I got a used computer yesterday from a local shop. I got it home it showed 768MB ram. So I added a 512 MB stick. It worked for a few minutes showed 1.25 GB of ram. Then all of a sudden the system locked up. I shut it down by the power button. I turned it back on and lines in the video. I have played around with it and I have both the original 512 MB sticks in it but it only works with both the sticks of I skip a slot. Maybe a bad memory slot? If they are side by side I get 3 beeps when I start the computer. If I have 3 512 sticks I get bad video with the lines. And I have tried all 3 with a PCI video card and no lines. The system comes with a 90 day warranty do Monday I will carry it in to see whats wrong. I hope it is just memory and not the motherboard. I heard people say they have seen systems like Acer do strange things. I will run memtest. Something I have never figured out about memtest is how do I tell if the memory is bad? Last time I ran it on a system it ran and ran for hours. How long does it take? Just because the OP does not come back in 3 or 4 days to reply, does not mean he will not come back and reply.
"How long does it take?" It takes as long as you want it to take. There is no end to it, it just repeats the test in a loop. Some people let it run for hours & hours, some just a few tests series, it's up to you. But it will NOT stop until YOU stop it...that is, unless it encounters a problem.
Thanks Jam so if there is a problem it will stop? I just want to be clear. Just because the OP does not come back in 3 or 4 days to reply, does not mean he will not come back and reply.
"if there is a problem it will stop?" If there's a major problem, the system will lock up, otherwise it will just continue running but will log a list of errors in red, like THIS.
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