computer won't boot

[confusedideal]

Hey everyone,
okay, here's my situation...I'd been having some troubles with the whole blue screen of death popping up and explaining that it was "beginning dump of physical memory". I'd restart and be able to get back on my computer fine. However, I thought it might be something to do with the memory, so I pulled the cover off and tried to reseat the RAM. Once I did this, the computer didn't start at all. I get no beep, no POST. However, the CPU fan and hard drives start running. I have some new memory on the way, but I was using 2 256M PC2700 DDR sticks. Any ideas?

 

[mikesgroovin]

Is this computer a personal build or store bought?

Did you happen to record any of the information that the blue screen provided other than the verbiage in the above post?

It seems that you are using 2000 or XP correct?

Also, please indicate the additional hardware you have in your computer: especially your video card, CPU type & HDD(s).

 

[confusedideal]

The computer is a personal build running XP Pro. I honestly don't remember what else the computer said during the BSoD outside of the memory dump stuff. A couple of times, I think it said something about a page fault in a nonpage area, and I've had some IRQ messages. Sometimes, the computer just locked up without any blue screen.
As for additional hardware, I'm using an ATI RADEON 9550 (256M), AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (2.17 GHz), and currently a 60GB IDE harddisk. I just completely reformated and reinstalled XP Pro on that harddisk.
After posting on this forum, I tried reducing everything down to the CPU, CPU fan, RAM, and Video Card (no onboard video). The system still didn't boot. I tried taking out one of my sticks of RAM, and at one point, with just one stick in the slot, managed to get it to boot, but once I added components back to the system, it didn't boot again. So, I'm back to square one with having a non-working system. I'm anticipating that the problem is bad memory, which should soon be fixed.

 

[Brentb2607]

Do the DIMM's have Parity ? Also could be a sign of your memory failing and needs to be replaced! Oh yeah whether or not their parity still some MB's require the MEM to be seated in a particular order, I'd check that out through the Vendor Documentation.

 

[Brentb2607]

Also if you get a chance get a look at the DrWatson.Log to get more details of the actual error then post on here!

 

[confusedideal]

Okay, I got the new RAM, everything is working fine. However, now, when I boot up, I get the usual message that Windows didn't shut down properly and I can start in Normal or Safe Mode. When I try either of the two, it goes for a few seconds, then reboots automatically. I'm going to try a complete reinstall of Windows again, see if that does anything. Otherwise, I'll look around on the computer. The only thing out of place is one of the short sides of the IDE port where my hard disk is plugged in is broken. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I figure I should mention it.

 

[wchs07]

would random restarts occur if you have a bad RAM slot in your mobo. for instance i think my 1st slot is bad. and i don't have any RAM in that slot...but when i run memtest with a stick on that 1st slot it fails on LRAND. Even if i dont have a stick of ram in that slot but in 2 and 3...would that still cause a reboot?