atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories memory

how difficult is it to add memory to HP desktop?

real simple for the most part. Find out what type of memory you have and how many DIMM slots you are using. Most are two and four, but there are some three slots out there. Most new memory, except RDRAM, will allow you to add in single sticks. There can be some issues with mixing and matching different types, but with RAM so cheap now, it might be better to remove what you have and add brand new RAM. Do you know how much you have and what type?

I know how much I have, bit not what type. Computer is less than 1 year old.

Head over to crucial.com

Provide them with the model and they'll tell you what type of memory you can buy, plus they're fairly cheap.

Installation instructions included...

Thank you.

Ordered my memory from Crucial yesterday, received it this morning, and installed it. Thanks for the help.

No problem... Crucial is a great tool for me.

Another problem.
The last week my computer has been shutting itself down, usually when it has been idle for awhile. A screen appears and tells me to check all newly added software and hardware. The next screen tells me to insert system disk and press enter. I did not get a system disk when I bought this thing. HP is sending me one, but it will take a week.If I wait about an hour, then it will come up, and I have no problems when I am using it.

The only software change was an upgrade of AOL, But I have removed AOL completely. Can the stick of memory I added cause this. Any Ideas?

Bruce

[This message has been edited by openwire (edited October 10, 2003).]

Hey big dog. It sounds like the blaster virus!

yes it does. What anti virus prgm. are you using?

Bruce,
What are you running? I can e-mail you the removal tool if you are using XP pro.

Here is a free online scanning tool from Symantec (Norton)
https://security.symantec.com/sscv6...amp;plfid=22&pkj=QUEMPJUIYCZRWEJGSSK
Also, the removal tools can be downloaded here:
https://securityresponse.symantec.com/

I use Norton and I have the blaster fix. I will run it again.

Ran the blaster fix and it said it wasn't found on my computer.

Just a shot in the dark, but you didn't by chance loosen any cable ribbons (like the one connected to the hard drive) by accident did you, It almost sounds like the ribbon isn't plugged in all the way. My son's acted just like that after he put a new A drive in and accidentally moved the drive cable, plugged it back in all the way and fired it up and has been working fine.

I pulled the new stick of memory out just to see what ir would do, did'nt help any.Checked all my cables then and they seem to be alright.

Describe that error you get to the fullest extent, and at what point you get it.

I had memory issues with my new Gateway. I added some after market RAM to save a few bucks. All I got were constant system crashes. Removed the memory and added some stuff from Gateway. Been cruising ever since.

could your computer be going into hibernation ,and is having problems coming back up? Or is it completely shutting down?

Avaya - I tried to do a print screen, but it didn't work. I will try and remember what it said.
"windows has shut down. Please check any newly added hardware and software. To restart computer in safe mode, press F8, then disable BIOS memory and system cache."
That is the best I can remember. F8 didn't work, just went to another screen, that said "disk boot erroe,insert system disk,and press enter".
It did not come with a system disk.Called HP and they are sending me one. It seemed to only shut down when it would go to standby.

Z-man - Did your trouble start immediately or a few days later?

clgjr - I have disabled hibernation and it now stays running.

[This message has been edited by openwire (edited October 12, 2003).]

i bet it could be an issue with the memory stick, just my guess! Did'nt you say you took the stick back out to see what happened? I would try taking it back out and see how much memory the system tells you it has. Just maybe it reallly did'nt see it as removed.

also did you use the belarc advisor, to determine what type of memeory you needed?

I did use the belarc advisor.

one more thing, have you checked the device manager to see if you had any problems or conflicts? And do you still have problems when you shut down the pc yourself and later restart it?

Device Manager - No

If I manually shut down and turn it back on, it will go to to disk boot error screen. Turn it back off and wait approx. 1 hour and it will start fine.

Hmmmm.

The one hour thing is interesting.

After a "cold" shutdown, meaning completely removing power from the system (at least for the mostpart) memory should eventually lose whatever was in there before because the capacitors won't be holding power long enough. Could be a memory problem... but you said you removed it and everything was still the same.

Interesting.

How long did you wait after you removed the new memory to see if it boots?

Try that.

Crucial memory is usually top notch, so I don't know. But bad memory is fairly common.

about the hibernation, if it was enabled then wonder who turned it on? Since you said it was working fine for a few days then all of a sudden (problems). what OS is this anyway and how old is this machine?

Bruce,

What OS are you running on the HP Machine?

Avaya - shortly after your last post, I removed the new stick. I am just now getting it back up. Ain't turning it off again.It does show the right amount of memory.

Z-man/clgjr - XP home, 14 months.

How do I do a backup on XP?

