Legit Reviews

I got the physical memory dump screen while trying to reinstall windows from the DVD.

It also gave me an error saying the kernal was missing or corrupt.

Before trying to do the initial reinstall (I have done it a dozen times) I installed a gig stick of ram, adding to 2x512 sticks. My setup says that I have 2 gigs of ram, so I dont think that is the problem...

anyone have any ideas?

Being that your getting a memory dump, and that you just installed new memory, I'd run Memtest to check out all of your memory. Could be a bad stick.

It does say that I have 2 gigs of ram though...wouldnt it say otherwise if it wasnt working correctly?

Just run memtest86, you memory will usaully post just fine but it will still throw errors and that can screw up your install. If your memory fails memtest, loosen the timing a little can help but sometimes its just a bad stick.

MemTest86

yeah, I dont know how to loosen the timing...but last night I pulled that stick and everything installed properly and I can even reinstall my games (which I couldnt do with that stick in)

A friend mentioned the order in which I had installed my ram might be a problem.

I have 4 slots, first slot I had the 1 gig stick (possibly bad), in the second and third slots I have 512s, and nothing in the fourth.

After taking out the gig I just had 512s in the 2nd and 3rd and it works.

should I put the 512s in the primary 1 and 2 slots and put the gig in the 3rd? he thought that the 2 primary slots had to have the same type of ram to work properly.

To run in dualchannel mode, you must have the sticks paired up properly (ie both in primary slots or both in secondary). I'd move the two 512 sticks to slots 1&2, run memtest, if passed, install the 1gb stick in the 3rd slot (which should be secondary slot 1), run memtest again and if you fail, you either need to loosen the timing (very easy and we would be glad to help you with it) or you simple have a bad stick. You should really run memtest anyway with every build to insure that your memory is stable.

Thanks for the tips, I will try that tonight when I get home. Im so glad I joined this forum, everyone is so helpfull and nobody acts like asshats.

WHAT'D YOU SAY ABOUT MY HAT!?!

J/k thats what we're here for dude, to help each other out. When I first joined this forum, I definately wasn't confident enough with my own knowledge to be helping someone else with their computer problems (I had more than enough of my own) but after sticking around here for awhile and working through some of my own computer issues and seeing others do the same, I've learned enough to at least help out with the minor stuff. Still learning everyday though