Re: Monitor??
- From: Paul <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:13:15 -0500
Charles W Davis wrote:
From: "Charles W Davis" <newsgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Gateway computer problem
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 7:23 AM
Computer Club member's computer. Gateway 310.
The tower was brought to my place last evening. I started by replacing two
256MB chips with two 1GB chips.
Every time one touched Internet Explorer 6 to resize the screen would go all
squigly and lock up. In Save mode, I installed Firefox and was able to check
with Gateway for an update to the video driver. Oops! Gateway sold that
division to MPC Corporation which has liquidated.
In safe mode I was able to remove 15 medium problems with Malwarebytes
installed from USB Flash. McAfee wouldn't update, couldn't be removed with
Add or Remove programs. Finally used their removal program (carried on my
USB Flash) and removed it. I then installed the Free AVG 9 Anti-virus and
was able to do a complete scan in command line mode in Safe mode. As AVG was
installing it notified me that it couldn't continue with the clock setting.
Set the clock and continued. Have since replaced the CMOS battery. Clock
setting is now stable. Automatic updates brought in 25 updates which
installed without opening IE. IE8 was installed.
Restarted in normal mode and went to Windows update, IE8 again opened in a
very small window and as soon as I attempted to resize it, the screeen
locked up for the umteenth time. I restarted in Safe mode and set the size
for IE8 to full screen. Restarted in normal mode, but IE8 still opened in
the small size.
Firefox gives no problems, even when resizing.
Finally, my monitor is the HP 2709m which may be the problem. Otherwise the
computer runs like a champ.
Any thoughts will be appreciated...
Any time you change the RAM in a computer, your first test should be a couple
passes of memtest86+ (the test will run forever, until you stop it). In the
past, Test 5 seems to do most of the testing, and is the one most likely to
uncover a problem. You can advance to Test 5 if you want to speed things up.
http://www.memtest.org
The test is available for floppy or CD. If the machine didn't have a floppy, you
could use the CD version. The CD could be ejected, once the test starts.
One article I saw in a search, says the Gateway 310 motherboard is the "Thrasher" model.
I got some info here. Chipset is 845GV, where the "graphics value" says there
is no AGP slot. The 845GV would either use its built-in graphics in the
Northbridge chip, or you would rely on a replacement PCI video card as a substitute
for it.
http://www.barebonekit.net/itemdesc.asp?ic=MB4GWTHRASHER&eq=&Tp=
You can use CPUZ to get more information about the RAM you installed.
Under the right-most tab, is an option to save a report of all the
information that CPUZ can find. If you post the SPD tables for the
RAM you installed, I can tell you a little bit about them. While most
of the info about the RAM, is in human readable form in one of the
CPUZ screens, there is a little extra info in the SPD table.
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
The SPD table looks like this, and there would be a table
per memory module. There is 256 bytes of data in an SPD,
of which the first (length) byte, tells you not all of
the table is useful info. Typically 128 bytes are used.
0x80 hex = 128 decimal.
Dump Module #1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
00 80 08 07 0D 0A 02 40 00 04 60 70 00 82 08 00 01
10 0E 04 0C 01 02 20 00 75 70 00 00 48 30 48 2A 40
20 75 75 45 45 00 00 00 00 00 3C 48 30 2D 55 00 00
30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 57
40 7F 7F 7F 83 00 00 00 00 01 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
50 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 00 00
60 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
70 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
90 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
You might also take a look in the BIOS screens. A chipset
like the 845GV, uses system memory for the video display.
Some BIOS, increase the size of that memory allocation,
when the BIOS detects that more RAM is present. When you
had 512MB in the machine, the BIOS may have allocated a
smaller buffer than it is currently. That shouldn't really
have an impact on your problem, but you could play with that
in the BIOS if you're bored.
In terms of testing RAM, if you do find problems with
memtest86+, you can drop down to one stick at a time,
and retest. That is to ensure you've grabbed the
correct stick as the culprit.
Always turn off all power to the computer, before changing
RAM. The RAM socket remains powered by energy derived from
+5VSB, and the power supply should be switched off at the
back, to disable +5VSB. I like to unplug the computer, to be
absolutely sure there is no power. Or, use the switch on your
power strip, and remove power to the plug that way.
Paul
.
- References:
- Monitor??
- From: Charles W Davis
- Monitor??
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