memory issue trying to isolate problem

Have a Dell Inspiron 9700 running win xp pro, which is giving intermittant memory errors on boot. The system has the original two 512 memory chips. When I run Dell diagnostics with both chips in place, I get an immediate memory compare error. If i take out one chip and run Dell Diagnostics with only one chip in place, I get no errors, regardless of which chip is in place or which slot the chip is in. I have run longer memory diagnostics (memtest86 off of a UBCD) on each chip individually, 8 passes, and gotten no errors. If I continue testing the system with Dell diagnostics it comes up clean once it gets past the original memory error. Is this a memory problem or is this a motherboard issue, and how do I isolate which chip is the problem child if it is a memory issue? I don't have other known clean memory cards to test on the system.

Thanks for any input.

 

Dont know if you found anything, but heres a good read,


http://wiki.xtronics.com/index.php/How_Memory_Works

 

Do you mean a Dell 9200 with ATI Radeon 9700 Graphics laptop?

If so, is it overheating because it needs internal cleaning?

 

John here, support analyst at Dell headquarters.

The only way to be sure with intermittent errors in this case is to swap RAM with a system that isn't having the problem. If the intermittent errors follow the RAM, then there's your problem.

Honestly, I would suspect the memory controller more than anything else, and that's motherboard. The only way to say with 100% certainty if the memtests aren't catching it is to swap the RAM though.

John
Dell Customer Advocate