When i used to run Windows Me on this machine, i occasionally got NTKERN Protection errors during bootup, and also registry errors after Windows started. I decided to put 98 on the machine and got no errors again until now. The machine sometimes starts fine, although today it started doing the NTKERN Protection error thing again. When i went into safe mode and limited the memory using MSCONFIG from 384MB to 32Mb, (then i tried it with 128MB) Windows started and worked fine (although somewhat slow on 32Meg!!) So is some of my RAM bad?

Thanks,
Alex

From my own experience 90% of these are cured by replacement of memory. The other 10% have required a new MOBO.

If you run a diagnostic on the Memory, using Windows it will obviously not differentiate between memory failure or signal path failure.

If you have more than one module try running on one only and then swap. If the problem is persistent then you should look closer to having the MOBO tested or replaced. Given that cost of a MOBO is You may also be lucky and still be covered by warranty.

Well, i ran Norton Utilities 'System Diagnostic' tool and ran a memory test. It didn't get too far - here's what it reported:

Testing 20 patterns on 402653184 bytes of memory
Testing memory using pattern with all bits cleared...
Error detected at address 122736640
Test: Failed

The thing is, no other 'memory testers' report errors (such as MEMT86 or whatever it's called) So what info is more reliable??

Thanks,

Alex