Hi Cathy,

I know others have already suggested that it may be an issue with using
PC-133 memory modules in your system, but I'm afraid that I don't understand
why that should be the issue.  So, I'm going to ask for both of our sakes if
someone could explain why running higher rated SDRAM should cause a computer
problems, particularly at a slower bus speed.  I would think that basically,
the only difference is that the memory chips are rated as capable of running
at a faster speed.  Though I could certainly understand that not all PC133
rated memory is equally capable of performing well at the higher bus speed.

My own speculation would lean more towards thinking that either your
friend's motherboard doesn't handle well having all its memory slots filled,
it doesn't handle that much memory well,  or that one of the memory modules
themselves is not working right.

This is a bit painstaking to try to troubleshoot, but you might try running
the computer with just one stick of the new memory at a time and see if the
problem goes away.  Use the same memory slot each time to limit other
variables.  If this works fine, try two memory modules and see if things
continue to work right.  If you see a problem, try the other module.  You
can also try moving the second module to another memory slot to see what
happens.  You can continue to experiment along these lines for as long as
your time and patience holds out.

I suggest the above, because I've found that my i815 chipset motherboard is
not happy with more than one memory module installed and when running the
memory bus at 133mhz.  The errors are subtle, but they do show up when the
system is tested with MemTest 86.

By the way, it might be helpful if you could tell us a little more about
your friend's system, such as what processor it is running, what bus speed
it is running at, whether you can run the memory and the CPU bus at
different speeds, and what the make and model of the motherboard is (or what
chipset it is using).

Good luck,

John

----- Original Message -----
From: "catherine williamson" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2001 11:17 AM
Subject: Memory problems


> A friend asked me to upgrade her computer which
> had 64mb (2x32mb) SDRAM, which were 66mhz. I
> replaced these with 3 sticks of 128mb but these
> were 133mhz. On booting up it counted correctly
> to 384mb but the next screen said "Memory check
> failed. Press F1 to continue, Press Esc to enter
> setup".

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