what is an error reading memory message?

[Nick Minall]

Yes Peter I think it does, I think you can change the way your PC boots (in the bios I think) from normal that check more on boot-up like memory.

Found this not used it though

[Nick Minall]

or this one…. http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

[John Wilson]

Also try http://www.crucial.com/uk/

they have a memory testing program that runs from the site

[David Rowland]

peter, i use a program called memtest and it can be downloaded and burnt to a cdrom in iso type stuff

however, likely to be mismatched memory, are they all random 1gb chips?

[Steve Underhill]

Download a trial of Sisoft sandra, its a benchmark and diagnostic program we use at work on the PC repair side of the business, it will run burn in tests on any hardware and should pick up any faulty ram.
If only 3 are being recognized then it also could be one of the slots on the motherboard failing but sandra would also pick this up.
What do you use 4 gig of ram for anyway are you animating the next finding Nemo movie for Pixar or something?

[Martin Pearson]

Peter, just to give you a bit more choice, or even confuse you a bit more here is another one. Memscope is quite a good program for testing and is independant of your operating system, plus its a free download.

http://www.micro2000.co.uk:80/products/ … Tester.htm

You could also try cleaning the gold contacts on the memory module, I am assuming that your motherboard will support 4 gig and the computer use to recognise 4 gig of memory.

[Peter Normington]

thanks for advice so far, bit more info.

the comp is less than a year old, original 2 strips of one gig, (matched pair)

I bought another 1 gb strip to try, so as to eliminate the problem, installed in place off the originals, but still got the error.
so I then added another matched strip (asus say matching pairs only) so i could use all 4 strips. asus also say that even when using 4 strips, not all may be recognized.

anyway will try the recommended progs to see what happens.

Peter