I have a Dell Dimension XPS Gen 3 (P4 HT 3.6/GeForce 6800 GTO/3GB DDR2 533/SB X-Fi/Firewire/Modem/DVD-ROM/DVD Burner/Floppy) with a few problems and more annoyances.
1. First is that I would like to run a RAM test on my 3GB RAM inside, I have 2x 512MB and 2x 1GB RAM. How should I do this using Memtest86? How long should I test this? Should I test each one separately?
2. Second, whenever I open the "My Music" folder the folder freezes for about 20 seconds with the My Music folder open and then allows me to access the files.
3. Third, I get BSOD's referring me to a device driver but no driver is given, How should I fix this, I remember when I had this problem on another PC i just did a Right click-update on all the things in the device manager and that fixed it, should I do that again?
4. Lastly, The computer sometimes takes 5 seconds to load and other times it takes up to a minute to load. I have about 45 processes on bootup with the main process as Norton Internet Security 2008. Could this be a result of a failing hard drive? This WD 250GB SATA drive took about 45 minutes to do a full format. It is partitioned 3 ways, Dell Utilities (30MB) Windows OS (229GB) Dell Restore(4GB). The operating system has had a fresh install (from CD, not factory restore) about a week ago.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
working backwards
4. yes 45 process at start up is suicide, no matter what processor you have, i like a instant login, i only run 4, get crap cleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/, it will allow you to edit programs on start up
3.
Quote:3. Third, I get BSOD's referring me to a device driver but no driver is given, How should I fix this, I remember when I had this problem on another PC i just did a Right click-update on all the things in the device manager and that fixed it, should I do that again?
why not? disable one device ata time untill the BSOD is gone it is probably a device the system uses to boot up with, otherwise windows would have just executed a normal warning bubble,
check all your pci slots are nice and snug, hardrive, cd/dvd drives, and all power sockets are init could even be a virus, check this vid
Quote:error message is usually displayed to communicate Virtual Device Driver (VxD) errors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oITxnPGSHvM 2. The reason for this is because some other piece of software has control over the my music folder and uses it to launch your tunes, (itunes, realplayer, WMP and such), you said you got a fresh install of windows? you'll probably no what program is causing it since all previous software was erased with fresh install,with 3 gigs of ram this problem should not be happening, it could be the way your asking it to display the contents, in the window of my music go view>and try different options like tile,list and such.
1. test each ram stick differently if you can, they each have a different socket and memory amount, BIOS memory checks are useless...
First off, thank you for responding.
Now about the problems I have been having. It now takes about 5 seconds to load each time unless it crashes or freezes so I think thats normal. The My Music folder was freezing because inside there was another folder linking to a network drive that is not available anymore. deleted that folder and all is well now. RAM I have not tested but I will but I don't think that is a problem because I do not get BSOD's anymore. About BSOD's it fixed itself.
I don't have the problem anymore but as always, it fixed itself without me doing anything. Thanks for the program though, it'll help when something like that happens again.
