Yet another computer question...

[Scott Douglas]

Our garage has seen some pretty high temps this past month or so. The computer (old Dell) that I keep out there for access to the interweb while working on a car is now giving me this message when I boot it up, or try to at least:



My question is, is this telling me I have a problem with my RAM or something else?

Thanks for any help. This is an ancient computer but works great for when I've got really dirty hands and don't want to clean up just to get on line for a minute to look something up.

[Por_sha911]

I've seen overheating cause that problem. Open up the case and blow out the dust. Costs nothing to try and can't hurt.

[mikester]

Vacuum the dust out with your shop vac carefully. Don't blow it out though - that stuff sucks.

[sc_rufctr]

It could be a lot of things. Failed HD or memory... Cleaning it out would be a good start.

Do you keep it updated? (BIOS)

[mikester]

If you can get it up in safe mode check your disk space to see if you have run out.

[Scott R]

This would be Windows XP, correct?

Couple of things,

1. Where you in the process of printing anything? Or did you have any PDF's open?
2. Check an re-seat all SATA connections
3. Upgrade video drivers
4. Remove Symantec

If I'm reading correctly you can't boot at all so do the cables. Star simple unplug the SATA cable(s) to the DVD/CD drive and boot again. Then remove and reseat the SATA HDD cable.

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

My question is, is this telling me I have a problem with my RAM or something else?

Very likely. If you can get it to boot in safe mode (F8 upon reboot), you might run the WIN diagnostic tool/memory test. Open the start menu and type in: mdsched.exe in the run box and hit enter, then follow the prompts.

[Scott Douglas]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.
I'll take a look at it tomorrow and report back here with my findings.

Thanks.

[Scott Douglas]

It was pretty clean inside when I opened it up. So I went ahead and disconnected/reconnected all the SATA cables as suggested, and I popped the RAM chips out and put them back in just for good measure.
Started it up, got the same error message, went into safe mode and ran check disk. All was OK. Got out of safe mode and restarted Windows and all was good for some reason. I did get an error when Firefox tried to update, related to pagenation(sp?). Couldn't get it to repeat. It now boots OK and goes on-line alright too. I ran check disk on both the hard drives that are in it as I think I've got the slave setup for use by Windows. They both report back as good.
The one thing I haven't been able to find is a memory check to check the RAM sticks out, but they seem to be functioning fine for now.
Thanks again for the help.

[Deschodt]

It'll fail again soon, I promise you... You rarely get a blue screen of death followed by "all is well ever after"... Memory fails more rarely than hard drives though... if it was my machine and I cared about it, I'd just back up, put in a new hard drive (SSD?) and reinstall the OS... But for a garage PC, maybe you can afford to wait and see how long until it dies again...

[GH85Carrera]

That looks like a Dell 8400.

We have several of the 11 year old Dell 8400 computers here. In fact I am typing this on one right now. We have one that we use to run the fax - scanner - printer. Last month out of the blue (pun intended) we had a BSOD on that FAX machine. It would not even get into the BIOS. It took some testing but I determined two of the memory sticks were NFG. It now runs super slow with just 2 gig of RAM but it still runs.

We have 3 other Dell 8400s running Win XP and they just hum right along. Microsoft and Dell must hate them all.

[flipper35]

Good chance it was the RAM and the R&R fixed the issue (for now). Sometimes they vibrate too much or move from heat cycles even though they are clipped in. Some video cards will do this also.

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

The one thing I haven't been able to find is a memory check to check the RAM sticks out, but they seem to be functioning fine for now.
Thanks again for the help.

Ah, must be XP then. Checking RAM takes a few more steps in that case (downloading program, burning .iso to CD/flash drive, changing boot order, and booting from that disk/flash drive).

Here is a link to the Windows memory diagnostic tool that will work for XP (free download):
Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic Download - Softpedia

[930addict]

That error can only mean one of two things: Either it's a leak in the suppressor tube or your micro grabber has a crack in it.

[Scott Douglas]

It's a Dimension 8200 Pent 4 1.70 GHz w/1.69 GHz 1.25GB of RAM, running WIN XP Ver 2002 SP 2, easily 10 yrs old or more, I think we got it when the kids were going off to school.
I'll give the Diagnostic a try Eric, thanks for the link.

If all else fails I'll change the flux capacitor and check the suppressor tube for leaks.