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

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.