL tech support voice mail hell, and finally getting a live technician (no, really!), he said it sounds like the RAM went south on me, and a technician would be dispatched, and he would replace the RAM and the motherboard, just in case (his words, not mine).
Now, I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, folks, but isn't a motherboard replacement a little...excessive? Isn't this just a RAM problem? Nothing ever seems to work the same again after motherboard replacements....
Anyway, any comments/assistance or explanation of this error would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jer
Dell Dimension 4300
XP (home)
256MB
60GB drive
DVD
CD/RW
19" Sony/Dell Trinitron
A02 BIOS
GeForce 3 Ti200 64MB
etc., etc.
Got a big ol' BSD on my *new* 4300 (XP) and had to reboot. During POST, a couple of new lines appear on the monitor, with memory addresses stating something to the effect that "Memory size is different" and "Memory size is reduced". It then goes to the boot menu, and regardless of what option I select (network, no network, previous config, etc.) I get the same BSD and the system hangs. Now this blue screen deals with the ACPI.SYS file address FDFED25A base now being at FDFC9000 - hmmm....RAM problem?
Ok, so now I get into the BIOS, and when I use setup to see how much RAM is installed, it shows 64MB, and it should be 256MB. When I checked the log entry, it shows that, lo and behold, a "memory size different" & "memory size decreased" error entry for the time that my computer crashed and burned.
After wading thru DELL tech support voice mail hell, and finally getting a live technician (no, really!), he said it sounds like the RAM went south on me, and a technician would be dispatched, and he would replace the RAM and the motherboard, just in case (his words, not mine).
Now, I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, folks, but isn't a motherboard replacement a little...excessive? Isn't this just a RAM problem? Nothing ever seems to work the same again after motherboard replacements....
Anyway, any comments/assistance or explanation of this error would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jer
Dell Dimension 4300
XP (home)
256MB
60GB drive
DVD
CD/RW
19" Sony/Dell Trinitron
A02 BIOS
GeForce 3 Ti200 64MB
etc., etc.
0 events found
No Events found!
mondialus
1 Rookie
•
4 Posts
0
December 15th, 2001 13:00
Just on a whim (and applying Occam's Razor), I opened the case, removed the RAM, waved a dead chicken over it, and put it back in. It didn't click in on one end, but the plastic clip looked closed. I pressed a little harder and was rewarded with a resounding click!
Powered the system back up, got a notification that the amount of my system RAM had changed (backed to 256MB), and the system booted normally!
Motherboard indeed...
Jer