Need confirmation to a problem

[PcPro12]

OK, basically, I want to confirm a problem with a laptop...

The laptop is kinda 5-7 years old, runs windows xp sp3...and this winter had a hard drive change...

The owner came to me with a BSOD problem he got on the laptop, and told me his hard drive got changed this winter...I assumed it was the hard drive causing the problem...I took it for a look and couldn't get on it, before or after the boot screen, bsod appeared...different error codes...at times it would say there is a problem with ntfs.sys...

I repaired the bootmbr, wrote a new boot mbr, and some other little fixes...nothing fixed it...

So I dug into it manually...I tried memtest to test the memory and the program just froze the second it started...booted with linux, that was no help...so I took out the rams and tried them one by one...one of them worked, logged in, and said that skype executable was corrupt and needed reinstall, than froze the computer when I tried to open event viewer...Than I tried the second one, the computer once again started normally...skype started and opened normally, no errors, logged in, event viewer opened normally, nothing wrong...everything fine, no bsod...

than I put the other ram in, and started it up, bsod came up...took it out...the bsod didn't appear...tried the 'corrupt' ram alone this time, and bsod came up once again...than tried the working ram, and everything was fine...I tried the working ram in both ram slots, and everything worked fine...and tried the corrupt ram in both ram slots, and bsod came up...so that problem is resolved I think...unless anyone has anything to add I should check out...

So I seemed to fix the bsod...so far...my concern is that when the bsod used to come up....a few times it said the problem was with ntfs.sys...but since I took the corrupt ram out and everything works fine...is there anything else I should check out dealing with ntfs.sys???

and also...if I take out one of the rams, it won't corrupt any files or executable files on the running system?

Thanks :)

[sparkax]

Removing or replacing RAM will not affect any files in the OS.

[Rik_]

It seems you have found the root of the problem. Corrupted ram will write corrupted data to the hard drive so run a scandisk on it and see if that will fix any outstanding errors.

[PcPro12]

alright :) cool...thanks ;) will do...

[PcTestCard.com]

For the Faulty Ram, I would suggest use a rubber to clean the lead contacts and try again.

Taking the RAM from the system should not cause any problem to the file system, just slow down the performance.

After removing the RAM, try configure the page file size to the recommend size or about 1.5 x the total ram on the PC.

Run Chkdsk /r/v from DOS to scan the HDD and correct any error including the file structure erros.

Hope this helps!
Bill

[PcPro12]

alright...thanks :) will do that...thanks for the info everyone ;)

[carlyse_09]

Hi everyone!I'm having a hard time to figure out the problem why my computer always got a corrupted message.I already reinstall the OS and still the problem go back after a few days.Any thoughts?

[Rik_]

Google and download memtest then run it for at least 7 passes (it will take several hours). If you get any errors then you have faulty ram.