After Windows XP has finished booting a message appears on the screen saying that the computer has recovered from a serious error and an error report has been created. This report contains technical jargon which means nothing to me. If I choose not to view the error report the message goes away, but then returns a few seconds later. If I view the error report, it says that the error has been caused by a hard drive error. Following the instructions, I ran Chkdsk on the hard drive. However, Chkdsk stops during operation and does not indicate why Chkdsk stopped running. Restarting the computer results in the same serious error message appearing. Another problem which may be related is that in the last few weeks the computer speed has significantly slowed down. For example, it now takes minutes (rather than seconds) to open email. Scanning the computer with Norton Antivirus and Spybot Search & Destroy did not indicate any problems. (more…)

After building a new computer I encountered problems with my Sony (DRU810A) DVD+/-RW drive. The computer is setup with a Samsung DVD-ROM drive as the master, and the Sony DVD burner as slave. The Samsung drive works correctly, but the Sony drive does not work, and the drive door on the Sony drive keeps opening and closing by itself. I have tried swapping the drives between master and slave but this does not resolve the issue. A second question is the computer has 1.5 GB RAM in total, consisting of 2x DDR400 512 MB sticks and 1x DDR2700 512 MB stick. If I set the RAM speed to 400, only 1 GB of memory is detected in the machine. However, if I slow down the RAM speed the entire 1.5 GB of memory is recognised. So, would the computer run faster if I remove the DDR2700 RAM and set the RAM speed to 400? (more…)

Usually my computer is used with the following applications open: Mozilla mail and browser (with about 8 browser tabs open), Norton Utilities, and Leprechaun Virusbuster. There is an Epson Stylus 830U USB connected as the default printer and a HP5200 scanner USB connected. I also have Epson PhotoQuicker open. If I attempt to open a word processing program or another application, the following error message appears: ‘C:Program Files………………………..exe. Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service’. Would doubling the RAM to 1 GB help? The computer is an ASUS Pentium 4 with a 40 GB hard disk (22 GB free) and 512 MB RAM running Windows XP Home. (more…)

A few months ago the RAM in my computer was upgraded from 64 MB to 192MB. About a month after the upgrade, the following message appeared during boot-up: ‘Memory parity Error, System Halted’. For a while I ignored this message as letting the computer cool down would allow the computer to work. I recently discovered a virus on the computer. I installed PC-Cillin 2003 and used a set of emergency rescue disks to clean the virus. Now the memory parity error appears every time I turn on the computer. Could rescue disks be the cause of the error, or something else? The computer is an IBM Aptiva Pentium II with 192MB RAM running Windows 98. (more…)

Just wondering if you have any idea on how to identify bad sectors in RAM.? My system has been crashing in intensive games and I suspect that when it tries to access the higher end of my RAM it hits a bad sector. Any ideas? (more…)