Parents system running slow again

[pentium]

Re: Parents system running slow again

My parents are cheap.
Never owned a new car.
Never owned a new appliance.
have not bought a new computer since 2001.
To help them save their sanity I have been the one upgrading them from their terrible Cicero pc they bought to what they have now. I forced them to replace their worn out keyboard and barely able to read monitor for new stuff. I highly doubt they would pay $400 for a system off the shelf of the local Staples. They just don't want to spend the money.
Anyways, I couldn't pry my mom away from the computer today so I could test the ram (she actually said it was okay if I did it while she was using the system ) so I'll try in the morning.

[Wizard]

Re: Parents system running slow again

Split the cost between them and get the stuff I specified.

I was glad last time I told my dad to foot his money on his computer. Finally this got off my expenses big time. It takes a firm telling.

Cheers, Wizard

[momaka]

Re: Parents system running slow again

pentiuam never said if his bios sees it or not, and even if he did it's wouldn't be very godo paramter of ram state:
ram fails under load, and is bios loading it?
i wouldn't say so.

True
The thing is, most computers are set to do a quick post not a full one. The difference is that quick post just checkes the ram's ID which only tells Bios how much ram it should expect, whereas full/normal post checks each byte of the ram before completing post. I had a corrupt 128mb stick of ram once in my PII. Quick post would not see anything, but full/normal post would stop at around 64mb reporting an error.
So memtest86 should be a good way to point out if there are any errors with the ram.

[pentium]

Re: Parents system running slow again

What the f-...
When I last checked I swore I put three 256Mb sticks in it. Now there is only one 256 stick and two 128Mb sticks. My father denies the system was taken in for servicing over the summer but someone other than me has been messing about in the case.

[Wizard]

Re: Parents system running slow again

Oh my! Can you think of someone who could have?

What kind of memory this system uses? RDRAM or SDRAM? Both are expensive as hell to get for 256MB size especially in 16 chips format ditto to early systems that starts to use DDR.

Cheers, Wizard

[gdement]

Re: Parents system running slow again

Oh my! Can you think of someone who could have?

What kind of memory this system uses? RDRAM or SDRAM? Both are expensive as hell to get for 256MB size especially in 16 chips format ditto to early systems that starts to use DDR.

Cheers, Wizard

I think any chipset that supports a P4 can handle 32x8 ram chips, so single sided 256MB should work, or double sided 512MB.

[zandrax]

Re: Parents system running slow again

What the f-...
When I last checked I swore I put three 256Mb sticks in it. Now there is only one 256 stick and two 128Mb sticks. My father denies the system was taken in for servicing over the summer but someone other than me has been messing about in the case.

Really sure about the 768 MB? I doubt a thief would swap its two 128 MB sticks for two 256 MB ones: maybe you recalled it wrong or already used them for another computer.

Zandrax

[pentium]

Re: Parents system running slow again

My memory can't be that bad. I could swear that there were three 256Mb sticks in there.

Or I'm just trying to hide my ass from a mistake.

[bgavin]

Re: Parents system running slow again

Never guess. Know for sure.

[i4004]

Re: Parents system running slow again

>My memory can't be that bad.

yes, your parents' memory is problematic, not yours...
hihi...