Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
Either that or the ram is giving up [unlikely] so without having it on my bench I think it is most likely to be a dry joint
Issue installing Linux
- Thread starter Philiom
- Start date
I had bad RAM in a laptop for several years. I was lucky to notice. I discovered it only after a long period of downloading huge weekly backup files, about 300 Gbytes a week. I had rare failures where the hash checksums did not match on the sending and receiving sides. At first, I attributed the rare mismatches to some unnamed random internet transmission glitch without thinking about it too much. After all, I was moving a lot of data.
The RAM failures were very rare, but it meant that it was corrupting random files as it wrote them, but very very rarely. My feeling is one bit per several Terabytes or more.
Once I noticed the pattern with the large downloaded files, it was easy to isolate the issue to my side, and then I started running RAM tests from a bootable flash drive.
https://www.memtest86.com
https://www.memtest.org
I replaced the bad RAM with a different brand. (The bad RAM was Centon brand, purchased through Amazon in 2014, probably bad at purchase, finally uncovered and replaced in 2016.)
My advice:
-> Avoid Centon brand RAM and any of their other products.
Based on my experience, neither the products nor the people can be trusted. Laura Wellman is Centon's director of sales and marketing. I am calling her out by name for her rudeness.
-> Lifetime guarantees on RAM are useless.
Why would you ever leave your computer shutdown for weeks waiting for the replacement to arrive, from a brand that failed and corrupted your files (and backups!!) in an undeterminable way? Could you ever trust the replacement from the same brand? Despite the incalculable damage that the bad RAM did to my files, Centon refused to refund my purchase price. Honestly, it was never about the money, and I destroyed the replacement RAM when it finally arrived. Why would I give that bad Centon RAM to family or a friend, or donate it to a stranger with the risk that they may encounter the same issue?
Edit (much later): Noticed a typo and fixed it.
The RAM failures were very rare, but it meant that it was corrupting random files as it wrote them, but very very rarely. My feeling is one bit per several Terabytes or more.
Once I noticed the pattern with the large downloaded files, it was easy to isolate the issue to my side, and then I started running RAM tests from a bootable flash drive.
https://www.memtest86.com
https://www.memtest.org
I replaced the bad RAM with a different brand. (The bad RAM was Centon brand, purchased through Amazon in 2014, probably bad at purchase, finally uncovered and replaced in 2016.)
My advice:
-> Avoid Centon brand RAM and any of their other products.
Based on my experience, neither the products nor the people can be trusted. Laura Wellman is Centon's director of sales and marketing. I am calling her out by name for her rudeness.
-> Lifetime guarantees on RAM are useless.
Why would you ever leave your computer shutdown for weeks waiting for the replacement to arrive, from a brand that failed and corrupted your files (and backups!!) in an undeterminable way? Could you ever trust the replacement from the same brand? Despite the incalculable damage that the bad RAM did to my files, Centon refused to refund my purchase price. Honestly, it was never about the money, and I destroyed the replacement RAM when it finally arrived. Why would I give that bad Centon RAM to family or a friend, or donate it to a stranger with the risk that they may encounter the same issue?
Edit (much later): Noticed a typo and fixed it.
Last edited:
The Saga continues!! Ran the HP today and got the Blue Screen, event viewer stated 0x00000139, Graphic Driver, computer said drivers up to date, logged on to NVIDIA and downloaded latest driver anyway, started it up and got the BSOD again about 10 mins later. Event viewer stated 0x0000001e, Ram issue. .
As an experiment I booted up Window 10 from the Bios, again after a few minutes got the BSOD so I pressed the power button for 60 seconds and restarted, checked event viewer and again it was 0x000001e Ram issue, so at the moment I am doing a Ram mem test with https://www.memtest86.com, thanks for all the replies, really appreciate your help.
As an experiment I booted up Window 10 from the Bios, again after a few minutes got the BSOD so I pressed the power button for 60 seconds and restarted, checked event viewer and again it was 0x000001e Ram issue, so at the moment I am doing a Ram mem test with https://www.memtest86.com, thanks for all the replies, really appreciate your help.
Assuming the problem is bad RAM:
How is the RAM configured in your HP? Can you pull some of it out and still boot the computer? Do you have identical RAM elsewhere you can exchange? Yes, identical.
On my laptop, there were two slots (or was it four slots?). I removed half the RAM chips (DIMMs). With half the RAM, enough remained to boot the laptop with the memory test. That made it easy to find the bad RAM chips and prove that the problem was a bad RAM chip and not tied to a specific slot.
Other computers require RAM in all slots to boot. It depends. Do your homework first. Some modern computers have the RAM soldered to the motherboard - if that goes bad, you have more problems.
How is the RAM configured in your HP? Can you pull some of it out and still boot the computer? Do you have identical RAM elsewhere you can exchange? Yes, identical.
