RAM driver?

ghosttrain · Post by **ghosttrain** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:14 am

Ron (smith639) has kindly given me two memory sticks. When I installed them a message on starting up told me a system32 driver was missing. As I bought the pc with xp installed I has no installation disc which I was prompted to use. Replaced my old sticks and I'm ok again.
Ron suggested I come here for advice.

Timby · Post by **Timby** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:45 am

Hi Ghosttrain, did it tell you which driver was missing? What version of XP are you running as you may be able to download the driver?

ghosttrain · Post by **ghosttrain** » Sat May 19, 2007 1:38 pm

What I'll do is reinstall them make a note of the driver, but the problem is I can't get to anywhere to install the driver after that. No safe mode nothing. Will post here exact message

Post by **UBT - Mikee** » Sat May 19, 2007 2:18 pm

I read this earlier this morning and thought that this shouldn't cause a system32 driver problem - the BIOS should detect and install automatically with no further drivers required - provided the motherboard supports the sticks and if any are all ready installed that they are compatible with each other. Windows will detect and use - end of!

However...

If they are incompatible with the motherboard, or mismatched you will get an error, but usually during boot-up. It may be that it boots up so quick and carries on that you don't see any error messages until windows starts then complains. I suspect that this is the case.

Memory speeds shouldn't be a problem (defaults to the slowest RAM speed).

See suggestion 4 here

Works with your memory = good
Fails with replacement memory = bad

So it seems that the fault is to do with the replacement memory, not with the system!

Is it the right sort of RAM is the first thought. If it is then try it in another working motherboard that supports it if you can.

Was it seated correctly?

Was it tested with your original RAM installed? If so, does the PC work with just the replacement RAM.

Try just 1 stick of RAM and see what happens. Then try the other stick by itself.

HTH

Rockinfroggi · Post by **Rockinfroggi** » Sat May 19, 2007 2:42 pm

Everything Mark has said is good advice and also, even if you were putting in larger sticks, i.e. 512 sticks in a board that supports 256 sticks max, they would still work but default the the lower capacity.

Newer systems require matching pairs of Ram in the correct banks but with older systems this should not be a problem.
I'm assuming this is an older system as I seem to remember in a previous post you said you only had 256mb of Ram?

The link I gave you a week or so ago should tell you what is compatible with your mobo.

On a side note, how old is your system? you say Windows came installed, was this a new system you bought from a supplier or a second hand system.

If the former then if you did not receive a recovery disk you should have a hidden partition somewhere on your HDD and should be able to burn a recovery disc from this. If so you would be well advised to do so before you have a major failure and are forced to line the pockets of Mr Gates with your hard earned cash.

If you continue to have problems, let me know and I will get what info I need from you and try to work out where the problem lies.

Gary.

ghosttrain · Post by **ghosttrain** » Sat May 19, 2007 5:02 pm

OK guys, the message I got was corrupt or missing system 32\DRIVERS\pci.sys

will try changing one stick at a time (froggi it is an older cp, Noah signed the guarantee :D )

ghosttrain · Post by **ghosttrain** » Sat May 19, 2007 5:42 pm

I have identified the stick that doesn't work but i'm up to 384 on this old steam engine thanks to Ron. I will pm him with regard to rerurning said stick. Will leave it alone for now as I've lost crunching time (or is it sucking with this thing) and want to get some done. Many thanks to all