[This message has been edited by openwire (edited October 12, 2003).]

Yeah, could be a memory problem. That's kind of funky though, don't know what the deal is.

As far as a backup. What type of backup device have you got? A CD burner?

XP should have a backup tool under Start > All Programs > Accesories > System Tools. It'll take quite a few CDs though.

After you do that, for the sake of argument...

Why don't you try removing ALL memory you have in there, and ONLY use the new stick you got from crucial.

See if you have any problems with just that stick.

I'm curious if it's an actual bad stick, or maybe it had bad contact, or maybe that slot is bad.

Nick

Here's what I think is going to happen..
The problems still there with the new stick.
Bruce I think you have a virus that's not being detected...I don't know how to fix it but I would lay odds that your computer has a virus and your memory isn't the problem.
However I'm just guessing.

Hmmm. As much as I respect your older opionion, I'd have to disagree.

Any HP built after 97 has an onboard BIOS virus detection schema, which is the only type of virus that can affect physical memory. So I don't think it's a virus, I think it's a bad chip...

I too still think it is a bad memory chip or slot. It will be interesting to find out what cures it.

Someone, please tell me what virtual memory is.

i vote for bad mem. i had not run into that issue until recently. are we getting less quality with the price drop?

Virtual Memory is also known as a page file. It is a portion of your hard drive dedicated to act as RAM... The computer stores temporary information there.
I usually set this file to 1 and a half times the RAM i.e. if you have 256MB of RAM set it to 384MB.
It is perfectly fine to let Windows manage it for you however.

Yup... as an extension:

What memory is in essence (physical memory that is) is a temporary storage place. It's where commonly used algorithms, programs, etc. are stored because the computer is using them frequently. That being said, it's faster to access something directly from memory than it is from the harddrive.

Virtual memory can be good or bad. The pagefile, which is where the actual contents of this virtual memory are stored, is usually located in your windows or winnt directory. Now, bullcube is a bit conservative with his. He sets it to 1.5 -- I set mine to twice the amount of my memory. I wouldn't do this for a low memory PC, but if you've got a gigabyte like I do -- go for it. I also have a 10,000 RPM hard drive, so the access time is a little bit less.

Here's a real easy tip to speed thins up.

If you're using internet explorer, go into Tools > Internet Options. Click on the settings button for Temporary Internet Items, and reduce the cache size to 1 or 2MB. Windows, by default, sets it to a percentage of your hard drive. I have an 80GB hard drive, so my percentage was about 3GB of my total hard drive space. Folks, this will slow your computer down... make internet surfing terrible, and it can also lead to major major problems with caching and what not. Try it out, should improve things.

That being said, cache is in a sense like virtual memory. Frequently visited webpages are stored there, speeding up internet surfing... theoretically, just keep the space low and your speed will improve.

Back to memory.

If you have a HUGE amount of memory, like 1GB+ -- you can try to go with zero virtual memory. Once your physical memory tops out, no more information can be stored there, so you could end up with some errors... but it's a lot faster that way.

Bottom line is that memory is cheap... but most chipsets don't allow more than a gig or two of memory. Not to mention, higher quantity chips are expensive. Two 512MB chips are cheaper than a 1GB sometimes.

i don't think that memory is getting poorer in quality. There has always been and always will be that occasional stick that is bad out of the box. I think that it may appear to be more frequent now because mem sticks are so cheap that more and more people are buying them and installing them themselves.

Well, I am being told that it is a bad hard drive and they are shipping me one.I can't get it to boot up but about once a day now. My Compaq laptop is in its usual place lately...in for repair.

Nick, I do not know if I told you, but this is the error
Kernel_Stack_Inpage_Error

Compaq, don't even get me started on them. I've had 3 of them and they all gave me nothing but trouble. So I built my own and bought me a Toshiba laptop and haven't had any trouble since.

like the man said "Dude, you gotta get a Dell!" I have bought 14 of them for home, friend, family, and work, and haven't had a problem yet. Dell has good deals on their outlet web site.

Dell is great, I've gotten a few. Their refurbished section is sometimes good. You can't beat IBM either, they don't seem to load as much useless software (in my humble opinion.)
I hear Dell has better customer service, but I've never had to call on IBM.
Good luck.

That error is related to your virtual memory heap, and could be a problem with the harddrive.

Kind of odd.

Let us know how it goes.

I have had very good luck with Compaq, until the last two I bought. So far it has not cost me a dime to have them repaired and they have been very quick about it.

Nick, they are supposed to be out to replace the hard drive next Wed., I will post any more info.

Thanks for the update. Compaq/HP aren't my favorite desktops, although HP workstations are very reliable.