On my laptop, there were two slots (or was it four slots?). I removed half the RAM chips (DIMMs). With half the RAM, enough remained to boot the laptop with the memory test. That made it easy to find the bad RAM chips and prove that the problem was a bad RAM chip and not tied to a specific slot.
Other computers require RAM in all slots to boot. It depends. Do your homework first. Some modern computers have the RAM soldered to the motherboard - if that goes bad, you have more problems.
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
Laptops usually have 2 slots if you have a bar in each, start by removing the top bar [slot 2] try a re-boot if it works then the problem is with that bar, if not remove the under bar[ slot 1] and insert the bar removed from slot 2,and try to boot again, if it works you know the problem is with the bar you removed from slot 1 , it is very rare that both give up at the same time,
provided you have 2gb on the working bar then windows should boot [although it may be slow] if you have 4gb or more on the working stick you can install any Linux you choose.
if swapping / removing ram doesn't work, it may mean a trip to the nearest engineer
provided you have 2gb on the working bar then windows should boot [although it may be slow] if you have 4gb or more on the working stick you can install any Linux you choose.
if swapping / removing ram doesn't work, it may mean a trip to the nearest engineer
Thanks for the information, I used memtest86 on the Envy,not sure if I used it correctly though, got these 2 displays but no apparent errors, I have another older laptop that works OK, gonna try memtest86 on that and see if the results are the same, If it is the ram I will get some creative Ram memory, used these in the past on desktops, in fact I have Creative 500gb ssd in the HP Envy, fitted about 6 months ago, runs OK, had an issue last year when I installed Win 11 and it kept crashing, I then found out that Win11 should not be installed on the Envy, it was too late then so I reinstalled Win 10 and its been fine for about 4 months until this latest problem.
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Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
Only the latest w10 machines are fully compatible with W11
the second pict only shows that the ram can be seen not if it's working you need to select one the click on start test
Anawilliam850
Member
Thanks for the information, I will try this
Going to have to wait a while to sort, the battery has now packed up on the Envy, will have to sort one out, the power supply is showing 19.9v dc. Cant do another Memtest86 RAM test via the boot on USB, maybe its because the battery is in this state, also when I downloaded the Memtest to the USB is showed 2 USB details on the bootup screen, exactly the same wording for each USB??
I can access Windows 10, unsure if faulty battery is causing issues, on startup it says battery need replacing but its showing 67% on the screen indicator, gonna log on the HP forums.
I can access Windows 10, unsure if faulty battery is causing issues, on startup it says battery need replacing but its showing 67% on the screen indicator, gonna log on the HP forums.
I have had more issues with the Envy today, more BSOD, different codes (Battery, Ram quite a few of them, Controllers) from the event viewer, I had a lot of issues with it over the last year, its looking like I will need to spend more money on it, I have decided to scrap it and get a new one, I would really like to thank everyone for their time in replying to my questions, I do appreciate your input and have learnt a few tricks! I think I will have a go at installing Linux on my 2012 Dell Vostro! So I may be back! Take Care, Phil
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
Piece of cake
Always amuses me.
Windows is supposed to be the modern OS 'for the masses'. Yet they really show their lack of user empathy - considering the first Windows release was nowt more than a graphical shell on top of DOS - by constantly referring to issues via memory address pointers.......like this was the late 1940s/early 1950s, and computing was just getting off the ground!
(*jeez*)
Personally, I've never found it to be TOO traumatic installing Linux on recent HPs. But it does help to know the 'general' guidelines/tips for doing so. Otherwise it's all too easy to keep going round & round in circles, making the same mistakes over and over again.
Mike.
Windows is supposed to be the modern OS 'for the masses'. Yet they really show their lack of user empathy - considering the first Windows release was nowt more than a graphical shell on top of DOS - by constantly referring to issues via memory address pointers.......like this was the late 1940s/early 1950s, and computing was just getting off the ground!
(*jeez*)
Personally, I've never found it to be TOO traumatic installing Linux on recent HPs. But it does help to know the 'general' guidelines/tips for doing so. Otherwise it's all too easy to keep going round & round in circles, making the same mistakes over and over again.
Mike.
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Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
@Philiom
now I have a few moments spare,
Choose your distribution and install as in my previous instructions, my dell has three changeable hard drives at the moment one runs parrot one Debian, and the other Mint LMDE5.
now I have a few moments spare,
I assume it's a laptop, depending on the region it was made for it will have a 2/3 gen I series or a 2gen Ryzen processor and Aheros wi-fi, all are supported on Linux kernel drivers, your machine will be UEFI, but too old to have windows quick-start and secure boot, Oh, and it should be F12, for the short boot menu.
Choose your distribution and install as in my previous instructions, my dell has three changeable hard drives at the moment one runs parrot one Debian, and the other Mint LMDE5.
I have just revived two old HPs for friends.
The experience is so displeasing I just slap in a USB, make them work (one with Easy, the other with Bionicpup) then send them back.
Usually I feel good, for the environment sake, when doing this, but not these HPs.
