Help with friend's PC upgrade

[topgun06]

I was asked by a friend what i could do to her PC to make it faster as they were getting fed up of it.

I said that probably, the cheapest way would be to upgrade the RAM as they only had 256mb and PC was constantly writing to the HDD. The motherboard is an Intel 82915 G Express Family something or other so I ordered some new RAM compatible with this (pretty sure) and finally got round to fitting it tonight but no luck.

The PC would boot and went into the windows loading screen, and after that, instead of loading into windows it showed this screen:



Just a mass of flickering lines and colours.

And i just don't know what to do, I've tried different slots etc. Any ideas anyone?

Thanks

 

[t31os]

Does the problem go away if you take the memory back out?...

Does it happen if you leave only the new memory in?..

If the answer to both is yes, you've proberly got a duff stick.... or the new memory runs at different timings or voltages....

Easiest way to check would be to run Memtest and/or Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool. Google will find them both in 2 seconds.

Can't say i've personally seen memory do that to a PC though, but doesnt mean it never happens though...

 

[topgun06]

Yes, goes away when i put the old memory back in. Ill check it with memtest when i get the chance, got the boot CD somewhere...

Thats what i thought, i had never seen that happen before.

Cheers for quick reply.

 

[t31os]

If the problem is only there with the new memory then its pretty likely its the cause, could just be a duff stick mate, try the memory tests and see what happens.