Computer not recognizing all my RAM

[woolfe88]

I have a strange ongoing problem. About 2 weeks ago, my comp. started experiencing random crashes and errors. Every other time I'd try to boot, I would get a random error message that wouldn't repeat itself the next time I booted. For example, I got "NTLDR is missing" which is supposed to only apply where you have upgraded to WINXP from an earlier OS, but this HD has only had WINXP on it. But the error never repeated itself, just like a dozen others. Then I started noticing that everything was very slow, and I could hear the HD cranking a lot, especially with multiple App's running. Lo and behold, I noticed that the comp only recognizes 128mb of the 256mb I have (1 256mb Corsair PC2100).

I tried running some surface scans on the HD, and I did find some bad sectors, but isolating them did not help the problem. I also reformatted the HD and that did not help.

This evening I reset the BIOS from "failsafe defaults" to "optimum defaults." On the next boot, the opening display once again showed 256mb, but I got another error message and couldn't boot. Then when I booted the next time, it was back down to 128mb.

I'm thinking this is a bad stick of RAM or a problem with something like the memory controller on the mainboard. Since the RAM was fine for over a year, I doubt it suddenly went bad. The mainboard seems a more likely culprit.

Any opinions?

Specs:

Shuttle AK31(rev 3) mainboard (via 266a)
Athlon XP 1700+
256 mb Corsair PC2100
IBM Deskstar Pro 40 Gig
Radeon 8500

The rest is irrelevant.

 

[LiLithTecH]

Did you try the RAM in different slots?

Slots on the motherboard are known to go bad.
Hard drive corruption is a good indication of a bad stick of ram.

 

[woolfe88]

It doesn't work in any other slot. Another thing, I tried this stick in my wife's comp. Her comp just hangs at the "loading nvram" message in the opening screen. Also her RAM does not work in my comp at all, won't even post, but works fine in hers. The first issue points to a problem with my RAM; the second seems to point to a problem on my mainboard. Very odd.

I didn't realize that HD corruption could be caused by bad RAM. That reinforces my impression that this is a RAM/mainboard problem rather than an HD problem.

 

[AJPatel]

Use a RAM tester here

 

[woolfe88]

Thanks for the tip. Are any of these products better than others?

 

[AJPatel]

Well, you have Corsair which is pretty good.

Stupid question - does your wife's and your computer use the same type of RAM? LoL

I'd trust Corsair over Shuttle so try the RAM test and if it reports fine, then try to RMA the mobo if you have no other leads by then