[OT] Computer problem - need advice

[Barry]

Every few days, I walk back into the shack and see the Blue Screen of
Death on my monitor.  it says, "Hardware malfunction  Parity
Check/Memory Parity Error.
I'm using a Dell Inspiron laptop with WinXP.

Any ideas?  Does this mean the laptop is on its way out?

Tnx,
Barry

--

Barry Kutner, W2UP             Lakewood, CO

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[Ken Alexander-2]

Hi Barry,

If you can get access to the memory simms/cards then you might try removing and re-inserting them.  This has been known to fix that sort of problem.  It's a no-cost action that might save you some $$$.

73,

Ken Alexander
VE3HLS



--- On Wed, 11/24/10, Barry <[hidden email]> wrote:

> From: Barry <[hidden email]>
> Subject: [Elecraft] [OT] Computer problem - need advice
> To: [hidden email]
> Date: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 10:42 AM
> Every few days, I walk back into the
> shack and see the Blue Screen of
> Death on my monitor.  it says, "Hardware
> malfunction  Parity
> Check/Memory Parity Error.
> I'm using a Dell Inspiron laptop with WinXP.
>
> Any ideas?  Does this mean the laptop is on its way
> out?
>
> Tnx,
> Barry
>
> --
>
> Barry Kutner, W2UP         
>    Lakewood, CO
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
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> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

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[Phil Kane-2]

On 11/24/2010 7:42 AM, Barry wrote:

> Every few days, I walk back into the shack and see the Blue
> Screen of Death on my monitor.  it says, "Hardware malfunction
> Parity Check/Memory Parity Error. I'm using a Dell Inspiron
> laptop with WinXP.

> Any ideas?  Does this mean the laptop is on its way out?

  That would be the first conclusion that one would jump to, but
  wait....

  On my wife's mini-tower running XP Pro SP3, the "cannot find
  boot drive" would come up frequently, sometimes within an hour
  after rebooting.  It was clean-up time:

   Make sure you have a full backup of all partitions.

   Run VIPRE (virus/malware program) - no malware.

   Run Registry Mechanic  - found and repaired several hundred
   registry errors.

   Clean caches - dumps all sorts of stuff. (XP has a facility
   for that)

   Reseat connectors for hard drive and memory sticks.

  It took several cycles of the above to really clean it up, but
  it hasn't misbehaved since - we leave it on 24/7.

--  73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
    Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402

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[Phil Salas]

Barry - I had this problem randomly with my Dell Inspiron laptop over about a year or so.  Go to the Dell website and see if there are any operating system downloads for your computer.  There were for mine, and this completely fixed the problem.

Phil - AD5X
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[Barry]

Thanks for the advice, gang.  Memory modules were easy to get to, so I reseated them.  Will follow Phil's suggestion next and then wait and see.  If still problems, will replace the RAM modules.  Certainly cheap enough these days.  
Barry W2UP

[DC]

On 11/24/2010 8:30 AM, Phil Kane wrote:

> On 11/24/2010 7:42 AM, Barry wrote:
>
>> Every few days, I walk back into the shack and see the Blue
>> Screen of Death on my monitor.  it says, "Hardware malfunction
>> Parity Check/Memory Parity Error. I'm using a Dell Inspiron
>> laptop with WinXP.
>> Any ideas?  Does this mean the laptop is on its way out?
>    That would be the first conclusion that one would jump to, but
>    wait....
>
>    On my wife's mini-tower running XP Pro SP3, the "cannot find
>    boot drive" would come up frequently, sometimes within an hour
>    after rebooting.  It was clean-up time:
>
>     Make sure you have a full backup of all partitions.
>
>     Run VIPRE (virus/malware program) - no malware.
>
>     Run Registry Mechanic  - found and repaired several hundred
>     registry errors.
>
>     Clean caches - dumps all sorts of stuff. (XP has a facility
>     for that)
>
>     Reseat connectors for hard drive and memory sticks.
>
>    It took several cycles of the above to really clean it up, but
>    it hasn't misbehaved since - we leave it on 24/7.
>
> --  73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
>      Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

Sounds like you have some memory going bad.  There is memory testing
software free on the internet..

Dick
W6DDC
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[sandmanx]

I'd suggest downloading the Ultimate Boot CD and running Memtest86 for 24 hours.  Usually when there are memory errors, they will happen immediately, but if it does make it past the first few minutes a 24 hour burn in sometimes will throw some errors, which still means there is bad memory in the machine.

Phil
KD5GKE

--- On Wed, 11/24/10, DC <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Sounds like you have some memory going bad.  There is
> memory testing
> software free on the internet..
>
> Dick
> W6DDC



     
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