Dell, dell, dell.

Nick

I bought this HP package for the house strictly because of the price, and I hate XP.

Bruce

Well, the hard drive was replaced today, and so far it is working fine. I guess only time will tell.

May have been that the entire time.

That virtual memory heap is the core of the windows OS... so who knows.

Thanks for the update though. I hope it works out for you, I know how troublesome not having a computer is... oh man.

Have a good night man...

I told you it was the Hard Drive.

glad you got it fixed, it's a real pain when that crap happens...ya don't know how much ya miss it, till it don't work.

Hey Bruce, which part of XP do you hate?
you can change the interface to look just like Win 2000. That's how I have mine set up... runs a little faster that way too.

just curious, is the new memory stick in presently?

Hate might be a little harsh, guess I just need to work with it more. Still have not figured out how to use the cd burner.

The new stick of memory is installed. so far everything seems to work fine.

CD Burners can be a bit tricky...
Win XP is the first OS to support them nativly, you just stick a blank one in and follow the wizard if you still have default settings.
I still use Roxio to burn my cds though.
I really don't like the wizards your supposed to follow, nor do I like the autorun feature.
I've only had 1 or 2 crashes on windows for the last 2 years on my laptop, so XP gets my vote (after I have customized it of course.)

XP is the first OS really designed to be a no-brainer OS for people who haven't got a clue about PC's. For the rest of us, it takes a little tweaking to get it to where we want. XP was also supposed to offer all the bells and whistles a person needed so you would not have to run out and buy additional software. For as much bashing as they take, Microsoft really has advanced the computing industry more than any other company. With that said, their native programs leave a bit to be desired sometimes. I prefer Roxio over there CD program, Musicmatch blows Media player out of the water, and Photoshop Elements has far more features than the XP version. So you get a bit of what you pay for. The plain photo printing program from XP seems to work alot better than the software that came with my ink jet, so there are some good programs as well. I have been running XP for over a year now, and I would not go back to any other OS. It does take a bit to get used to if you are moving from Win9x or Win2000, but after a while you will like so of the features.


[This message has been edited by Z-man (edited October 24, 2003).]

I've got a mix of XP and 2000 over here. Me being the wee young man that I am... still support the parent's efforts in the computing world. I used to build each and every box for the family, and a bunch of other people, but I'm going with dells now... because I'm less into the computer scene, and more into the telecom scene. Anyhow, long story short... XP works alright. I like the GUI, but I think I grow to like any GUI. I don't take too kindly to switching the GUI from the native plastic theme to the previous windows scheme. The amount of stress your GPU goes through to make it happen is actually pretty terrible. Native CD burning is nice, it's pretty easy actually. You can drag and drop straight into the CD burner icon and be on your way, very helpful. There are a lot of native tricks I like about XP, built in ZIP compression... built in firewall... built in everything. So for those who want these features, and don't want to do it themselves, or if you're getting a new PC -- go with XP. It's got some great stuff.

But... it is my honest opinion that Windows 2000 Professional is the best operating system Microsoft has ever released.

It's stable (moreso than ANY NT release or 9X release, and definetely more than XP). It's robust and has plenty of built in features (although not anywhere near as many as XP).

More specifically, I rarely -- if ever, have a crash in 2000. I run a lot of stuff on this thing, and take it through the worst of all situations. I'm still using a Pentium 3 850MHz (100MHZ FSB) with 512MB of RAM, and a standard array of cards. This thing doesn't crash, doesn't do funky things when booting up, rarely has any problems at all.

And I installed 2000 on this machine in the year 2000. So... this thing has been going strong for a while now.

So I don't know, it's a tough debate for me. I don't see myself switching to XP any time, because I never have any problems... and frankly, most of the features XP has built in... I have third party software for that I'm more accustomed to usingin the first place.

I don't know.

Ask Tommy, he still uses Windows 95. Ha.

i would recommend xp. ever since i install it never had any of the problems i used to have with 98se & me. my computer (xp pro, athlon xp1800, 512mb ram, dvd-r/w, cd-r/w, 60gb drive, high end video, all kinds of toys and software running) stays running all the time (24/7). i also have a dell laptop (xp pro, 512mb ram, 60gb, dvd/cdrw, etc) same thing runs all the time. then i have my work laptop (old toshiba, p200, 64mb ram, 6gb drive, win me) that thing will lock up, freak out, whatever. but i need it to run software for doing telecom. i also have my wife & kids laptops running xp pro. no problems there either. it's like my linux box (celeron 850, 512mb ram, 60gb drives, cdr, etc) just kepps running & running....