8204 and data corruption

Hello

All of a sudden I'm experiencing corrupt .rar files. I have downloaded .rar files on a daily basis with my 8204 for almost a year, and never had any corrupt files. A couple of days ago almost all bigger archives I download are corrupt, and I have to re-download the corrupt files.

Anyone know what's going on? This is really frustrating. I also had a couple of bluescreens. The CPU-temp is 45-46 idle, and about 55-56 full load.

 

There is a Vista problem with password protected Zip files, but I assume that is not what is causing this.

The answer to the Zip problem is not to use the inbuilt unzipper, but use Winzip or equivalent instead.

If any one cares, I can probably dig out a thread about this on a Microsoft forum.

 

this unit has problems with data corruption when downloading large amounts of data via the ethernet port; i imagineyou connect via your ethernet port. there should be updates for the ethernet firmware available, this should sort out your problem.

 

Have you tried reinstalling Winrar or whatever software you are using to open thos archives?

I have had no problems opening any archives, RAR or otherwise downloaded either by Ethernet or WiFi on my 8204.

 

I've tried everything, with no luck. I'm beginning to suspect that it has something to do with the latest BIOS update which I did not a long time ago. Anyone had any problems with it?

 

the lastest bios should fix this, you really need the latest lan firmware in conjunction with this to fix the issue though, its not something people notice until they start downloading large files.

 

I have not had trouble downloading large files - 1GB+ large. Then again, I always download stuff via the WiFi and not via the ethernet port. So if the problem is in the ethernet, I would never know. I have downloaded some stuff through ethernet, but nothing over 200M, and not very many files.

I did have a hard disk die in my 8204 so maybe do a check disk just in case... if you see any bad clusters, do a backup and get the HD replaced ASAP.

 

Well, I finally found out what the problem is, it seems like my memory is causing the data corruption. Why can it all of a sudden be unstable? I have tested the computer earlier with hours and hours of prime95, with no instability whatsoever. Now it won't even run for 10 seconds.

Any advice is deeply appreciated.

 

Try running Memtest+ and see what that says, unfortunately if it's corrupt you MAY be able to get Acer to replace it (assuming still under warranty) but I'm not sure how picky they get about that (given that you could have opened it up and caused the memory issues).

 

I just ran memtest, with both sticks, and each stick separately, and the result was very convincing. One was OK, the other one returned 100.000+ errors. So I guess I have to buy a new one. I find it really strange though that one of the memory sticks just suddenly goes bad.

Can anoyone give me a good advice on what memory to buy? Maybe I should go for some 667 Mhz memory? I just looked at these, are they any good? OCZ DDR2 SODIMM 2GB, PC-5400 667MHz. (5.5.5.15) What about buying 4GB in total? I'm running a 32-bit OS, so I guess I can't utilize more than about 3GB, but I'll maybe upgrade to a merom and 64-bit OS later.

Thanks again guys, really appreciate the help