[buckchry12]

hello all i ahve a optiplex gx280 with 3GB DDR2 ram and 2.8GHz HT P4 i need to reinstall a fresh copy of XP MCE however whenever i try to load from the CD i hit the button for the optoion to install it comes to the black dos screen with nothing on it but a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner of the screen and after tht i lose control of machine it just stops responding kybrd lights wont go off or on and pc wont do ANYTHING!! I managed to get it to run from the CD in safe mode before it completely locked down on me but about 2 seconds thru install it said.."not enough memory to complete action.." so in light of tht I now cant load windows because when it started to install over the existing copy of XP it deleted part of it and then failed so now i cant do anything with it. PLEASE HELP ANYONE WHO CAN!!!

[pip22]

"not enough memory to complete action" sounds like one or more RAM modules may have failed.

[buckchry12]

thtats what i thought but it worked fine in Windows before i had problems whats other signs of memory failure though? would tht cause a game or something to freeze or cause unannounced freezing here and there?

[Elvandil]

Memory Testing (including bootable CD's and floppies):

Memtest86
MemScope (Floppy and CD images.)
Roadkil's RAM Test
Microsoft Memory Test (floppy or CD ISO image)

If you have enough memory sticks, you can test them by removing one at a time and see if the problem disappears.

If you are running Vista or 7, tap F8 on boot and choose the memory diagnostic, or if you can boot up, go to Start > Search and type:

mdsched.exe

Choose to run a memory diagnostic on next boot. Or, you can boot from the DVD and run it from there.

[buckchry12]

thx for the programs i will try and get back to this post after

[buckchry12]

ok didnt have any blank media to make boot disk but ran pc with each memory module individually and still got error msg my next idea which ive started is to try to install xp while running the HD as a secondary from my other pc they are both SATA HDD's is this possible to do?? nvr done it before

[buckchry12]

i did reinstall it using another pc but now after putting hard drive back in to the pc im getting message saying NTLDR.EXE is missing please restart idk what tht means any idea how to fix?