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brainphrozen

1 Rookie

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2 Posts

695

January 12th, 2018 15:00

Memory issues

I'm having an issue with memory on this beautiful old pc. If I put the full amount of ram in Windows 7 it crashes with lots of BSOD's. I managed to get it working with 2 gigs of memory but it rebooted after 10 minutes. I think the motherboard might  be on the way out or there is a bad connection on the DDR slots. Is there anywhere that would have a replacement MB given that it is 11 years old.

RoHe

10 Elder

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45.2K Posts

January 17th, 2018 12:00

  1. Exactly which PC model is this?
  2. Are you running a 32- or 64-bit version of Win 7?
  3. How many GB is the "full amount" of RAM you're trying to use?
  4. Exactly what do the BSODs say?
  5. Have you tested each RAM module, one at a time, in slot 1 to see if one of them failed?
  6. When was last time you replaced the motherboard battery?

brainphrozen

1 Rookie

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2 Posts

January 17th, 2018 13:00

XPS700 2006 model (heavy as %^&^ silver exterior.) Was running 4gb but then started to say that it wasn't happy with it. Currently running with 2gb but craps out after watching video for ten minutes and reboots. don't want to get rid of her as she is a beautiful piece of engineering on the exterior. Would hate to chuck her on the scrapheap. Not even seen one of these for sale on the net.

 

Some of the errors have ranged from irq or equal to  (graphic card issues) to system errors. Might try changing the battery though. Hasn't been done in the few years I have had it.

RoHe

10 Elder

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45.2K Posts

January 17th, 2018 16:00

Start by replacing the battery, easy and cheap.  Before you do, reboot and immediately press F2 to open BIOS setup. Copy down all current settings just to be safe. Then:

  1. Power off and unplug
  2. Press/hold power button for ~15 sec
  3. Open case and remove motherboard battery
  4. Press/hold power button for ~30 sec
  5. Install all RAM modules
  6. Reseat all PCI cards in their slots
  7. Use canned air to clean out dust bunnies and make sure all fans are clean and turn freely
  8. Install fresh battery (CR2032, ~$2.00)
  9. Close up and boot system 

See what happens now. If it still crashes, repeat steps 1-9, but remove all RAM modules, except for the one in slot 1. If that works, repeat 1-9 but swap each RAM module into slot 1 to see if you can find a bum module. If they all work in slot 1, add a second module to the slot with the same color retention clips as slot 1. Keep going until you either find a bum slot or all RAM gets reinstalled.

Another possibility is that it's overheating, so if the above doesn't help, you might consider removing the CPU fan and heat sink from the top of the CPU. Clean both surfaces, apply fresh thermal paste (eg Arctic Silver) and reattach heat sink and fan. See if that helps...

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