Computer Keeps Crashing - Bsod's

[rjmiller15]

Ok, my laptop is acting wacky. A couple months ago, I kept getting BSOD's with my laptop saything something about memory parity error.

The BSOD's stopped and things were ok for a few months. Last night I had a bunch of programs open, working (which I normally) do and I got a BSOD that said something about physical memory dump. My computer would not turn back on, it kept trying to turn on, but would then restart.

Finally I got the computer to turn on, and I spent the next few hours backing up my hard drive just in case. Everything worked fine for a few hours, and then I went to shut down and got a BSOD with the physical memory dump error again.

What should I do?

I'm running XP Home Edition,

Avast Antivirus

ZoneAlarm Firewall

Windows Defender Antispyware

I have an HP Pavilion DV4000 laptop...it's only a couple years old

Intel Pentium 470 (1.73 GHZ)

512 MB Ram

120 GB Hard Drive

Should I upgrade my memory??

Edited December 6, 2006 by rjmiller15

[TheTerrorist_75]

Try running Windows Memory Diagnostic.

Also try;

Go to Windows Live Onecare Free Scan (using Windows Explorer only)

It will say "Get a free PC safety scan"

http://safety.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

Make sure you click "Full Service Scan" in the middle of the page and

not the "Try It Now Free" on the right side.

Allow it to download the Active X components.

Choose "Complete Scan" in the window that opens

Click "Next"

Do not click on anything else that offers you a free trial or to sign up if you live in the US.

Allow it to scan - it may take quite, maybe two hours or so depending on how big your hard drive is and how fragmented your registry and drive are.

Reboot.

[rjmiller15]

I tried the Windows Memory Diagnostic. I burned the iso file to a cd, and when I restarted my computer, it would not boot the file, even though the CD drive was the first in the boot order.

I'll try the second suggestion you gave.

[shanenin]

You could try memtest86. Memtest86 is also located on the ultimate boot disc

When you burned your cd, did you burn it as a data file or as an image?