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    Suspected Memory Fault - How Can I Confirm?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by jarvmeister, Jul 10, 2012.

  1. jarvmeister

    jarvmeister Notebook Consultant

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    Hi All,

    I recently upgraded my memory to two new sticks of 4gb, totalling 8gb.

    Ever since the upgrade I have noticed that one in every 6 or 7 times of waking up my laptop from sleep, everything is kind of frozen, the mouse moves, I might be able to maximise or minimise a window, but that's about it - essentially the whole thing has locked up.

    The only solution is to force the power off and restart.

    I ran windows memory diagnostics. No fault found. I ran memtest and left it on over night and in the morning, no fault found.

    Any ideas?
     
  2. King of Interns

    King of Interns Simply a laptop enthusiast

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    Try reseating the ram.
     
  3. khetik

    khetik Notebook Deity

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    Your ram is probably fine, I would avoid putting the computer to sleep and disable hibernate as well. I've always had issues with sleep/hibernate.
     
  4. Tinderbox (UK)

    Tinderbox (UK) BAKED BEAN KING

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  5. Mobius 1

    Mobius 1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Beat me to it :p

    Anyway, before memtest clean the memory contact points (copper) using a damp cloth and make sure it's seated properly
     
  6. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    You can also use the DELL extended memory test on the PSA (press F12 during bootup and select diagnostics). It tests all the memory addresses outside Windows. If it comes up with any error you can check it here.
     
  7. JohnnyFlash

    JohnnyFlash Notebook Virtuoso

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    There shouldn't be any issues with either, something's either not installed or setup correctly. I do a full restart maybe once every two weeks.
     
  8. jarvmeister

    jarvmeister Notebook Consultant

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    Yes, so did I till I put this new memory in. Already tried memtest86, no fault found.