Memory and Hardrive Q&A

I downloaded Memscope from m2tech.com and ran a memory check. It reported no errors but it said it detected 480M of memory which concerned me because the BIOS setup says I have 512. I am worried as to whether this is significant. Basically I have 512M but your program reported that it found 480M. Does this mean I have a problem please?

You are missing 32 mb of RAM. This may come from a reserved video memory on your machine, if you have an onboard video. This is why your BIOS show a total of 512Mb but MicroScope is detecting 480Mb for testing.

Every so often there is a click and the machine just restarts. Then it has to check the hard disc and correct any errors. Sometimes the machine will run quite happily for several hours without an involuntary restart. The two favourite times for the problem to occur are within a few seconds of starting or when I am on the internet.

After the restart the screen says that the machine has recovered from a serious error, and on sending a report to Microsoft I get back a report that

it is a Windows Stop Error caused by an unknown device driver. It goes on to say that a message appears on a blue screen with error code information, and that a device driver installed on the computer caused the Windows operating system to stop unexpectedly. Microsoft is unable to determine the exact cause of the error.

But what the report says is not true. I get neither a blue screen nor an error code.

The continuous restarting of a PC can often be due to a incompatible driver in the OS or simply hardware added to the machine that is not supported. If you have not done either of these and the machine just restarts randomly you may have a memory problem.

This is either motherboard memory or RAM memory. Try switching memory modules for the RAM memory. Diagnosing RAM Memory can be time consuming and difficult even with testing software, this is the reason why sometime is better just to test with different modules.

Now, for the memory on the motherboard (ROM) it may be infected by a virus or just being corrupted or damaged. Try to flush the memory, not upgrade it but restore it. Go to the motherboard manufacturer website and down load the latest BIOS version for it. They usually come with instructions on how to flush the BIOS memory.

A computer I had built for a friend which did not work properly. I suspected a problem with the motherboard and so sent it back. The company tested the motherboard and said there was nothing wrong with it. This went on for a while until someone suggested trying some different memory. This did work and the problem appeared to be incompatible memory. Would Micro-Scope have helped in this situation?

In this case it will help you when you compare the values for memory type and speed detected on your system with the ones found on the documentation for the specific motherboard types. This has been proven when the motherboard is set to auto detect the RAM Speed and causes lockups or rebooting problems. With Microscope you are able to see the specific model type and speed installed so you are able to set it into your BIOS settings.

Another friend came recently saying his computer would not boot. He was trying to remove some programs and had a message come up in Windows saying something about formatting and he clicked 'Yes'. He said that seconds later he had to reboot but nothing happened. Well, it got through the POST but then the message 'No operating system found' came up. I tried for a while to gain access to his hard disk to see if we could put it right without re-installing Windows (unsuccessfully) because I know a hard disk drive (80Gb) would take longer than a second or two to format. I know there are things such as the FAT can be destroyed in such a fashion (seconds) but not sure if it's possible from Windows. Would Micro-Scope have been useful here? I'm not deliberately trying to mislead you here. What I've told you is just about what he told me.

Malicious software, viruses and even a bad HDs could make this possible. Basically if the sector 0 of the HD gets damaged or deleted to a point that no information can be read back it will prevent the HD being accessed. The only way to resolve this it would be by any of the following solutions;

1. Having a stored copy of the Boot Sector on a floppy disk, this is done through Microscope

2. If you don’t have a copy of the Boot Sector you can copy the Boot Sector from a HD with the same physical characteristics and then copy it to the HD that has damage. This is also possible if you use Microscope

3. Format the entire HD and loose all the information. Then try to recover any valuable information using a recovery tool such as OnTrack Easy Recovery Pro. This procedure is long but is well paid since some data could be worth a million.

I have had a hard disk drive that works okay for about two weeks and then just crashes. No error message, no warnings, it just stops working. Leave it for a week or so and it seems to work okay - for about two weeks and then the same thing happens. I've had this problem ever since I bought the drive about two years or so ago and I've gone through this cycle half a dozen or more times. Could Micro-Scope find the problem?

With Microscope you have a set of tests that you can run to help you determinate what is happening inside the HD. HD failures could be Logical or Physical. The first one refers to bad sectors and formatting or low level formatting would take care of it. The second one is a failure within the motor, arm mechanism or the controller. On any of these problems Microscope will help you with such tests as Butter Fly, Controller, Read and Seek.

For more information on all the tests in
Microscope diagnostic software CLICK HERE

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