How do i upgrade my computer memory?

[rarename]

My computer was freezing after about 30 seconds after its booted up. Originally my friend thought it was a virus, so i had to format my hard drive. After i did that while re-downloading win7 it froze while i was putting in the product key, my friend said it could be the cpu or memory. He is not 100% sure what it is being that he lives far away and cannot look at my computer. Any ideas? I myself am very very bad with computers, so i don't know the specs and my computer wont work, so i cant look for it. Sorry if i posted incorrectly or in the incorrect spot.

 

[Night Hawk]

Review the replies on your other thread. Some additional information was posted there to review! The SIW tool will help you fill out the system specifications where we can pick up from there on just what memory will run on the system you have there.

 

[rarename]

Review the replies on your other thread. Some additional information was posted there to review! The SIW tool will help you fill out the system specifications where we can pick up from there on just what memory will run on the system you have there.

My computer freezes, i was unable to do ANYTHING on it. I formatted it went to re-install win7 and it still froze, im not tech savy so i dont know how to open up the insides to see what i use.

 

[Night Hawk]

That's not good by any means! Bad ram will stall the works! There's no doubt on that one.

The one sure way to find out if the memory is bad bowever would be booting from a live memtest cd burned on another machine. If you have a bad dimm a lengthy list of errors will appear in the stress tests the tool performs. The latest iso images to burn to cd are available at the link there.

Another thing to try would be booting from the 7 dvd up until the Install Now screen where you look down for the Repair tools link. That will scan for the 7 installation on the first screen and then come to a second with the command prompt option at the bottom of the list.

Once at the command prompt all you type is "chkdsk /r" and press enter. This will schedule a run of the Check Disk tool when rebooting to start from the main drive before 7 even starts up and locks. This will take some time if the drive has numerous errors on it.

 

[pscowboy]

The capable techies monitoring this forum would always prefer that the Original Poster tell us all the hardware info about the pc (laptop or otherwise) in order to make a more informed decision about fixes.

In your case, the great majority of freezes & lockups are caused by bad memory. This could still happen even if the machine is relatively new. It's rarely the hard drive crashing out of left field. They usually start giving funky warnings and die slowly.

You need to acquire (or have someone burn for you) a Memtest cd. Canvass all your friends for help. This cd is self bootable. We need to know your specs so we can tell you how to get into your BIOS to make sure the dvd drive is first in the boot order.

Put it into your dvd player and run it for as long as you can. The error section on the screen (lower half) will fill up quickly when the RAM is bad.

If this happens, knowing your specs, you will receive help on how to replace the bad memory stick.

P.S. Night Hawk beat me to a similar post while I was typing. I defer.

 

[Night Hawk]

Lately I suddenly found a clean install of 7 locking up for no reason until scheduling a run of the Check Disk tool. After a lengthy run and even interrupting it in Stage #4 I restarted into the normal desktop that has been running stabily ever since!

The memory was only recently installed new to swap out another brand and found to be 100% showing it's not always bad memory. A drive loaded with errors can cause all sorts of problems. A good run of memtest would still be advised just the same even if only to rule any bad ram out or to see if that's the source of the problem.

 

[TVeblen]

And don't forget the power supply. A failing unit can make good memory look bad, and be responsible for disk errors too.

 

[Night Hawk]

A supply losing the ability to regulate will be pulled down just at post time when the largest load other then any ocing is seen! That can be a real headache at times!

Disabling all startups in the msconfig while booted up in safe mode however is the usual advice for diagnosing device driver and startup issues that can result in the dreaded BSODs(blue screens). The freeze ups here were being caused by errors on the drive likely due to a failed integration of SP1 into the iso used to create a usb install key for the recent clean install. SP1 had to be installed separately the first night to get that on.

Another low cost item to consider especially for any pc a year or older most wouldn't even think of is the lithium battery on the board. Once that gets weak you can be right in the middle of something and "crash" or "sudden unexpected restart" time!

rarename's problem however seems identical to what I was seeing a few day ago where once 7 booted up and you went to open a browser or explorer window everything froze up and you couldn't even move the mouse forcing a hard boot with the reset button. I got in there and clicked the Check Now button for C once I was able to move around once back at the desktop and after a good period of time 7 was suddenly running well with no freeze ups seen since.

There are a good number of possible causes regardless where you can never rule anything out until you look at each. The thing I would suggest rarename trying out would be to see if the system can be booted into the safe mode where the msconfig utility can be opened there to deselect everything in the Startup tab as well as hiding all the MS services to reduce the other 3rd party services in order to try booting a bare Windows normally.

If the desktop loads right up and nothing locks you will know then that this is not pointing at any specific hardware fault but strictly a software related issue of some type. The run of both memtest if not already seen to as well as scheduling the Check Disk tool would still be advised here however.

 

[wanchoo]

You have a 64-bit premium version of Windows 7 installed. From your messages it appears that you won't be able to add additional memory sticks yourself. In that case, just take your Computer to the next door vendor and ask him to put 8 gigs of RAM for you and check if everything is OK.

Your distant friends advise seems to be good but then all of us are placed in the same boat as your distant friend.

 

[pscowboy]

He also could have a corrupt W7 dvd that's not installing the operating system correctly.

Using "your" license key, borrow a W7 dvd (same flavor as what you had) and re-install your 64 bit OS again.
There is no difference in the installation between OEM and retail.

 

[Night Hawk]

I tend to suspect the same thing here that he ended up seeing a bad burn to disk or incomplete write to a usb flash drive if the install was by flash drive(usb install key). I had a partial bad install here that took time to reveal itself however after a week's time. SP1 and several updates apparently didn't integrate into an iso as they should have.

Hangs when first installing Windows can be from bad ram as well as bad burns and why Memtest and Disk Check tools are the best first options to discover or rule out bad ram, drive errors from install, etc. Yet you can still see bad installs when everything is in perfect working order!

That was the case when removing a WD Green Power drive from an external casing it came in to install for internal use as an extra test drive for the 7 RC. Every program saw problems despite a reliable burn to disk! Once the next install went onto a Caviar model on the last build the RC ran everything like a champ.

As far as bad burns sometimes you run into bad media and toss coasters around trying to get one to see a good burn. If the hardwares(memory, hard drive) gets ruled out bad burns and bad installs come into focus.

 

[wanchoo]

Although the OP has not said so specifically, it appears that his computer is without an Optical Drive. The OP to elucidate. If my guess is right then please create another Pen Drive W 7 Installer and try again.

 

[Night Hawk]

He might have a bad iso since he mentioned downloading it? (hhmmm...)

At this point we can only wait until he replies back with some system information and he has made out with this so far.