The company I got the laptop from don’t want to know about the problem. There solution was to plug less USB devices into the computer. :furious:
Basically when the computer is powered up the BIOS memory test finds 503 MB RAM, there is 512 in the laptop. When Windows is running the System Information" finds 512 MB’s. The computer runs normally until I’m using a large amount of physical memory, when it will most likely lockup, and need to be powered off, before it will work again.
However, the real part that’s stumping me is that the memory tests I’ve run on the laptop all pass. But this does not account for the frequent lockups on the system. I have reinstalled Windows twice, and this has made no difference. Has anyone got any other ideas that I can try.
Assuming the laptop has shared graphics memory, that could account for the missing amount. I assume you’ve ran memtest and it was ok? Try the 3 settings of prime95 stress test too.
Probably wont help, but check for and update the chipset drivers for the laptop.
Agreed, my instinct is 9 meg diff seems to me a shared graphics mem prob. Have you had a look at the windows task manager (ctrl-alt-del/Performance) to see what the memory usage is, and nipping back a tab to processes to see process that are running that might hog.
Another alternative is perhaps a memory manager, like clever cache pro. I use that on my 512 Targa, but you might find a freebie one on nonags?
Having said that, that’s all about managing what you have. Possible knackered memory?
Thanks for that. I can’t see it being nakered memory as the laptop is only 14 months old. I’ll try running TuneUp Memoptimiser for a while to see if that helps. I’ll give prime95 a go as well, it’s not one of the one’s I’ve ran yet.
Reason I’m suggesting prime95 is that if the northbridge or cpu are at all unstable it can have similar symptoms as bad ram. Age of ram is no guarantee of it being good.
Just a quick update the prime95 test passed, it was allowed to run for 2 hours on each test. However, the computer lockups are becoming more frequent, even with a memory optimiser running.
Memory Optimizers don’t do a darn thing. All they can really do is free memory from terminated programs that remained resident after the program shut down. The memory manager is good at one thing and thats wasting more memory. If you are using XP its memory manager is far superior than any third party utility.
Try swapping the memory with a known good stick. If that doesn’t solve the problem then at least you have ruled out the memory as the trouble. Could be the memory controller, cache…
Check the FAn cooling in the laptop. Most systems have a small fan and if it’s plugged get the can of air out…you’ll be surprised at what comes out when you use it!
I does appear to have been the clogged fan. If the problems continue to occur I think I will try the company again. As the mainboard have no temperature sensors at all, so I can’t find out how hot the laptop is running.
Use Sandra or if AMD one of the AD Tools to monitor the Heat/Speed which the newer chips have built in thermal readings. I think even Intel may have this on the chips also for newer units. Happy to have suggested the FAN…I was surprised when I blew out my unit a week or so ago (5 Month old lappy) what flew out…so all you laptop owner get that can of air and BLAST IT!
Doesn’t it tell you what the temps are when you go into the bios? Even my 2 year old MSI AMD board has that feature. I don’t know how it works, but the facility is there.
For Core or Core 2 processors, coretemp will read it directly. For older Intel CPUs it is pretty much down to the notebook manufacturer if they decided to pass on the info or not.
I’ve already looked in the BIOS there is NO temperature monitoring at all, which is why I can’t find out the temps. Nor do I know which manufacture produced my mainboard.
