Hey guys, I have another problem with my great PC and hope that you can give me some hints what might be wrong.

Recently, I bought an A-DATA 512 MB RAM module which I wanted to use together with my old Corsair Value Select modules (2 x 512 MB). Before adding the A-DATA RAM, the PC operated fine for over a year, however, ever since adding the new RAM, Windows crashes every few minutes presenting a bluescreen related to "Memory Management". Last crash happened in the middle of the Service Pack 3 setup and now the OS won't boot (it hangs right after drawing the desktop and the mouse pointer just before I would usually log in). Anyways, since I assumed the problem was related to the new RAM, I grabbed my memtest86+ CD and booted from it. The program found errors in tests 5 and 7, but the memory address was always under 1024. Since the Corsair RAM is in bank 0 and 1 and the A-DATA in bank 2, I assume that memtest86+ tells me that the Corsair RAM is defective (again, boggus areas were between 0 and 1023 MB). Is this possible? IIRC, I didn't even touch the old RAM when I plugged in the A-DATA module. Is it possible that the new RAM broke my Corsairs? Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to check each module today, but I hope I can do that tomorrow.

Could be a timing issue. If the new ram is faster and the bios uses it to set the speed, it may be too fast for the old stuff.

All three RAMs have absolutely identic specifications. I spent a few hours last night testing each RAM individually and no errors were shown. Then I tested all possible combinations and it seems that the error occurs only in the configuration Bank 0 = Corsair, Bank 1 = Corsaid, Bank 2 = A-DATA. I switched RAM between Bank 0 and 2 and everything seems to be working now. I am going to let memtest run over night to be sure.

Now I have to figure out how to repair my Windows XP that doesn't load any longer since the SP 3 installation crashed. After the first reboot, setup told me that the installation was cancelled and that it is attempting to restore the original files back. After that it rebooted and now it hangs right before presenting me the log on dialog.

A friend of mine had the same problem trying to fix a trojan attack. I solved it by rebooting the install CD. Then you start going through the installation procedure. A little ways into it, not the option at the very begining, you can select to try to recover system of new installation. Select recover. Sorry I can't give you a more detailed instruction.

Yeah, well, that opens the repair console. Unfortunately, copy does not support placeholders so I cannot copy all files from the $NtServicePackUninstall$ (or whatever) folder and attempting to create a file or even changing to a directory other than WINDOWS (and its subfolders) results in "Zugriff verweigert" which means as much as "Access denied".

No, I did not mean to use the repair console. That was the part that I wanted you to pass. it is further on in the installation process.

The problems reported by memtest may also indicate a defective mainboard.


As bilbo said, boot from the Windows installation CD, choose the option to install Windows. The installer will look for previous Windows installations and suggest you to recover, if possible.

BTW, the most compatible and defect-free memory modules are "Samsung Original" ones Hope this helps.

A broken mobo wouldn't surprise me. As soon as I have enough money, I am going to replace my PC since this one has been a pain for over a year.