Blue Screen Blues - Computer

[kind2creatures]

My year old Dell Inspiron 518 computer that came loaded with Vista Home Premiumx64 package has "crashed", just 1 week after the warranty expired (of course!)

I have little computer experience, and have been online all day looking for a quick fix. Luckily I kept my old Dell computer, that has its own issues, but I'm able to get online at this point.

I'm getting a blue screen, and I'm not able to load Windows, view my desktop, or get online. The first screen said, Error 0xc004D301 Security processor reported trusted data store was tampered.

The other blue screen read, Stop 0x00000050, Fatal System Error c0000221, Unknown Hard Error\SystemRoot\System32\ntdll.dll.

I was able to get into the Boot Menu and do a diagnostic. I got Error Code 2000-0123 (Memory Integrity Test Failed).

I really don't want to spend any more money to fix this, even though it's just a year old, I might get off cheaper to buy a new computer. I joined a Vista 64 online forum, but haven't received any replies to my post.

If anyone has any ideas of what I can do, I'd appreciate your input. I may or may not be able to keep getting online at this point. I'm thinking of reloading all the discs that came with the computer, but I'm not sure how to do this, and how to "un-install" the programs that are already on the computer.

Thanks and totally

PS: I need to heed my signature

[D Bergy]

I am not positive on this but it sounds like a bad stick of RAM. If you have more than one stick in there, you can pull them out, one at a time, and leave the rest, until you find the bad one.

I think you do have to have them in a particular slots, like you can't skip the first one and fill the rest. Leave the end one open. There should be some kind of message giving the location of the bad memory after the Error Code 2000-0123 (Memory Integrity Test Failed)

Dan

[Matrix]

I agree with Dan, it should be caused by the bad RAM. Dell Inspiron 518 seems to have two sticks, you need to open your computer to have a look. Don't worry, it's very easy to plug-in or remove a RAM, even for newbies.

If there are two sticks of RAM, try what DAN has suggested. If there is only one, you have to replace it. You can buy it online such as from ebay, RAM is quite cheap nowadays.

[kind2creatures]

Thank you Dan and Kevin for your good advice! The computer has 4 sticks of Ram, 2X2GB and 2X1GB for a total of 6.

With the help of my husband, we went in and removed the first one on the left. Turns out it was a 2GB. After that the computer went through its "fixing" mode, and all was good, Windows loaded and we were able to go online.

My husband since replaced that Ram to see if just the removal of it was like a re-setting action, or what. The computer is now running normally with it back in. If it gives me a blue screen again, we'll definitely replace it with a new one. My surfing the web now is just testing it to see what happens. The computer is open now, so we can easily go in again today if we need to.

Thanks again for your help, it's much appreciated!

PS: Never did see a location on the error screen.

[D Bergy]

Sometimes the RAM is just not seated properly, and you may have resolved the problem just by reseating it.

Glad it is working.

Dan