My computer's speaking to me in tongues: "Memory write/read failure"

Factual Questions
1

A couple of days ago, I was working on my computer and it suddenly went to a blue screen saying there was an error (I didn’t have time to read the whole thing because it immediately restarted after that). After it restarted, everything was fine.

Well, this morning, I was working, and it did the same thing. However, this time it wouldn’t let me restart. Whenever it tried to restart, it gave me this message:

“Memory write/read failure at 3FFF0014, read 7F10FF10 expecting FF10FF10
Memory address line failure at 3FFF0000, read FF10FF10 expecting 00000000.”

It says I can hit F1 to continue or F2 to setup. If I hit F1, it tries to start up, but fails. If I hit F2, it goes into setup, but I certainly don’t know what to do there.

There’s also a place where it gives me the option of starting up in Safe Mode, Normally, and a couple of other options.

I’d call tech support, but I’m in Taiwan. That’s not really an option.

The computer:

Dell Inspiron 8200
1GB RAM (less than one year old)
80GB hardrive (likewise)
Windows XP

2

That’s a sign of hardware problem if I ever saw one. Most likely your RAM went bad, but to rule things out I’d recommend

a) Making sure everything is seated correcly inside (RAM, CPU, Heatsinks etc.)

b) Turning it off and letting it sit for a few hours to rule out overheating.

c) If you have more than one memory module inside, try leaving just one in at a time to figure out which one is defective

3

Forgive me for asking such a stupid question, but when RAM “goes bad” does that mean it *stays *bad? Meaning, will I have to buy new RAM?

4

Looks like a memory problem to me.

I’d try groman’s 1 and 2, then burn memtest86+ to a CD and boot your PC with it. Try #3 using the CD to validate the memory. You might have to leave it running overnight to catch subtle errors, but yours looks like a fairly blatant one.

If RAM is bad, it’s broken. If it’s under warranty you could get it replaced, but otherwise I recommend drilling a hole in it and using it for a novelty keychain. (Unless it’s a big DIMM and you’re interested in Linux)

5

Yes, it will stay bad, though RAM going bad is pretty rare unless there is over-heating. After you let things cool down, while you’re busy making sure everything is connected nice and tight, make sure the air-flow is unobstructed and clean any accumulated dust out of your fans. And make sure the fans are working, too.

6

When I got back to my apartment, my computer actually let me past the initial F1 thingy.

I have a Dell BIOS upgrade disk that I got when I bought a new battery. I ran the system hardware scan and it confirmed (I guess) that this is a memory problem.

Error: 2F00:0119

The problems with replacing the RAM are (1) I’m in Taiwan (which probably voids the warranty to begin with) and (2) I got it through a friend at a computer company, so I don’t think I even have a warranty.

I’m going to go through the advice you guys have given and keep you updated.

Thanks for the help.

7

Is it possible that it’s the harddrive? That, I bougt in Taiwan, so I could probably get it replaced fairly easily.

8

Doesn’t sound like a HD problem because bad sectors are usually just put to one side and ignored.

Did you try the suggestion above to check how many RAM modules you have in the machine? If there are two you can test each on its own to see which is defective, and, if necessary, work with one until you can replace the broken one. The machine should run most things on 512mb fine. Also, do try blowing the dust out and re-seating both modules.

There’s some info showing the 8200 hardware (i.e. where the memory is seated) here…

If you have to buy new RAM, the cheapest reputable places I’ve used are…

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Inspiron+8200+Series

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/modelsinfo.asp?SysID=11589&mfr=Dell&model=Inspiron+8200&root=&LinkBack=&Sys=11589-Dell-Inspiron+8200&distributor=0&submit1=Search

You probably find it even cheaper in Taiwan though.

By the way, it sounds like 1gig is the maximum RAM supported by the 8200s, so don’t be tempted to try upgrading to 2gig or anything.

Good luck!

9

I did what groman said, and took out the RAM one by one and found the side that worked. Then, I tried each memory stick in that port (DIMM B, I think) and both worked. So, now I’m a little more worried, acutally. If both sticks of RAM work, then does that mean that the problem is the actual port? Is that easily fixed? Am I doomed to use 512 RAM until I get a new computer?

10

And neither flagged an error on the hardware scan when alone?

I’m not entirely sure about replacing the ports themselves, but before you do anything else, try swapping which port each DIMM was in and blow out the dust, etc. It could be something stupid like the port being a little pedantic or the memory wasn’t seated quite right. Little changes like this often make the difference. Does the port itself look physically damaged?

Unfortunately, neither Crucial or Kingston list a 1gig DIMM for that machine, so it may not support 1gig DIMMs.

11

Crucial indicates the maximum size per slot is 512MB.

12

Do both of them fail in the DIMM A port? I’d recommend running memtest or some other diagnostic utility to make sure both of them actually work, because just because it boots doesn’t mean it’s not broken (when you go down from 1GB to 512MB the addressing changes)

13

Yeah, you really have to get memtest. (See my last post for link).

Memory problems are notoriously difficult to troubleshoot, and memtest is just about the last word when it comes to that. Plus it’s ridiculously easy to use.

14

Just an update:

I put both of the sticks back in the computer, and it started up without a problem. So I downloaded memtest and it’s been running all day. When I left the apartment it was up to about 10 million errors.

I’ll let you know what it says.