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Bad RAM killed my computer

M

MUKid

Member
I recently upgraded to WinXP, and installed some new components along with it. I just got a new stick of RAM, some generic PC133 128 MB chip that I bought used. I plugged it in and turned the computer on, only to have WinXP give me some kind of weird error. When I rebooted, I noticed that my processor was registering at 750 MHz instead of the usual 1000 MHz. I checked BIOS, and sure enough, my clock multiplier had been dropped automatically to 100 MHz instead of 133 MHz, along with my RAM speed. I went ahead and left the settings alone and Windows booted normally.

I figured I had a bad stick of RAM, but I wanted to know how bad it was. I started incrementally adjusting the clock speed up and finally got an error at 131 MHz, only 2 MHz below normal. Then I decided to switch the RAM over to a different slot and see if that changed anything. It did, and now I could boot as normal at 133 MHz. Weird, I thought, but went ahead and went into Windows and started mucking around. Then I started getting a bunch of IE6 errors, when I had been getting none before. IE was crashing about every five minutes or so, even with only one window open. I surmised that the RAM was causing the error and decided to pull the chip once and for all.

I turned off the computer and pulled the chip, and restarted. My computer still registered at 1 GHz and now showed 256 MB RAM. WinXP started loading up, then I got a blue screen. That's weird, because it's the first time that happened. I couldn't really read what it said because it flashed up pretty fast, and then rebooted. I let it do so, thinking maybe it was just one of those random errors you get when starting Windows sometimes. But the error happened again, and this time I could read it -- it said something about the registry either being corrupt or deleted, and WinXP could not boot. So this time I picked the option that says "Last Known Good Configuration." Same error. I try again, this time in safe mode, and get the same error again.

Long story short, I had to reinstall WinXP from scratch. Luckily, my data was safe and it was a pretty fresh install anyway, so not much has to be reinstalled (though I did almost pull out my hair trying to figure out why my network card had stopped working -- turns out I'd transposed two digits in my "Computer Name" so the network didn't recognize me and let me logon!)

I would almost think this was a virus, but I had a scanner (just installed and updated two days ago) running the whole time.

Anyway, that's the first time I ever heard of RAM screwing up a computer like that. I can only assume it was the RAM, as that was the only thing I changed. Sheesh, sometimes I hate computers.
 
OUCH! That certainly blows..... I usually try to stick to Crucial memory and hope that I don't get screwed like that.
 
i had something similar like this happen when i pushed my DDR memory to far and it started rebooting my computer then corrupted the registry. had to do a fresh install and lower the memory settings



Jen
 
"I figured I had a bad stick of RAM, but I wanted to know how bad it was. I started incrementally adjusting the clock speed up and finally got an error at 131 MHz, only 2 MHz below normal."


How did you do this? It sounds like you set the FSB to 100mhz and increased 1mhz at a time. If this is the case the divider would most likely default at 1/3. So the the reason you probably got an error at 131mhz is because your PCI was out of spec.



You might want to ease up a little on the memory timings if it's a generic chip. Maybe that will help.



-Jimbo



P.S. I've hosed alot of OS's when I overclocked the ram too much or just got bad ram. 😛
 
Yep, I've had one instance of that "Systemroot/hive" "corrupted or missing" errors the first night I installed XP on my new box. I haven't had it since, though.

It seems to be a fairly common XP and 2K error, and when it happens, you're pretty much screwed.

I think mine happened when I tried clocking my box too high (225x20) and I forgot to notch down the RDRAM multiplier to 3x.
 


<<
How did you do this? It sounds like you set the FSB to 100mhz and increased 1mhz at a time. If this is the case the divider would most likely default at 1/3. So the the reason you probably got an error at 131mhz is because your PCI was out of spec.



You might want to ease up a little on the memory timings if it's a generic chip. Maybe that will help.
 >>



Well, I've never overclocked before, so if I was doing it wrong by going up 1 MHz at a time, I didn't know it. I just started at 100 MHz, then started bumping up by 5 MHz until I got an error. Then I went backwards, one step at a time.

As for backing off on the memory settings, my other chip is also a generic 128 MB DIMM, rated at 133 MHz, and it works fine. The new chip I got has a sticker on it that says "133 MHz" and was sold to me as a PC133 chip, so I didn't think clocking it up to 133 was pushing it too much. Obviously, it was.

I think based on the comments here, we can safely say that overclocking under XP has a fairly high risk of screwing your registry.

Oh, and to reply to Piski, no, I only had one chip to begin with, and I added one new one to make a total of two.
 
Yeah, I don't think it's usually a good idea to go with generic RAM ever. Crucial is an amazing company. Lifetime warranty on your RAM and they RMA the modules if defective, no questions asked. Well.. that's how it went for me anyway.
 
I had a similar problem a while back. What happend was that my generic RAM was corrupting the system files. (and who knows what else)
 
Soon as you know you have a bad stick, take it out so the damage is minimized. It might not look like it, but it damages your files, eventually you'll lose everything and have to reformat. I've had this happen before and its not fun, had to repartition things just to make sure it was ok too. Bad RAM can install windows, and can boot, but you'll get a lot of errors, sometimes it won't even boot or install windows.
 
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