[narlus]

ok, i'm back...

i was able to limp along w/ a single 512MB stick before i went on vacation, and w/ this snowy day i've got some time to troubleshoot.

i made an ISO boot disc of memtest, changed the BIOS to boot from a cd-rom first, and installed all 4 sticks (2x512, 2x1GB) but i just got a regular beeping sound from the PC and never got any sort of screen splash.

so i took out one of the 1GB sticks (so the slots on the MoBo look like this now: 1st slot (512) 2nd slot (empty) 3rd slot (512) 4th slot (1GB)) and it booted fine, but went to windows rather than running memtest as i expected.

i checked the properties of my computer and it says that i've got 1.5 GB of RAM, so obviously one of the sticks (512) isn't being used.

what steps should i take next?

 

[narlus]

oh, and i just noticed that my D: drive (C being my OS drive) isn't recognized, but the other internal drive (E is.

huh.

 

[syadasti]

You have to use memtest like I said, one stick at a time until you find the bad stick(s) (if there are none bad - bad slot(s)):

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2831903&postcount=24

Make sure you open the ISO image to burn the CD image. Sounds like you burned a data CD with the iso file instead of burning an CD from an image file.

You can check by inserting the CD you burned in windows - if you can see a *.iso file on the CD, you didn't burn it right.

Download memtest+ and try again if so.

 

[narlus]

i think i burned the disc fine, as i used both Nero and imgburn; there's a readme.txt file and boot folder on the disk.

i will try the RAM sticks one by one...does it matter which slot they are in, on the MoBo? my graphics card makes it a PITA to access two of the slots, and i have to remove it to install sticks there.

 

[syadasti]

Test them one at a time all in the same slot - doesn't matter which. If they all pass, you'll know its a bad slot so then you'll have to test each of the slots with one run of memtest...

 

[narlus]

i think i burned the disc fine, as i used both Nero and imgburn; there's a readme.txt file and boot folder on the disk.

i guess i'm an idiot...what i thought was a boot disk isn't one, or at least my PC doesn't recognize it as one.

here's what the disk details are:

label is MT201

there's a boot folder, and a readme.txt file. in the boot folder are two files; one called 'boot.cat' and one called 'memtest.img'. is this what i need for a boot disc? i created this using imgburn.


i changed the boot order in my PC (actually only set option) to boot from cd-rom, but the cdr i made wasn't able to boot my system.

i bailed, reset the BIOS to boot from my hard drive (and found that the previous post about my D drive not being seen was from a loose connection i must have jarred during RAM chip futzing about), and now am just running one RAM stick.

 

[syadasti]

I don't know, try burning another. Do you have Nero or some other mainstream burning app. Most should be able to create a CD from an ISO image:

http://www.memtest.org/download/2.01/memtest86+-2.01.iso.zip

Follow this tutorial and use the free program they mention if needed, only use the memtest+ iso you download:

http://dban.sourceforge.net/faq/CDBurnerXP.html

 

[r464]

If you adjust the color settings on your monitor, you can change that annoying blue screen to a nice green or perhaps purple...