On 28/07/2018 16:36, Java Jive wrote:

On 27/07/2018 15:25, Java Jive wrote:

As per title, I have an old Dell Precision M4300 laptop with 2
identical sticks of Crucial CT25664AC800 16 FHZ 2GB DDR2 SODIMM PC2 64
RAM. Running the RAM test from the Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit grub boot
option, each stick passes individually in Slot 1 (under the keyboard),
but together one in each slot they fail, and the PC won't boot with a
stick only in Slot 2, behind a cover on the base of the laptop.

Thanks for all the replies, this is a 'put on hold' post because,
tentatively, touching every bit of wood within reach including my head,
I think I've solved it.Â* Will report fully on that when I'm sure either
way.

B*gger, and I think you can guess what that means! B*stard got to 99%
of second pass before it froze.

A while ago, I installed a 4G WLAN card, and, although I hadn't noticed
RAM-type problems beginning around that time, since the PC had passed a
RAM test with both sockets populated when I first acquired it, that was
the only thing that I could think of that had changed since. So I tried
removing the card, and lo, it booted with its full compliment of RAM.
Encouraged, I let it run for a while, and wrote the above after it had
completed one successful pass, but, as already described it froze right
at the end of the second.

I'm now thinking temperature is part of the problem. The PC seems much
more likely to fail when it's hot. The RAM test flogs it continuously,
but when started from cold succeeds initially, only to fail once the
thing gets really hot. Then if you immediately restart, it fails more
or less immediately, if it will even boot at all.

Presumably there is something like a poorly soldered joint or hairline
crack in a track on the mainboard, and, as it heats up, eventually a gap
opens and it fails. Short of replacing the mainboard, a serious fag, as
well as being somewhat intricate and error prone, I think it's just
going to have to run with one stick for the foreseeable future.

Bloody nuisance, as that was my development PC, the one that has been
doing all the hard work, compiling, etc. It's like lame duck with only
half the RAM.