[Elecraft] [OT] Computer problem - need advice

[Phil Kane]

On 11/24/2010 7:42 AM, Barry wrote:

> Every few days, I walk back into the shack and see the Blue
> Screen of Death on my monitor.  it says, "Hardware malfunction
> Parity Check/Memory Parity Error. I'm using a Dell Inspiron
> laptop with WinXP.

> Any ideas?  Does this mean the laptop is on its way out?

  That would be the first conclusion that one would jump to, but
  wait....

  On my wife's mini-tower running XP Pro SP3, the "cannot find
  boot drive" would come up frequently, sometimes within an hour
  after rebooting.  It was clean-up time:

   Make sure you have a full backup of all partitions.

   Run VIPRE (virus/malware program) - no malware.

   Run Registry Mechanic  - found and repaired several hundred
   registry errors.

   Clean caches - dumps all sorts of stuff. (XP has a facility
   for that)

   Reseat connectors for hard drive and memory sticks.

  It took several cycles of the above to really clean it up, but
  it hasn't misbehaved since - we leave it on 24/7.

--  73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
    Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402