Big problem! Sometimes computer starts with HALF T

jjmcrj

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Dec 11, 2001
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Hi there, I´ve got this weird problem:

My system has a total of 512MB of RAM, divided in two 256 MB SDRAM PC 133 modules, that have been installed for a year now, with no probs, BUT:

I noticed it yesterday for first time. I switched on the computer, and when I switched on the monitor, I saw that it had hanged during the boot process. I restarted it and during the memory check it read only 256 MB, as I could check later in both the task manager and system information.

I rebooted and it showed the same. Then I rebooted once again to access the board BIOS, but this time it read 512 MB. Very strange.

Today I forgot about the subject, until I swapped between two applications, and it took too long, so I checked, and again 256!. Restarted and back to normal 512.

I haven´t been doing any hardware changes for months, not even moved the computer from its place.

I have searched Tom´s Hardware forums, and haven´t seen that topic. Neither in the Aopen site.

Has anyone had ever a similar problem?. Where do you think the problem can be, in the memory modules or in the motherboard it self?

System specs:

Athlon Thunderbird 1.1 GHz
Motherboard: Aopen AK73 Pro
Leadtek Winfast GeForce 2 Pro
Soundblaster Live! 5.1
20 GB Seagate hard drive

I will appreciate any ideas.

Thanks
 

HammerBot

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Jun 27, 2002
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Try reseating the memory modules or use different slots. It may just be a loose connection.

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tha_trixta

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Dec 6, 2002
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Further then what hammer bot has said, looks at the contact pins on your dimms. This one time, at band camp, a buddy of mine had the same situation as you. Every time he would boot up , he would get either of two amounts of ram. I went over, and removed the ram, looked at the two different modules, and noticed that one, of all the 168 pins on the module, was burned right off. He went out, bought new stick , installed it, and system was stable. Same amount of ram, every boot up. Check your pins carefully!
 

jjmcrj

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Dec 11, 2001
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Thanks for your replies. I have inspected both modules, and their sockets, and they look ok, so I just firmly inserted them back, and since then it has been all right: always full RAM. Perhaps one of the modules was a bit loose, but not that I could see that before I removed them.

Thanks again.

Ragards
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
I've seen this caused by heat on a couple boards. Turned out to be a power issue: some capacitors on the board were going bad, and the noisy voltage was heating up the RAM. In fact, I've actually seen this several times.

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Toejam31

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Dec 31, 2007
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It can also be because of nothing but just plain old dirt. I've seen a couple of systems come in over the past few years that fail to POST, and the fix was cleaning the contacts with a soft pencil eraser, and then blowing both the modules and the slots clean (no eraser bits allowed in the slots after the cleaning, and gentle pressure only--don't scrub the contacts with maniacal glee!). Reinstalling the modules after the cleaning brought the systems back to life immediately.

Toey

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lhgpoobaa

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Dec 31, 2007
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Run the free program MEMTEST86 on each module. Find out if you get any errors. should take 20-30 mins for a full test.

<b><font color=purple>[Rik_]</font color=purple> I wonder how many people have made their own phasechange system?
<font color=blue>[LHGPooBaa]</font color=blue> I get phasechange whenever i eat a hot chillie :lol: </b>