Author Topic: 42 (Read 5393 times)

Sandra · « **on:** February 21, 2005, 16:17 »

Most of us know that the answer to everything is 42

Unfortunately when used in conjunction with pcs it doesnt always solve the problem though

Quite a few people have posted over the last few months about strange things like when installing XP it hasnt found some files and others saying that when they switch their pc on for the first time that day then it often takes 2 or 3 attempts at restarting before the graphics card initialises and the monitor lights up and windows loads.

If 42 isnt the answer then what could it be :?

I think that I have found one possibility

Recently I have come across a pc that was running 98 and crashed frequently for no apparent reason. I decided to try it on XP only to have problems installing it due to it not being able to find certain files that it said were missing :roll:

After running a memory diagnostic check it said that one of the sticks of ram was faulty, I replaced the faulty one and XP installed without any problems and it has been running for the last few weeks without any crashes or unexpected behaviour

Over the last 12 months my own pc has been blue screening occasionally with the physical memory dump message a couple of times a week. This was using XP pro with SP1 as its OS. Around the same time I noticed that some days it wouldnt start up correctly for the first start of the day but rebooting was fine or if it had only been off for an hour or so, I assumed that this was sonmehow ambient temperature related and as it wasnt causing too much hassle I just put up with it.
The blue screening recently became a daily event and sometimes a few times per day along with my pc never starting first time the first start of the day :?
I decided that it was time to wipe and reinstall XP, this time with the new Media Centre version.
This made no difference really and over the last few weeks the blue screening was occurring more frequently.
In case it was a problem with the new Media Centre edition of XP I again wiped my pc and installed XP pro inc SP2 on it.
The blue screening continued to happen randomly and still my pc wouldnt start up straight away on the first start of the day. The final straw came a few days ago when it blue screened 4 times in the space of 10 minutes and all I was doing was reading posts on a forum :shock:
I decided to get to the bottom of it once and for all.
I ran the memory diagnostic test which found a faulty stick of ram, I had one 512mb DDR and one of 256 mb DDR, sods law dictated that it was the 512 mb that was faulty of course :roll:
I removed the faulty 512 mb of ram and it hasnt blue screened once and has started first time every time since

So it looked like two problems were caused by one fault and I would reccommend that anyone experiencing intermittant or unsual problems such as I had, to test or replace their ram

I hope that this may help anyone who finds that 42 isnt the answer to their problems

Clive · « **Reply #1 on:** February 21, 2005, 16:25 »

That's very interesting Sandra and I'm wondering whether that may have been the problem with my old computer with the display problem. That booted up OK but only worked for 20 minutes. After rebooting it would be fine for the rest of the day.

Sandra · « **Reply #2 on:** February 21, 2005, 16:30 »

Well I know that from now on anything that doesnt seem to be a simple bios setting or other obvious problem then I will be sticking my floppy in and running PC-Check on the memory before spending too much time looking for other reasons

joudi · « **Reply #3 on:** February 21, 2005, 17:38 »

Thanks Sandra ! That's very interesting.

But let me please be a "Blond" just for a while: :wink:

First: What relation between that story and the number 42 ?

Second: What's called that "TEST", memory test or other test componants? You're telling that it's on a floppy, I've never heard of it, and don't know how to use it?

Thank you...

Sandra · « **Reply #4 on:** February 21, 2005, 19:57 »

Hi Joudi, I wondered who would be the first one to ask about 42

There was a book, a play and a film some years ago called "The hitch hikers guide to the galaxy"
Towards the end of the book, if I remember correctly, someone asked what the answer to the universe and everything was.
The answer was of course 42

If you remember I once modified Clives old sig and added sound to it

http://www.sandrataylor.dsl.pipex.com/clive1.swf

The sound on the first part, before you click on the spinning planet on the right is also taken from that book

The diagnostic program that I used was an older version of PC-Check, see here :

http://www.eurosoft-uk.com/pc_check.htm

It runs from a bootable floppy and has lots of test functions and information about the pc system. The main part I have found useful lately has been the memory testing part in the advanced features section but it also does much more

There are of course lots of other memory testing programs including Memtest which has been mentioned a few times in various parts of the forum before, available from here :

http://www.memtest86.com/

joudi · « **Reply #5 on:** February 21, 2005, 20:27 »

Thanks Sandra !

You didn't loose of your greatness.

Sandra · « **Reply #6 on:** February 22, 2005, 00:30 »

For anyone that is interested, there is a new film of The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy being released this April in the UK

sam · « **Reply #7 on:** February 22, 2005, 00:35 »

yes but it looks awful... well not so much awful but not right... see: http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/main.html

Sandra · « **Reply #8 on:** February 22, 2005, 00:58 »

It doesnt look that bad to me Sam, maybe its a nostalgia thing for us oldies, although it did get a bit silly looking towards the end of the clip :?

sam · « **Reply #9 on:** February 22, 2005, 01:03 »

maybe... but i have read the books... watched all the episodes...listened to all the radio shows!! nostalagia cant come into it - i hope :-)

I just feel it has been hollywoodised (is that a word!?!) and lets just say i am not sure about their casting but then again they didnt get trillion right in the tv show by a long shot.

well even if that flops.. it is only 86 days to star wars!!!!!!! :-)

Simon · « **Reply #10 on:** February 22, 2005, 08:00 »

Well, I haven't read the books, watched the episodes, or listened to the radio shows, so to me, it just looks like another american space / alien comedy. I have a thing about american comedies - I just don't think they're funny, so I would probably give this a wide berth, but the effects look good!

sam · « **Reply #11 on:** February 22, 2005, 09:17 »

well yeah it looks like an american one thats the problem - its a good british one!!! the americans will have dumbed it down and added lots of effects to cover over the fact. great, not.

Rodders · « **Reply #12 on:** February 24, 2005, 10:31 »

For the past 6 months or so, my life has been plagued by XP frequently crashing. It got so bad that I've even had to rebuild my RAID1 array a couple of times.

All this grief started about the time I did an upgrade last year when I added a Creative ZS platinum sound card, faster CPU c/w cooler, a Firewire external dual drive unit, another 512MB of RAM, plus a bunch of new apps. Then my troubles began.

At first, I put it down to the software from a distributed computing project I was involved with being poorly written. But after removing that, the system was still up and down like a bride's nightie. I tweaked, fiddled, cleaned and reseated my cards and CPU ...BSoD. Then eventually when it wouldn't even respond to harsh language, I took to using my laptop so I could stay afloat longer.

Then I read Sandra's post and it occurred to me that the only thing I hadn't tried was removing the RAM I'd fitted and... Bingo!

Thank you Sandra - you're a megastar!

eBay nil, Sandra 1

Sandra · « **Reply #13 on:** February 24, 2005, 12:20 »

Its surprising how we overlook what is probably one of the easiest and cheapest options isnt it Rod

I was convinced that my last problem was either a driver issue or maybe the GFX card playing up until I ran the tests.
Glad you sorted it now Rod

Rodders · « **Reply #14 on:** February 24, 2005, 15:24 »

XP didn't help by constantly reporting the problem as an 'unknown driver' error, either!

I'm just wondering what to do with this RAM now, as it looks like Kingston will only RMA memory bought in the USA these days. Perhaps I should track down the person who sold it to me on eBay and insert it in their box.