Serial Killer RAM ???

[Kdiddy]

Ok my neighbor is having have this interesting situation, and since he has no net access now, Im posting this...he HAD 2 boxes..

Abit BE6
Celeron 433
"SUSPECT" 128 MB ram
64 RAM
10 GB WestDig
sound, NIC, & vid
CDrom
250W supply

Acer V72ma
K6-2 500
128, 64 SDRAM
(2) 20 GB IBM
onboard sound & vid, NIC
CDrom
250W supply


Ok the deal is about a week ago, the Abit setup started having lockups & kernel errors, then hours later, OS would not boot, followed the next morning by not even posting, no bios, no nothing. Switched everything out from CPU all the to power supply, everything else ran fine on one of my boards. So concluded bad board.

Well in the Acer setup, he replace the 64 MB RAM chip with the "SUSPECT" 128 MB RAM chip from the Abit setup. It was running just fine about a week until today. Again, he got a kernel errors, followed by minutes later, "unable to read disk" errors when trying to boot...& now it just sits at the system info screen on power on...he can enter the bios still, but thats it. It will not do anything past that point. Again, switch out all pieces of hardware some of my old stuff, no change...so another bad board??..whats the odds of that??

The ONLY piece of hardware that was the same between 2 machines is that "SUSPECT" 128 MB chip. This chip doesnt cause problems in any of my machines. But of course I havent left it in for a week....has anyone ever heard of a RAM chip slowly killing a mainboard???

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kdiddy on 2001-12-14 20:56:10 ]</font>

[Dhruv]

Have you tried calling Acer Tech Support?

[Kdiddy]

Can't, board is too old, they don't support it anymore

[sean madison]

The ram cannot do all of that.
If ram was the problem, it would not boot into windows at all.
Now, you may have what is called a bios virus or at least another type of virus that can cause damages quite like the bios virus.

My suggestion-
Keep everything the way it is but reformat the HD.
Then, unplug the power supply from the motherboard for 18 hrs, no less.
This will kill any virus if its in the bios.

Now, reinstall your OS. Using that chip and everything else the same.
If it still does it, tell me the brand name of the ram chip.

I am so sorry about your problem, i know it must really suck but i have been in situations also where i NEED my pc the next day and i gotta format it and shit and i hate it but i cant imagine bein in your friends shoes though.

Me and the other people here will help in fixing this problem.
Come on people, start replying with educational answers.

We are here to help

[Kdiddy]

"If ram was the problem, it would not boot into windows at all. "

That is what I said, you push power button, it gives initial pre OS boot screen where it counts ram, list harddr-ves connected, etc...then hangs right there, nothing else, he can enter the bios, but thats it...so the whole idea of reformating and all is moot point when you can not get past this point.

[sean madison]

Hey, i just got done talkin to a friend of mine who had same problem.
He recently got an amd 1.4 ghz and had a 256 ddrram chip in there. It would NEVER boot into windows

He called his manufacturer and he told him that ANY and i mean ANY processor thats 1.1 GHZ or faster MUST have ram chips that are certified.

He said he went out and got a 512 mb sdram chip that was certified and ever since then, it works fine

[Kdiddy]

ok thats a very nice story, info, & all....but ummmmm the processors I named are 433 mhz & 500 mhz..Im really starting to wonder whether or not people actually read the whole post around here b4 they answer..LOL

UPDATE: The case against the serial killer RAM has been dropped. New evidence surface to help closed the case on another suspect.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: kdiddy on 2001-12-15 04:08:31 ]</font>