PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

... When You Have Not Added Memory

If you suspect memory problems but have not added or reconfigured memory (or been inside the case), it’s unlikely that the memory itself is causing the problem. Memory does simply die sometimes, and may be killed by electrical surges, but this is uncommon because the PC power supply itself does a good job of isolating memory and other system components from electrical damage. The most likely problem is a failing power supply. Try one or both of the following:

• If you have another system, install the suspect memory in it. If it runs there, the problem is almost certainly not the memory, but the power supply.

• If you have other memory, install it in the problem system. If it works, you can safely assume that the original memory is defective. More likely is that it will also fail, which strongly indicates power supply problems.

If you have neither another system nor additional memory, and if your system has more than one bank of memory installed, use binary elimination to determine which modules are bad. For example, if you have two modules installed (one per bank), simply remove one module to see if that cures the problem. If you have four identical modules installed (one per bank), designate them A, B, C, and D. Install only A and B and restart the system. If no problems occur, A and B are known good and the problem must lie with C and/or D. Remove B and substitute C. If no problems occur, you know that D is bad. If the system fails with A and C, you ...