# Solved: Lenovo laptop problem... RAM?



## Aggy (Feb 19, 2005)

I bought a Lenovo R61e for my daughter. It came with Windows XP and 512 RAM. I purchased a stick of 2G Corsair and replaced the 512 with that over a week ago. The computer has been running very well before and after, but a lot faster after.

Today all of a sudden it started acting all squirrelly. WIndows seemed to go back to the login screen for no reason, then when my daughter logged back in it worked normally, but then FireFox crashed, then Windows crashed, giving her various error messages and alternating blue, black and normal looking screens.

We shut it down, then restarted it and Windows would not boot at all. I instructed her to boot in safe mode, she did, but the pointer refused to work and she could do nothing.

At this point I read the instruction manual and discovered how to get into the pre-loaded "PC Doctor" application, ran this, and ran a system check. Results were all hardware passed except memory, here are the memory results:

Memory Advanced Pattern Test: Fail
Memory Bit Low Test: Fail
Memory Bit High Test: Pass
Memory Nibble Move Test: Fail
Memory Checkerboard Test: Fail
Memory Walking One Left Test: Fail
Memory Walking One RIght Test: Fail
Memory Auxiliary Pattern Test: Fail
Memory Address Test: Fail
Memory Module 20 Test: Pass
Memory Moving Inversion Test: Pass

The only error message she remembered was services.exe - application error: The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000005)

My question for you is, do you think the new stick of Corsair went bad? Or could something else be causing the crash and the test result?


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

could be the memory gone - bathtub curve things fail early in life or late
Do you still have the old 512M you could swap out and see if works ?


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## Aggy (Feb 19, 2005)

We do have the old RAM, we will switch it out and see. By the way, what does "bathtub curve" mean?


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

bathtub is the shape of the graph you get if you plot failure by time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve


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## Aggy (Feb 19, 2005)

Wow, thank you! Learn something new every day.

BTW my daughter told me that even though the new stick has been in over a week, she didn't actually use it much at all until the past two days. So that's even stronger evidence we're on the first end of the "bathtub curve". Thanks, she'll put the old one back in later today and I'll report results. If it does happen that the new RAM is bad, do you think I should buy it from Lenovo instead of getting a new Corsair? Their prices are higher but I'm worried there may be a compatibility problem if we don't use their brand.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

You get a good waranty with corsair and i think they guarantee compatability - so you should be able to have it swapped


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## Aggy (Feb 19, 2005)

etaf said:


> You get a good waranty with corsair and i think they guarantee compatability - so you should be able to have it swapped


Worth a shot, thanks!!


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## DoubleHelix (Dec 10, 2004)

Aggy said:


> BTW my daughter told me that even though the new stick has been in over a week, she didn't actually use it much at all until the past two days.


If it was physically in the computer, it was being used.


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## Aggy (Feb 19, 2005)

She put the original RAM back in and it works fine again. I will order some more from the manufacturer. Thanks for all your help.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

let us know how you get on


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