Three possibly memory related computer problems

[Relmiw]

i just installed a power supply on my computer and then uninstalled and reinstalled my video card. now i am seeing these three problems.

1. my AVG virus won't update, saying: "General error - not enough free memory, write error.

2. windows has an update for me, yet when i install it i see "The following updates were not installed: Update for Windows XP (KB898461). it doesn't give me a reason for why this wouldn't work, though.

3. i attempted to load world of warcraft, to make sure my video card was working. i was able to log in and then it started freezing. it would stay frozen for fifteen seconds before unfreezing for one second, repeatedly. this did not fix itself when i quit warcraft and i had to restart my computer. it is currently not locking up but i have not tried to run it since that.


i am hoping these all root back to one problem, maybe this has something to do with the power supply i just installed? a loose cable or jostled ram? i have two 512 sticks installed.

the only processes over 10mb worth of memory usages that show running are avg at 31, svchost at 29, sp_rsser at 28 and explorer at 14mb.
the only programs i have on startup are avg, spyware terminator and aim

 

[eyeCpc]

The problems being seen there sound more like video drivers plus another gig of memory wouldn't hurt. If new supply happens to be a cheapo lacking good regulation or simply not seeing enough amps on the 12v rails that would cause other problems.

Lock ups when running a game are generally video or sound related problems. Out of memory errors are usually the result of a drive reaching capacity and ismply lacking space for the paging file Windows creates for virtual memory. What to do?

1)Spyware Terminator provides a registry shield while not being resource hungry.

2)If you are running the 7.1 or 7.5 build of the AVG free edition go for the latest 8.0 release since that no longer interferes with gaming as antivirus programs are known for.

3)If you are not using AIM that as well as the others can easily be disabled in the msconfig utility. If you still see problems you may have more then driver issues to solve. Not enough space on the hard drive, problems with system files, possible need for a clean install of Windows?!

Once a drive becomes too polluted with useless items like unused temp folders and a system registry is loaded with invalid entries Windows in general will start seeing a long list of problems appear. Or you may have simply seen a bad install with the video card's drivers if not the wrong version.

 

[Relmiw]

thanks for the answer dodge.
the thing is the computer was working fine before i had the problem with the power supply. also i reinstalled windows just a month or two before that to clean everything off.

i am using spyware terminator right now and a trying to update from 8.0 to 8.126 i think.

spyware, aim, avg, warcraft, everest, firefox and yahoo messenger are pretty much the only programs that are installed.

maybe i should try uninstalling the video card and reinstalling it?

 

[A True Folder]

1. Reseat your memory modules as a first step, AVG failing to update won't have anything to do with your graphics card.

2. The Windows update is a package installer, I'm kind of stumped as to why it won't install, is it the only update available?

3. Could be memory related.

How about you give us something to work with in the way of specs mate, this is all just guesswork at present as we don't even know what your hardware is.

CPU?
Memory?
Graphics card?
PSU?
Other peripherals?

 

[Relmiw]

the computer was originally a dell dimension 4500, but it has been upgraded a lot since then.
it has two 512 sticks of RAM
it has an ATI 9550 Radeon video card
i just installed a 350 watt power supply and have the voltage on 115.

i can't think of any noteworthy peripherals, except someone opened it up and put a wireless card in a little bit before the power supply went
wait a minute..... i hadn't thought of that before but i wonder if that is what pushed the power supply over the edge

the windows update is the only update available. it says that "Update for Windows XP (KB898461)" could not be installed

how can i reset my memory module?

 

[eyeCpc]

What Catalyst version did you put on? The current updates seen at the now AMD-ATI support site no longer support any 9000 series cards. The 5.11 through 5.13 versions for that card can still be found at http://downloads.guru3d.com/Videocards---ATI-Catalyst-XP-32-bit_c18.html however.

Unless one of the 512s went bad you would have already known if a dimm needed to be reseated since it would be lifted up in the dimm slot. To reseat a dimm or any expansion card you simply remove it and then reinsert the device into the slot and press down firmly but not too hard simply to make sure it is seated down fully. With dimms you will see the retaining clips lock into place.

I would say going from a 250w upto a 350w supply was a smart move for that one. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4500/specs.htm#1101572 shows the entire system specs there. A 250w was barely adequate for Dell while not enough for the additional hardware/devices that could be added in later.

 

[Relmiw]

What Catalyst version did you put on? The current updates seen at the now AMD-ATI support site no longer support any 9000 series cards. The 5.11 through 5.13 versions for that card can still be found at http://downloads.guru3d.com/Videocards---ATI-Catalyst-XP-32-bit_c18.html however.

Unless one of the 512s went bad you would have already known if a dimm needed to be reseated since it would be lifted up in the dimm slot. To reseat a dimm or any expansion card you simply remove it and then reinsert the device into the slot and press down firmly but not too hard simply to make sure it is seated down fully. With dimms you will see the retaining clips lock into place.

I would say going from a 250w upto a 350w supply was a smart move for that one. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4500/specs.htm#1101572 shows the entire system specs there. A 250w was barely adequate for Dell while not enough for the additional hardware/devices that could be added in later.

i don't remember putting on a catalyst. in fact, what are they?
what i did was go to the ati website and download the drivers for the video card.
i went to the download link you showed me and saw a lot of different things listed there, but nothing mentions my specific video card. how can i determine which one i should use?

i did reseat my memory module just now. i took the ram out, put it back in, and the problem is still the same

 

[eyeCpc]

The Catalyst Control Center offers things like the desktop manager and other things like extending the desktop onto a second display. That's the software portion.

The card you have there is the exact same as what I ran on an old Socket A build and works with the Cat. 5.4 upto 6.5. But the best for gaming was actually the Cat. 5.11 as seen with games like the Steam:Source Half Life 2, Prey, Fear, and a list of others. The Cat. 6.x versions tend to be more for the X700, X800, X850 models being newer.

 

[Jk]

To rule out memory can't you just run memtest?

 

[eyeCpc]

When going for one of the older catalysts there if you run into the "MOM implementation" error don't panic. Simply use the AtiCimUnst.exe uninstaller to remove the first install, reboot, and then reinstall to see it go on fully. Sometimes something will hang during the first install.