Windows 7 Dual Boot System

stephen

Hi All,

I have just up graded the ram on my PC and Installed Windows 7 on a second harddrive. During install Windows would not finish installation. After two days of tearing my hair out I started stripping everything off the PC leaving only the bare essentials for running. This included removing one of the two sticks of Ram. Win 7 installed and is working perfect, duel booting with XP on seperate HDD's.

Starting putting everything back on and found the problem through process of elimination. The problem, put the second stick of Ram back in XP boots and runs perfectly but reboot to windows 7 and it freezes on the startup screen. Take it back out and it works no problem. I have tried changing the ram to different slots. As I said XP works grand and I can see the Ram, well 3.5 Gig but thats because there both 32 bit versions.

I am hoping somebody has had this problem before and can help.

System is a Dell Optiplex GX 520
2 x gb Ram
2 HDD's 1 X 80GB & 1 X 320 GB both Sata
3.20 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
Both XP & 7 are 32 bit fully licenced editions

Thanks in Advance.

Tushon

With both sticks in, download and burn either a Memtest86+ CD or USB or UBCD iso (lots of tools), and let the entire thing run through 3-5 passes (or if you start seeing red errors being listed, not the memory location (i.e. the MB number so we know it is the first or second RAM stick). If you don't see errors after 3-5 passes, your RAM is good and you should run HDD tests on the second HDD. If you downloaded UBCD, there are most of the manufacturer's own tests. I would recommend running the manufacturer's test for your drive and Hitachit's Drive Fitness Test (DFT) long/advanced modes.

stephen

Thanks for the reply Tushon.

I have ran Mentest 86 a number of times with no errors so no luck there.

I have also scanned the HDD using Hirens boot CD both quick and advanced and it showed no problems there either.

I hooked up an old HD I had around, not sata, and tried the installation and it was the same story. 7 would not complete install with 4 gig of ram but remove one and away we go so that more or less rules out the HDD as being a problem. The ram seems to be working fine as well, so I am stumped on this one.

Thrax

If it works without the RAM, but doesn't work with the RAM, I'd say the culprit is rather obvious. Whether or not memtest confirms it seems immaterial in this case.

Tushon

Indeed, but I thought offering definitive proof would be nice. Just a curious issue though.

You either have a faulty mobo (out of luck) or a bad RAM stick that isn't being seen by Memtest. If you have access to other RAM, you should see if using RAM in that slow results in the same issue. Make sure it matches/is compatible with your motherboard.

stephen

Thanks for the reply’s people.

I have to agree with you both, but, the fact that windows XP boots and runs stable with the 4 gig of ram and I can see 3.4 gig of it as per 32bit system is totally confusing me. I have access to the same ram on a friend’s pc so I will try that before the day is out and post back.

Thanks again.

Tushon

Well, if you boot into XP and start loading up memory intensive apps, I bet you'd find a problem.

stephen

Hi again,

I got the loan of two sticks of the same type ram from a mate and tried them in my PC and got exactly the same results as with my own ram.

This narrows it down to the motherboard being faulty or is there something blatantly obvious I am missing?

Tushon

Sounds like a safe conclusion to me, but I didn't do the testing :P

stephen

Hi all,

Thanks for all the replies.

I finally got this sorted.

Our IT guys were in work yesterday updating some PC's so I got the chance to ask one of them about this. He pulled an old PCI graphics card from a box and said to stick this in, put in the second stick of RAM and see if it will boot. Guess what, it worked!! It’s now booting the 4 gig of ram in both windows 7 & XP. I was using onboard Graphics by the way.

I can’t get drivers for this card for Windows 7 as its too old and not supported but it auto installed VGA drivers and its booting so now at least I know what causing the problem. I can’t explain why it would work in XP and not 7 but at least I got to the bottom of this.

So I am going shopping now to buy a Graphics Card.

Again thanks for all the replies.

Tushon

lolwut .... weird

stephen

Tushon wrote:

lolwut .... weird

Yep,