Computer having trouble with PHP? (Update: possibly RAM problem?)

[Brodieman]

Lately my PC has been afflicted with a bizarre problem that I can't wrap my head around. After losing power during a thunder storm, my PC has had trouble dealing with PHP.

I write for a website, and in order to get articles up on the site we use a content management system written in PHP. Since losing power, various facets of this system have been giving trouble, resulting in a "400 Bad Request" error in Firefox or IE. The problems are never consistent, sometimes a few different things will work while others won't and the next day it'll be reversed. I'm also having trouble with other PHP-based sites such as forums. Curiously, smaller forum posts give me no trouble, but large posts result in timeouts or "400 Bad Request". I'm also having trouble with image uploaders and various other things I assume are scripted with PHP.

What could possibly be causing this and how can I fix it?

EDIT: Seems to be RAM error. See below.

 

[cprince]

What web browser are you using?

 

[Roguestar]

PHP is server-side and so should have absolutely nothing to do with the configuration of your PC. It seems not that your problem is with PHP but with some other aspect of your browser or connection. Try reinstalling firefox and IE.

 

[Brodieman]

I'll try reinstalling.

 

[Brodieman]

No luck after reinstalling Firefox.

 

[cprince]

It could be your Internet connection.

 

[Brodieman]

If it is, how do I go about fixing that?

 

[Brodieman]

I'm now almost certain the problem revolves around some sort of invisible character limit. If I try to submit a large forum post or edit more text into a small forum post I get a timeout. If I make a short post it'll go through every time. What could be causing that?

 

[oynaz]

Sounds suspiciously like faulty RAM. Try a memtest86 run.

 

[Brodieman]

Originally posted by: oynaz
Sounds suspiciously like faulty RAM. Try a memtest86 run.

That program seems to require use of a floppy disk, and my PC doesn't have a floppy drive.

 

[oynaz]

You can boot it from a CD. It is included in the Ubuntu Linux distribution, so it is perhaps easiest to download an image from www.ubuntu.com, and boot from it, and choose the memtest86 option from there.
If you see the gnome desktop you have gone too far Just reboot.

 

[Brodieman]

I ran memtest for about an hour and a half. Through 4 passes, one error popped up (on the second pass). Where do I go from here?

 

[montag451]

Firstly, memtest should be run for lots of hours.

Second - one error means you prob need new RAM,
@OR

you might need to up the voltage in BIOS by a little.

 

[Brodieman]

Can memtest help me identify the problem or is it just to inform that there is a problem?

 

[Brodieman]

After running memetest for 15 hours, the same error popped up 22 times over 26 passes. I tried using each stick on its own, and neither seemed to relieve the problems I'm having. Any ideas?

 

[montag451]

Did you try memtest with just one stick at a time?


If memtest comes up with errors, the problem is most likely to be one of the following,
RAM
mobo/northbridge
or power problems.

Only you can sort out which one to try first, and if I were you , I would try running memtest one stick at a time and make a note of any errors/locations and see if they match up.
Post back with results will ya

 

[Brodieman]

Tonight I'll run memtest on one stick, and I guess tomorrow night the other.

*sigh* This is gonna be expensive to fix isn't it?