repair help

[4play]

Im basically trying to fix a friends computer which randomly crashes.

I first tried to install xp from stratch but the installer crashes about half way through. so i tried the ubuntu live cd which crashed half way through booting.
I always blame crashes on dodgy ram so i did a memtest and found it failed. so i swapped it with ram from another pc i have laying about here.

the thing is it still crashes just like before.

What shall i try next short of swapping out every component in the pc to find out what one is borked.

[zapjb]

How many RAM slots? If more than 1. Maybe 1 or more slots are bad. Move 1 stick of RAM around.

[clocker]

"Crashes" is not a very descriptive term.
Does the PC blue screen and give you an error message or just shut down?

[4play]

bsod with xp and just restart with a linux live cd.

there are 2 slots and i replace the ram and ran memtest and it seems fine but still crashes. I might stick what is suspect is dodgy ram in another computer and run memtest on it just to make sure it really is knackered otherwise it could very well be the slot <_ is that what your getting at zapjb

[zapjb]

Correct.

[tesco]

What error are you getting on the blue screen?

[4play]

I didn't write it down. in the end i stripped out the decent parts and installed them in an older machine i have and it seems to work fine.

will go back to the other one next week and try to figure it out.

[muyoso]

I had a similar problem. Depending on the motherboard you have, it could be a bad capacitor or something wrong with one of the ram slots. In my case it happened to be both.

[peat moss]

I had a similar problem. Depending on the motherboard you have, it could be a bad capacitor or something wrong with one of the ram slots. In my case it happened to be both.

Its a shame the bad capacitor's couldn't leak or at lest bulge god dam it . How would one know ? Or in the case of my friend , why pay Geek Squad to install memory ? He'll fuck up the memory slots himself , then proceed to tell me he bought this new memory " I " need to install for him .


I learn t my lesson on his new keyboard and mice purchase that he pluged in and hooped the mobo plugs .