Dicky memory?

[Andy B]

Yes, I know mine's past help but there's nothing I can do about that! On the other hand, maybe the RAM in my PC needs replacing?

Symptoms are that the PC will crash from time to time when I'm browsing (using Firefox). For example, if I post on here, the moment I press the 'Submit New Thread', more often than not it will crash. It sometimes does the same thing if I open Blackberry Desktop to sync my Blackberry and PC. PC is a decent modern one running XP Professional. Plenty of ROM left and 3GB of RAM. At any one time I've probably got 2 or 3 applications open, but rarely more. I normally keep Outlook (2007), Firefox and Word open at any one time.

When I say crash, it just starts to re-boot. No error messages. No blue screens. Just a re-boot.

Could it be faulty RAM?

 

[Fanum]

By default, most systems will re-boot rather than go to the BSOD, which is a pain because you don't get to see the error code which will give you a lot more info.

Set the machine to NOT reboot automatically........I've cheated and am cut 'n' pasting this, but it will make the PC go to BSOD so you can investigate by copying the error code into google

<section>

1. • Pull up the System Properties window. There are multiple ways to do this. The first is to click "Start," followed by "Control Panel," and then double-click on "System." You can also right-click on "My Computer" from the desktop or the Start menu, and select "Properties."
     
     
   • 2 Click the "Advanced" tab in the System Properties window. Click the "Settings" button located under Startup and Recovery (this is the third Settings button from the top of the screen). Under the System Failure category, uncheck the box located next to Automatically Restart.
     
     
   • 3 Click "OK" on both open windows to close them. The setting will be changed instantly, so there's no need to restart the computer. The next time your computer encounters a fatal system error, the information will be left on the screen until the system is restarted.
     
     

</section>

 

[cookie]

re seating the RAM you have might help.

 

[Djalabajoe]

You could try the following if it is Vista or Windows 7.
If you are running XP you will need to download something like Memtest86

"Vista and Windows 7 have a Windows Memory Diagnostics tool that can be accessed by clicking on the Start button and typing memory in the run line. Running this command will open this tool giving you two options, to either restart immediate or to test memory the next time the computer restarts. Choosing either of these options will run the computer through a memory test the next time it starts up"

 

[Andy B]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have a try at these and see what happens.

 

[Clive]

3GB RAM ?

How many and what size are the chips that make up 3GB?

Memory testers don't always give good results IME - if you have, say, 3 x 1GB, take all out but slot 0, boot up and do your normal app usage for a while. Shut down, add 1 chip and repeat until crash reoccurs.

 

[Dansin]

3GB RAM ?

How many and what size are the chips that make up 3GB?

Memory testers don't always give good results IME - if you have, say, 3 x 1GB, take all out but slot 0, boot up and do your normal app usage for a while. Shut down, add 1 chip and repeat until crash reoccurs.

If it's XP or Vista 32 bit, it will only report 3gb ish of ram even if it has more.

Reseating the ram can help and as Clive has suggested, try one stick at a time until a problem occurs. MEMtest86+ is a useful tool to test ram.