Topic: oh shit. help!

[micah]

So my new RAM came today for my wife's lappy.

I just installed it and when I booted up I get an error "Windows Did Not Load Normally" and it give me options to load in safe mode etc (all which bring me back to the same screen).

shit my wife is gonna kill me

[Perspective]

Does it boot properly if you remove the new RAM?

[hans]

I seem to recall Windows needs to do a check if the system amount increases. Did you choose the boot normally option and let it do it's thing then reboot?

[micah]

When I let it boot normally it just brought me back to the same error message with the same options.  No matter what option I choose it just reboots to the same page.

the two chips sit on top of each other.

I took the top one out and put in one of the old 256k chips.  It booted up fine and said I had 1.13 GB of Ram.  Which means the new chip I left in works fine and either A) the old chip I stuck in there is the one that was half dead before and my other new 1GB chip is DOA or, B) there's something wrong with that chip socket and maybe the 256chip was fine all along but the hardware is busted and thats why it can't read the new chip?

I guess I gotta keep playing around, swapping chips in and out until I figure it out.  fuckity fuck.

[micah]

Ok, so now I have the 1GB chip that is most likely DOA and the 256K chip that I think is good in there and, instead of the shell looking page asking if I want to boot in normal/safe mode it keeps asking me to run CHKDSK. I you "press any key to skip this step" it just (eventually) brings you back to that page.  10+ minutes ago I let it start the CHKDSK; it got to "4% done" fairly quickly but has been stuck there for at least 10 minutes now.

I wonder how long I should let it sit there trying to run Check Disk before I just power it off and swap in the next chipset combo.

[Steve]

I cant help it

Tigerdirect. Two reasons: its cheaper, and i HATE newegg for memory. I have never got a bad module from TD but i swear to god one out of every three from newegg has had issues.

Tigerdirect has great deals. i got 4GB of DDR6400 (2GB x 2) Consair memory for 29.99. And TD is almost always free shipping. They stock the OCZ memory and sell it cheap, and for a lower end brand its great.

I like both newegg and tiger but in my experience tiger is cheaper, faster, and more reliable.

Let it run the chkdsk. Windows is in oshit mode, let it get comfy.

[micah]

i'm running chkdsk again, this time from within windows.  I stopped it last time after it froze at 4%.

So I put in the 1GB stick that I know works and the other 256k chip that I assume is fine since the first one only gave me 1.13G ram when I had it in.

I rebooted and skipped the chkdsk screen and it loaded windows - telling me I have a half dozen or more currupted files and to run chkdsk.

so I clicked start > run  and typed chkdsk and it ran and went away... there's all these gay ass warning windows popping up and trying to reinstall programs that should already be there.  WTF is Going on!!!! All I Did Was Replace Memory!!!?????????

I gotta run out for a couple hours.  I'll try and work this out later.

crap!

[Steve]

Replacing ram can do alllll sorts of crazy things. The one module u got is most likely DOA, and confused the system, thus tripping off all kinds of crazy side effects. Put in the memory you know to work, get it to stable, and send the defective one back.

[Steve]

oh and run memtest

[micah]

WTF is this?

I currently have one of the new sticks in there with one of the old one.  It boots up fine but when window's starts I get a dialog box that says;

One of the files congaing the system's registry data had to be recovered by use of a log or alternate copy.  The recovery was successful

The message pops up every time I restart. 

Also, on restart of windows it trys to install some stupid HP Photogallery program and has some other error message about not being able to access the .NET frame work.

I can't believe how this is all going to hell.

[Steve]

maybe the new ram gave the computer the power it needed to handle old business?

thats a serious theory btw....

[Steve]

Google only gets you so far homeslice

[Steve]

That goes right along with what im saying, ethic.

oh and <3

[micah]

hmmm...

I'll go back to that issue in a few minutes. I'm still trying to figure out if one of my new RAM chips is bad.

when I put The new one that I think is good in with the old chip that I thought was good and boot up, hitting F10 to enter the BIOS set up, it shows just over 1GB of RAM.

Thinking I had something there, I took out the old chip and put it the other new one - so now both of them are in there - and I hit F10 and it says I only have 896MB or RAM?  How did it go down if one of the chips in there is the good one?

.... hold on...

ok, I fliped the chips. I think they load the memory in order by slot it would seem.  So I put the good chip on top, it loads compleatly, and the bad chip (which it seems only works at 86% proficiancy) on the bottom which loads next.   Now I've got both chips in AND I CAN LOAD WINDOWS!!!!

"my computer" says I have 1.87GB installed.   So that second chip (on the bottom) sucks.  But it sure is better then the .33GB I had before.

Still having the above stated problem though with the registry.

Then, its trying to install "HP Photo Gallery" for some reason... no matter how many times you click "cancel" it just keeps giving error messages until you ctrl+alt+del and end the installer in the processes.

Oh, and this latest time, windows asked me to activate windows, as if it were the first time I used it :-( 

this is all seriously F'd up.

[Steve]

Sounds like limitations of the motherboard. Just cause they claim it can hold the 2GB it is older.....sounds like the computer cant handle it.