Memory broken??

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Guest

I am sorry if this is a bit long, but I appreciated it if you can answer my
question
My laptop is HP-Pavilion-zd7377EA, with 1GB memory (512MB x 2)
Today, suddenly, my computer hanged. When I turned it on again, it did not
turned on, even the monitor. I tried to keep my computer away from
electricity for about 15 mins. No changes. The computer just making the usual
noise, without doing anything. So, I decided to open my computer's memory
compartment, and try to take out the memory, and then put it back in (because
I used to do that before). It worked..... for 30 mins.
Then the computer decided to turn itself off again. Same problem repeated,
same procedure as before, this time does not work.
I decided to swap the memory, it worked until windows logon, when it restart
by itself after displaying the blue screen of death.
So, I decided to take one memory out.
Call it "memory 1". Memory 1 is in the computer. It did work, but the
computer restart even earlier before displaying welcome screen. So, I put
that memory into the other slot, and it does not work.
Memory 2 on the other hand, works perfectly without any errors. Problem
solved, but I only use 512MB

MY QUESTION:
I never know anything about how a broken memory is working. So, my question,
is this the way that broken memory works? If the answer is yes, then i'll buy
new memory
 
One easier way is to see if any of the computer shops in your area have a
memory tester.
 
it is rare that memory go bad but it happens. It could be a problem with
the memory slot.
 
Jerry said:
One easier way is to see if any of the computer shops in your area have a
memory tester.
Click to expand...

A true hardware RAM tester runs $2000 usd, for even the cheapest model.
Lots of shops don't have one.



Your symptoms are typical of a bad ram stick or slot. Given the tests
you've run, i'd say it's the stick. (your "memory 1") To eliminate a
slot problem, try memory 2 in the other slot. If it crashes, you have a
bad slot, and a new stick or ram will not help.

Download and run memtest86+ from www.memtest.org on your "bad" stick to
confirm that it is indeed bad.
 
i doubt that it is the memory slot, because it did well with my "suspected"
working memory. My broken memory:
- works well in slot one, but displayed BSOD after loading Windows
- Did not work at all with other slot

So, can I draw a conclusion that I needed a new memory?
 
I would suspect marginal memory, have you tried MEM86 program? Get a
copy from the mem86 website.
 
Thanks for the replies, but the program does not work, because when i
inserted that memory (which I suspect broken), the computer won't even load
anything, except the fan making noise. While in the other slot, it turned on
for several seconds
 
WTan said:
Thanks for the replies, but the program does not work, because when i
inserted that memory (which I suspect broken), the computer won't even load
anything, except the fan making noise. While in the other slot, it turned on
for several seconds
Click to expand...

At this point, it's safe to conclude that the stick is bad.

The good news is that 512MB is still good for almost anything you want
to do on XP, except MAJOR photo manipulation/CAD and SOME games.

So you don't necessarily need to buy a replacement for it.
 
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